# Gigabyte H81 Amp Up Analog Output



## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

I am curious what the potential drawbacks are to using the analog outputs on the Gigabyte H81 motherboard vs. the digital output.

This is the MB I have in my music server and JRiver. I am curious too how it would effect JRiver.

Of course I suppose I can just hook up the analogs to a different input on my Onkyo and switch between the two and see if I can hear any issues, but would it not require changing the output setting in JRiver as I switched?


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## prerich (Mar 26, 2008)

Sonnie said:


> I am curious what the potential drawbacks are to using the analog outputs on the Gigabyte H81 motherboard vs. the digital output.
> 
> This is the MB I have in my music server and JRiver. I am curious too how it would effect JRiver.
> 
> Of course I suppose I can just hook up the analogs to a different input on my Onkyo and switch between the two and see if I can hear any issues, but would it not require changing the output setting in JRiver as I switched?


Yes, it would require that the output setting be switched....unless you setup you analog output as a different zone (If I'm reading it right - JRiver can do this). It wouldn't hurt to try it out, you'd just be using the DAC in the H81 instead of the Onkyo's DACs. Sounds like an interesting experimentonder:


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## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

prerich said:


> Yes, it would require that the output setting be switched....unless you setup you analog output as a different zone (If I'm reading it right - JRiver can do this). It wouldn't hurt to try it out, you'd just be using the DAC in the H81 instead of the Onkyo's DACs. Sounds like an interesting experimentonder:


Yes. You can probable set them up as different zones and synch them for A/B comparisons.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

That might be a good experiment I will do just to see if there is any difference. My initial thinking (not knowing much about DACs) is that the Onkyo DAC would be better than the MB DAC, but I have been surprised on more than one occasion here recently.

Ultimately it doesn't look like I will need to use the analog outputs, because I will have to have a preamp between the two components I am trying to connect anyway. I am going to post this separately a little later, but what I will be trying to do is setup the new Van Alstine ABX Switch to run two systems with the same amp and same main speakers, but two different preamps, different sources connected to each preamp and use different subwoofers for movies and music. Originally I was thinking of running the music server straight to the ABX switch, which would require an analog connection, but then I realized I have to have different subwoofer outputs to separate my movie subs from my music subs, therefore will need a preamp with a sub preout... an inexpensive 2.1 preamp.


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