S/PDIF Coaxial confusion with a DAC

wardww

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Jan 26, 2010
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Hey all,
I'm new to using S/PDIF and coaxial for audio so hope I'm in the right place. I've just bought a simple DAC (see link below )with only a coaxial input and I want to do the following.
I've just discovered an old Acer Aspire 5520 lying around and the manual says that it has S/PDIF support for digital speakers but the connector is a 3.5 mm headphone jack. I'd like to use it to set up a simple home audio jukebox by connecting the Aspire to my Marantz amp through this DAC.
But how can I convert this 3.5 mm connector to coaxial to feed the DAC ?
Perhaps I would be better off buying an external sound card with coaxial output, I'm just not sure. Any help appreciated.

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The 3.5mm connector on the laptop is for either for L/R analog audio or SPDIF digital audio depending on how you set it in the audio control of the laptop. The adapter in the link might not work since the jack in the laptop is 3 conductors (tip, mid ring, 2nd ring). The tip and mid ring on the mini plug have to connect to an RCA connector (tip to center pin, ring to ground). You can do this from scratch or take a cable with stereo mini plugs at both ends, cut it, and splice the end of an RCA cable to it. This is not preferred because it does not maintain the impedance of the cable properly and increases jitter.
Digital Audio can output multiple channels through a single connection but your DAC is only designed for 2 channels.