__Proven & Recommended Sound Cards for SPDIF pass through->
Audio Excel-Theater Excel-$19 USD
Hercules Fortissimo I & II-$45 USD
Hercules Game Theater XP- $110 USD
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz- $75 USD
Terratec DMX XFire 1024-$58 USD
Philips Acoustic Edge - $??
M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 - $??(Highly recommended for Audio Freaks)
Any C-Media 8738 based sound card has given great results whether it’s built-in to the motherboard or a PCI card. They also pass both DTS and DD without issue. Here are a few cards-
AudioExcel MD-Mate - $??
Yamaha X-Wave 7000 Pro - $??
Zoltrix Nightingale Pro 6 - $40 USD
Philips Acoustic Edge is reported to work very well in VIA motherboards as well. It’s advised the sound card be installed to the farthest PCI slot from the CPU.
Note: Creative cards are purposely not listed above due to the numerous hardware/software issues on most of the models. Issues range from bad drivers, jitter, SNR to out of voltage specifications which could damage your external amp. The intent was to show cost effective sound cards which are easy to configure for multi-channel and SPDIF playback.
Info i was using for reference the other day might help
From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"