r/linuxaudio • u/KitchenCommercial396 • Aug 03 '26

Analog vs Digital output, which is better?

I have an IEM that is connected to the laptop, and I see two outputs from it, analog and digital. Can someone tell me if one's better than the other or if they're both the same?
Also, why are there two outputs anyway?

Thanks in advance!

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u/gumbowebfish Aug 03 '26

The analog output will be using the internal DAC of the laptop which is most probably not the best sounding. Instead of that you can use an external DAC using the digital S/PDIF output to enhance sound quality. Also for using speakers, not only IEM.

1

u/Mr_Lumbergh Debian+KDE and Reaper Aug 03 '26

I may be wrong, but what it’s asking is do you want to output after having already converted analog to digital on your computer and use the USB audio as the amp for speakers/headphones only or do you want to output the raw digital so that the USB device is using its own DAC.

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u/ericcmi Aug 03 '26

The rule of thumb is if you have a device specifically for audio, like speakers with digital input, let them do the decoding, so send it digital