looking for an usb 5.1 sound card

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Level 1

10 points

looking for an usb 5.1 sound card

Hello community, does anybody know any external usb 5.1 soundcard, which has drivers for leopard?
Im looking for something like this http://www.hercules.com/us/Sound-Cards/bdd/p/56/muse-pocket-lt/
They say it's mac compatible, but they have no driver for mac, which makes it useless (to render 5.1 you need to install the sound card).
I need it to plug in a 5.1 headset or headphones, since iMacs have no analog output, and optical is already busy for speakers.
I was wondering whether I could duplicate the optical ports? I mean: buy something which has 1 optical input and 2 optical outputs, and plug one to the speakers and the other to an adapter, then plug the headphones to the adapter (optical to analog, the one with the 3 coloured jacks 3.5mm).

I'm not really into audio hardware, I need help desperately. I guess I'm ok with the speakers, they have an optical input. But I can't figure out how to fix the 5.1 headphones.

Thank you all.

Macbook Air SSD with SuperDrive, Time Capsule 1TB, iPhone 3G 16GB, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Feb 17, 2009 3:18 PM

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Answer 1

Dah•veed

Level 9

66,487 points

Feb 18, 2009 5:52 AM in response to ErosAniballi

Griffin used to carry a Firewire external card called Firewave, but it is discontinued.
I believe that the device you show would use Leopard drivers. You point the Mac to the device using Audio MIDI Setup in the Utilities folder.
BTW, the Mac has a dual analog/digital audio out port that auto detects your need by the cable which you plug into the port.

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Answer 2

ErosAniballi Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 18, 2009 1:17 PM in response to Dah•veed

You must excuse me, I'm totally lost.
First of all, you say iMacs have dual optical audio outputs? You probably know more than me, because I've still got to buy an iMac (waiting for a new release). But according to the specifications, iMac has 1 optical audio INPUT and 1 optical output. I wonder what the input is for... an external microphone? Or it outputs audio as well?
As for the MIDI setup, what do you mean? I want to plug some 5.1 headphones to my iMac, and I'd want them to give me 5.1, not just stereo. Theorically, if the headphones had an optical input (if their cable ended with an optical port), and I plugged it to the iMac audio output, it would give me a full 5.1 surround sound, with no driver need? Just wondering, because that would solve most of my problems. Although I don't even know if there are any headphones like those 🙂

And, referring to the device, why do you say it would use leopard drivers? The installation CD only brings windows drivers, so does their site. I guess, if I don't install the card, it won't reproduce any 5.1 sound. But still, I'm just fancying all up, as I'm totally unaware of audio hardware.

My basical problem is that I need to plug some 5.1 headphones to an iMac; they either have an USB cable, integrated with a sound card (which you need to install), or they end up with 3 coloured jacks 3.5mm (analogic). I'm not sure if there are headphones ending up with a digital optical cable. Moreover, this iMac will have the audio output busy, since it will be connected to a 5.1 speakers set.

Please be patient with my ignorance in this matter, but I can't really figure this out. I need to know how to fix this all before I buy an iMac.

Thank you, Eros.

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Answer 3

Dah•veed

Level 9

66,487 points

Feb 18, 2009 1:49 PM in response to ErosAniballi

I shall try once again.
The audio ports on a Macbook or iMac are dual ports. The ports are capable of transmitting either analogue or digital sound. The type of audio is determined by the type of cable which you plug into the port. If you plug an analog mini-plug into the out port for external speakers or headphones, the output is analog. If you plug an optical cable with an optical mini-plug adapter into the port the output will be digital.
I believe that the reason that there are no Mac drivers for the soundcard you link is because it is plug & play on a Mac. The drivers for such a device are part of Leopard. Using the Audio MIDI Setup you can configure the Mac to use the soundcard through a USB port.

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