I've had an A7N8X ASUS motherboard (etc) for awhile now. I'm just now wanting to get an optical SPDIF connection to my stereo. My only digital coax connection is taken by my cable box, but I have one ...

I did some research a number of years ago about getting discrete 5.1 or 7.1 audio from either an onboard or dedicated sound card when using a digital connection such as SPDIF/Optical to a capable ...