So my PC audio setup is pretty "crude", I have a desktop PC plugged (through an HDMI cable) into a wall mounted TV (a 4K Sony Bravia). I was playing some of this newer games, and I noticed when I turned the game "character's" left to the (ingame) sound source, the sound came muffled from the right ("built-in") TV speaker. Meaning the left was somehow muted (like the character was deaf on one ear, in this case, the left one). Surely enough, after testing with the (default) Windows (11) sound mixer, I realized there was no sound coming out of the left speaker. Not believing it was a physical problem with the TV speaker itself I switched Mono Audio (again, in Windows) to ON and the left speaker started emitting sound. Somehow not satisfied with this solution, I thought about undigging some old 3.25 stereo connector to Left / Right RCA cable, and connect an old receiver (with 2-speaker boxes... just for testing purposes), outputting from the 3.25 jack on the back of the Sony Bravia (yes, those TV's still have those, at least mine does... maybe at the time when Sony manufactured those, they still had stereo / not-wireless 3.25 connector phones in mind). The cable is just a little faulty on the RCA end, but to my surprise, just plugging the 3.25 end connector to the back of the TV (and not even plugging the RCA ends into the auxiliary receiver or plugging and NOT even turning the receiver ON) made the TV output Stereo again through the TV built-in speakers... surely enough, I switched Windows Mono Audio back to OFF and just like that, sound started to come out from the left TV speaker (which was not happening before)... The temporary solution was to twist the end of the cable a little bit so it's outputting both from the TV and the receiver speakers in stereo... So I guess my (curiosity) question is: what explains this initial problem (the left speaker muted to begin with)? Is it the digital to analog conversion thing...? I'm kinda clueless here, but only 'cause of curiosity.
Unsatisfied with the whole ordeal, I then thought about (also) undigging a Turtle Beach Stealth 700 (wireless headphone) I bought a few years back (2018, maybe?) for my Ps4. I wasn't in general satisfied with the product, since it seems that it produced some crackling / pop on a constant basis while using it on the Ps4 (plus, the battery seemed not to last very long), but on my old computer, it seemed to run fine (I couldn't get an RMA from the company, since I live in a country where there's no Turtle Beach retailer: outside of US and Canada... since they said themselves that the crackling / poppinng was a manufacturing defect, whatever). As I said, that was happening only on the Ps4. Problem is, the old motherboard (an ASUS Maximus Hero VI or VII, don't remember) on my old desktop computer HAD an SPDIF output on the back. On my new computer, the new motherboard (an ASRock B650M PG Riptide) DOESN'T have the aforementioned SPDIF output... So I guess I'll need an USB soundcard of sorts (if I wanna plug the surround wireless headset)...? Second question: do you have any recommendations of reliable USB soundcards that have an SPDIF output? Or any simpler solutions on how to make this work?
Sorry about the long[language redacted] message... And thanks in advance !
Unsatisfied with the whole ordeal, I then thought about (also) undigging a Turtle Beach Stealth 700 (wireless headphone) I bought a few years back (2018, maybe?) for my Ps4. I wasn't in general satisfied with the product, since it seems that it produced some crackling / pop on a constant basis while using it on the Ps4 (plus, the battery seemed not to last very long), but on my old computer, it seemed to run fine (I couldn't get an RMA from the company, since I live in a country where there's no Turtle Beach retailer: outside of US and Canada... since they said themselves that the crackling / poppinng was a manufacturing defect, whatever). As I said, that was happening only on the Ps4. Problem is, the old motherboard (an ASUS Maximus Hero VI or VII, don't remember) on my old desktop computer HAD an SPDIF output on the back. On my new computer, the new motherboard (an ASRock B650M PG Riptide) DOESN'T have the aforementioned SPDIF output... So I guess I'll need an USB soundcard of sorts (if I wanna plug the surround wireless headset)...? Second question: do you have any recommendations of reliable USB soundcards that have an SPDIF output? Or any simpler solutions on how to make this work?
Sorry about the long[language redacted] message... And thanks in advance !
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