Upgrading speakers... but confused!

[richieb]

Hi all, hoping to get some help and input here...

I have been using a set of creative inspire t7900 7.1 speakers with the asus phoebus card for a while, but the speakers are very old now and having lots of issues with the controller and also some hissing and feedback through the speakers, so i have decided to change them.
Reading through the asus phoebus manual it indicates on page 13, section 5.2 that connecting the spdif/optical cable to an av receiver will allow 7.1 audio, as indicated by the presence of 7 satellite speakers and 1 sub in the picture.
But reading the tech info on the card it seems to say that only 5.1 audio is supported when using the optical spdif output, could someone confirm this for me please.

TL : DR is the optical spdif output capable of 7.1 audio output?

For what its worth, this is what i had thought to buy to replace my aging speakers:
http://www.hificonfidential.co.uk/sony-str-dh750-7-2-channel-av-receiver.html?language=en&currency=G...

[Samaelvonhell]

Well, the main thing You should consider in a given scenario, is whatever You wanna loose one of a grand commercial advantage that phoebus has. The one and only burr brown DAC PCM 1796{only for front speakers though}, second to none in charts or whatever and cirrus logic CS4362(for rear, centre and sub), all paired with a great opams (adiophools could take them only for a decent though :)) and caps.
You need to aim for at least au pair with the specifications in choosing best receiver/amplifyer/dac that will replace that.
While using SPDIF through optical output, You are bypassing all that commercial jazz about fabulous digital to analogue conversion circuits on phoepuss and Youre left only with a great audio processor CM8888HT. In witch case Youre better off with a soundcard with CM8788 (most other xonars dg,d2, dgx and others as i recall) they have better/fixed drivers by UNI.
Personally i've chosen Gigaworks for only analogue amplify and speakers for daily use (some logitech z series something should be equivalent) and some midrange sennheisers for night to get use of that second line of burr brown dac magic onboard.

[richieb]

Hmmm, ok so you reckon sticking with the 3.5mm jacks and getting a speaker system around that connection is better than using the optical cable?

And thanks for the reply :0)

Somthing like the Logitech Z906?

[Samaelvonhell]

Honestly, you could be pleased with both options. Maybe it depends on square meters of in witch You be sittin inside the speakers. For me its like 4-5m² and for that, those Logitechs would be great. For bigger area bigger speakers would be nice and those You can connect only to an external dac/amplifier.