Question Looking for a sound card (want to use 5.1 with optical and DAC such as dolby/dts connect or other)

[NikolaZdravkovic]

Hi everyone!
Looking for a sound card with specific needs. I have listed my setup and background info below.

Specs:
TV: LG OLED B7
A/V R: Yamaha Aventage RX-A770 (can do 24 bit/192kps)
Speakers: 2 Front 1 Centre Channel 2 rear (no subwoofer, my fronts have 10" drivers)
GPU: 2080TI
Mobo: Asus Maximus Hero XI WiFi

So a bit of background here on my issue. I used to connect my system in this way: HDMI from GPU to AVR and another HDMI from AVR to TV. This setup worked flawlessly until I started suffering from the dreaded HDMI handshake. I tried everything I could, but got tired of waiting over half hour sometimes to get picture on my TV. I decided to simplify the setup and used a new HDMI cable (ruipro) from GPU to TV and run an optical/toslink cable from mobo to receiver. The real question is, am I getting the full range of audio that HDMI was supplying me? Windows 10 does not allow me to spec into spatial sound (shows stereo), but I am getting what I believe to be surround sound (using the AVR to decode and output audio, realtek is a pain). Not knowing the exact features of my mobo's optical output quality (waiting on Asus tech support on this), is there a sound card out there for me (external prefered) that would enable me to get my 5.1 surround sound through optical that has following DAC: Dolby/ DTS Connect or any other DAC on par with those two?

Am I going about this whole problem in the right way? Is there maybe some better way to eliminate the HDMI handshake and go back to suing HDMI? What if i use HDMI from the mobo for audio (if at all possible)? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know optical is aging and most sound cards supporting headphones now.

 

[jsmithepa]

Your AVR firmware is up to date? Are u sure you got new high quality HDMI cables? Cables under 6'?

It will be very sad that you have to resort to a sound card to do audio processing when you have an AVR.

Optical can replace HDMI but u won't get UNCOMPRESSED AUDIO. UA=DTS Master, Dolby TrueHD etc which are often available only from BluRay discs. To me, compressed audio is mostly good enough, is what's available the most, and optical can handle it if u don't resolve your HDMI situation.

 

[NikolaZdravkovic]

Thank you for your reply!
My AVR firmware updated whenever there was an update. I recently purchased a RUIPRO fibre HDMI cable (20' even though I only need 7', product stock issues) and it is considered a cable that can give no signal loss even at 100'. It has all bells and whistles and can give 18Gps, HDMI 2.0b, 3D CEC emi free, etc. I may end up buying another of those cables and giving it another go, but the price tag is quite significant ($150). Any other cable you can recommend?

Appreciate this a lot,
Nikola

 

[jsmithepa]

Well a fiber cable is a little overkill, I would give THIS a chance, is labelled as ACTIVE cable that means the signal is regenerated for strength.

 

[NikolaZdravkovic]

Thank you again for the reply. You have given me hope again. Maybe I just needed to get better HDMI cables after all.

regards,
Nikola