A question about how to connect my entire system

[N0comment]

Hello. This is probably going to be noob explanation of my setup but I`m not that into cabling and audio stuff. So recently i purchased Hifiman Edition XS and I`m planning on upgrading my dac/amp to Fiio K7 (currently I`m using Ifi zen air dac v1). For the headphones I`m going to use the 4.4 balance out on the K7 - I`m going to purchase that cable from chinese website. And here comes my question - with the cable I can order an SPDIF motherboard expansion bracket which has optical Toslink output and i can connect to my current motherboard. Should i connect the Fiio K7 to my PC with the optical TOSLINK cable or should i connect it via USB? From what I can understand from the official Fiio website I should use the USB cable because the sample rates are higher (actually I have no idea what that really means, from what I`ve read - higher is better)

K7_parameters

K7_parameters

www.fiio.com

Also I have active bookshelf speakers Edifier R2850DB which currently are connected with RCA cable to my ifi zen dac. I`m going to do the same with them with the Fiio K7. But they also have optical input. So I`m not really sure how to connect the entire system for best performance:

Should i connect my speakers directly to my PC motherboard via Optical cable and for my Fiio K7 to use the USB, or should i connect the Fiio K7 with the optical and then connect my speakers with RCA cables

Hope i wasn`t all over the place and you guys understand my setup and what my future configuration could look like.

 

[staticV3]

Anything above 48kHz sample rate is entirely pointless for content consumption.

Toslink can be beneficial in edge cases by getting rid of ground loop induced mains hum and USB interference noise (e.g. dial-up modem-like noises coming from your headphones or speakers when you move the mouse cursor or when there's GPU load).

If you do not have such issues when connected via USB, then there's no point in switching.

If you do have such noise issues, then I'd suggest adding a Toslink output to your PC using a Hifime UT23 or SMSL PO100 2024, rather than a PCIe bracket.

Of course, if your PC already has a Toslink output built into the motherboard, then you can just use that instead.

As for the optimal way to connect the Edifier, it depends on whether it uses a traditional analog crossover and therefore supports a fully analog signal path from Line in to Speaker out (->connect to FiiO Line out), or whether it uses a digital crossover with digitized Line in (->connect via Toslink).

One advantage of connecting the FiiO and Edifier separately to your PC is that you can easily apply different EQ or frequency response correction to each via Equalizer APO, something that I'd highly recommend you look into (free sound quality upgrade!).

 

[N0comment]

Thank you for your response. I`m using Equalizer APO with my and i have made 2 different EQs for my headphones and my speakers both connected to my ifi zen dac.

From my current dac when i change the song or skip ahead in movies very often i can hear a popping sound coming out of my speakers or headphones. I think that is from the dac itself - i tried different usb cable and power supply but the popping was still there. i guess that is a "feature" of the dac.

For the Toslink I was planning on getting something like this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...rl=scene:search|query_from:#nav-specification . I have SPDIF pins on my motherboard.

I didn`t fully understand you about the Edifier speakers. It has all types of connections - RCA, coax, optical. How can i determine this crossover? I can`t find that information in the manual.

 

[AnalogSteph]

How you connect the Edifiers should not matter one iota, you could have those plugged into the onboard line-out for all I care. I would merely want to have them on another output device than the headphones, it would make EQing both a lot easier. That would mean not having them on the K7.

Galvanic isolation is not required (nor recommended) when just using the DAC to drive headphones, so USB it is for the K7.

Of course, if your PC already has a Toslink output built into the motherboard, then you can just use that instead.

That's what the OP intended to buy a slot bracket for. It's probably available as a pin header only.

I might recommend buying that either way if it's not breaking the bank and there is no shortage of free slots. You never know whether you might need it one day, and Toslink is rather trailing edge technology that's not getting any more common (but possibly not any less either, given its unique advantage).

 

[staticV3]

Thank you for your response. I`m using Equalizer APO with my and i have made 2 different EQs for my headphones and my speakers both connected to my ifi zen dac.

By connecting the Edifier and FiiO to your PC separately (e.g. one via USB, the other via Toslink), you would no longer have to switch EQ presets manually when switching from headphone playback to speaker playback.

Instead, switching the playback device in Windows would automatically switch the EQ preset as well.

For the Toslink I was planning on getting something like this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...rl=scene:search|query_from:#nav-specification . I have SPDIF pins on my motherboard.

Equalizer APO tends to not work very well when applied to PCIe devices, hence my recommendation to use a USB->SPDIF converter instead.

I didn`t fully understand you about the Edifier speakers. It has all types of connections - RCA, coax, optical. How can i determine this crossover? I can`t find that information in the manual.

From pictures and YouTube videos of the R2850DB's internals, it appears as though the crossover is digital, hence the analog inputs are first converted back into digital, hence using the Edifier's Toslink input instead would preserve signal fidelity.

 

[AnalogSteph]

Equalizer APO tends to not work very well when applied to PCIe devices, hence my recommendation to use a USB->SPDIF converter instead.

The product in question is merely a breakout board with a few passives, a TOTX transmitter and an RCA jack on it, mounted to a slot bracket. (No galvanic isolation on the coax out, but I mean, at the price...) It takes +5V, GND and the SPDIF signal on a pin header, and that's it. Those of us who've been doing this for a while may remember similar brackets for serial ports or for adding extra digital or analog ports to soundcards.

From pictures and YouTube videos of the R2850DB's internals, it appears as though the crossover is digital, hence the analog inputs are first converted back into digital, hence using the Edifier's Toslink input instead would preserve signal fidelity.

Oh OK, I thought they had an analog XO. Usually the extra D/A-A/D when using the analog input isn't tragic by any means, but yeah.

Coax would probably be my connection of choice in this case, particularly because it does not provide galvanic isolation. Keeps the ground potential from floating off. (Mind you, that assumes the PC is connected to a grounded outlet. There are places e.g. in SE Asia where those aren't common, although strictly speaking that means you couldn't even operate an IEC Class I device like a typical PC safely at all. That would upset a lot of our considerations so far.)

Over short runs the type of RCA cable used for coax SPDIF tends not to be very critical, so recycling one of the existing RCA cables for this connection would absolutely be an option, assuming there isn't some decent composite video cable already gathering dust somewhere.

 

[N0comment]

Okay. Thank you very much for the information! When I buy all the gear I`m gonna plug the speakers and headphones separately. I`m going to try test them out together connected to the DAC just to see if there is any difference (from what you guys told me i`m not expecting difference - but just for the test). I`m going to connect the speakers with optical cable when the expansion bracket arrives ( the speakers came with that cable). Thank you very much for the info! Have a great day.