
Can I use any type of RCA cable on a digital coaxial output?
I am planning on connecting to my Logitech z-5500 speakers through my PCs sound card with digital coaxial since it carry’s 5.1 sound, I was wondering if it’s necessary to go pay for an expensive digital coaxial cable or would it work if I used a regular RCA cable? The Input would be about 1 meter away from the digital coaxial output.
Ideally you would use any 75ohm digital coax cable. This is pretty much any video cable or digital coax cable. These cables are all the same whether they are made for component video, composite video or digital coaxial audio. Audio RCA cables are supposed to be 50 ohm cables and are therefore not ideal, but generally work, for digital coaxial applications as well.
So, in short, yes go ahead and use any old RCA cable you have laying around.
Keep in mind though that games, unless you have a sound card capable of Dolby digital live or DTS connect, will not output sound in surround sound via the digital connection. In addition, if you paid for an expensive sound card, using the digital coax connection will bypass almost all processing that you paid for.
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