cel4145
Headphoneus Supremus
LOL. Glad to help.
Some sound cards have digital processing effects as part of their driver/hardware that happens BEFORE the signal goes to the soundcard's internal DAC. With SPDIF and coaxial output, the sound card implements that digital processing (if you have it enabled) before sending the digital signal to the external DAC. So, for example, if your computer has an EQ that is part of the sound card configuration (not EQ within a media player), you could still use it with SPDIF and coaxial output. USB will completely bypass all the sound card software.
A pre-out will typically have volume control implemented. Line out will not. It's not always clear by looking at the unit. So you have to read the features/specifications/user testimonials (or reviews) to see if the extra jacks for hooking up the speakers to the unit is affected by the volume control on the device.
Some sound cards have digital processing effects as part of their driver/hardware that happens BEFORE the signal goes to the soundcard's internal DAC. With SPDIF and coaxial output, the sound card implements that digital processing (if you have it enabled) before sending the digital signal to the external DAC. So, for example, if your computer has an EQ that is part of the sound card configuration (not EQ within a media player), you could still use it with SPDIF and coaxial output. USB will completely bypass all the sound card software.
A pre-out will typically have volume control implemented. Line out will not. It's not always clear by looking at the unit. So you have to read the features/specifications/user testimonials (or reviews) to see if the extra jacks for hooking up the speakers to the unit is affected by the volume control on the device.