Problem with X-Fi Titanium Fatality Champion sound card

[MRB]

I just completed a build of a new PC tower for the surround sound theater room in the house here. Everything is working fantastic with this computer except for a problem with the optical out with the sound card. The card is a Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatality Champion card.
All of the analog output features of this card including the front panel controls and inputs/outputs are working extremely well. The problem I'm having is only with the optical out at the back of the machine. When I plug a good Toslink cable to the A/V amp I do get a signal as the A/V amp indicates on it's front panel the Dolby Digital and dts when I switch it around in the control panel for the card. Also I do get very faint sound in the right front speaker only when the cards volume control panel is turned all the way up and the volume is turned all the way up on the A/V amp. I have installed all the updates for this card and set the output frequency of the card to match what the amp wants.

Any idea on what may be going on with this card?

 

[MRB]

O.K. My audio guy asked: Why do you want to use the optical out of this card anyhow? He said I'll get better sound using high quality analog cableing to the A/V amp than using the optical Toslink. So I abandoned the optical out feature with this sound card, which still doesn't work, and had shielded MIT brand audio cables built to use the analog out of this card to interface with my NAD T773 A/V amp. The intergal amplifier in this amp is actually unbridged and used as a pre-amp now, and the ribbon speakers in the room are each bi-amped with 6 Parasound HCA 1500A High current amps.

The sound through the analog out portion of this card through my existing surround system is clean and is exceptionally high in quality considering the digital source. I'm kind of an analog sound guy anyways.

 

[LNCPapa]

I don't know about better sound from the analog source - maybe warmer (if you prefer a warmer sound) but it should technically be more accurate using your digital out. Problem is, many audiophiles feel that sound is a bit more harsh or sharp than they'd like. If you already know you're an analog kind of guy then I guess you've solved your prob, but I have no issues sending out using Toslink from my Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi to my receiver.

 

[MRB]

I don't know about better sound from the analog source - maybe warmer (if you prefer a warmer sound) but it should technically be more accurate using your digital out. Problem is, many audiophiles feel that sound is a bit more harsh or sharp than they'd like. If you already know you're an analog kind of guy then I guess you've solved your prob, but I have no issues sending out using Toslink from my Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi to my receiver.

Well, I would have liked to get the optical out on this card to work but it just didn't pan out. Probably would have changed over to analog anyways. Dealing with Creative Labs Inc. was terrible to say the least. All I recieved back from them through my inquires with in depth details of my problem with this card was "boiler plate" e-mail replies. I'ts as if no one there really knows what is going on with their products at least when it comes to customer support. Possibly the optical out of this card is defective but I find that unlikely as I was getting some signal to the NAD T773 amp. Regardless, it's all hooked into the theater room with analog out cableling for the sound and it works well, which is good enough for me.