An optical sound card outputs audio to devices with digital optical input, commonly found on home theater receivers. Sound cards process audio information and can be internal or external, with optical capabilities found on high-end multi-channel audio cards. Optical cables, also called TOSlink, use optical fibers to transmit data with less interference and loss than metal cables, improving sound quality.
An optical sound card is a sound card that outputs audio to devices that have a digital optical input. Typically used for multi-channel audio feeds, a digital optical input uses fiber optic cable to carry data from the optical sound card to the optical audio device. Because fiber optics lend themselves well to multi-channel sound, optical inputs are more frequently found on audio receivers for home theater setups. A computer equipped with an optical sound card can output multichannel audio from the computer to an optical input on a home theater receiver.
Essential for producing sound from a computer, a sound card is an internal or external device that processes audio information from a computer to play it on an output device such as a set of speakers, headphones, or an audio receiver. Internal sound cards are installed in a slot located inside the computer, while external sound cards usually connect to the computer via universal serial bus (USB) or FireWire. Typically, optical capabilities are found on sound cards that handle high-end multi-channel audio.
An optical cable can also be called a TOSlink cable. This type of cable consists of an array of optical fibers, thin tubes, and light carriers made of transparent flexible material such as silica or fluoride glass. Inside the cable, an optical fiber moves data from one location to another by transmitting light waves down a refractory tube. Optical fiber is flexible, pliable, and has shown data rates that are significantly higher than those achieved on most types of metal cable. The field that studies the use of optical fibers is called optical fibers.
Optical fibers are advantageous for use with high-definition audio signals because they experience less interference and less loss than the metal fibers used in cables. Less interference means that cables from an optical sound card can still transmit a clear signal when placed closer to other potentially interfering electronic objects than metal-based sound card cables. This can help improve sound quality in places with interference from many electronic devices.
Loss and interference are some of the most common audio quality problems experienced by sound card users. When it comes to audio and data, loss indicates a degradation of data quality or sound power as the length of the cable extends. A cable that leaks less information would be considered less lossy. Because they have less loss than wire, an optical cable such as those used in an optical sound card can transmit a faster, higher-quality stream of data over greater distances than sound transmitted over wire.
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