"David" wrote in message

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
news
USB audio interfaces with bit-perfect coax digital
outputs literally grow on trees. As Mr Looser says, coax
is the proper way to to move digital audio over the
kinds of distances that are involved with room-to-room
connections. USB is has a design limit of 15 feet.
Toslink (optical SP/DIF) has a design limit 30 feet.
Coax SP/DIF can easily reach 100 feet or more.

Many models of the SB 5.1 have digital coax outputs.
Doesn't yours?

Thank you for this Arny.
I'll have to double check on my SB5.1 but I have checked
in the past. I'm sure I remember it having a digital
input (that looked similar to an S-video socket) but not
ouput.

According to vendor specifications, the SB 5.1 has a digital output.

It is very very old. If it doesn't then I'll pick one up with a Coax
connection as they are dirt cheap and give that a go.

The SB 5.1 is supposed to be out of production, and for several years.

Do you think it will be any better than my current set up
(about a 5m cheap minijack lead direct from SB5.1 to amp) ?

Probably not, if you are talking about sound quality. If you're talking
about sensitive measurements with test equipment, then perhaps some
improvement in technical performance if you use a Meridian DAC in place of
the DAC in the SB 5.1.