I am using the E-MU 1212M soundcard in my PC.
It does NOT allow AC3 or DTS passthrough from it's Coaxial/TOS S/PDIF outputs. I called and verified this.
However, it does have ' two balanced 1/4" analog outputs\' .

Can these be connected directly to the 990 for 2 channel stereo? (ie ...will the 990 accept a balanced input?)

If this can be done, which would be the prefered inputs on the 990 to use?

Novice question follows... Could someone please post a link to the specific RCA cables used to do this.

Thanks
Oscillate

The manual mentions that you can select either profession (balanced) or consumer (unbalanced) output levels in the software - if you use analog outputs, you'll want to select the consumer output level.

Even though the digital output won't handle Dolby Digital and DTS, I'd still use the digital output - the PCM stereo digital output will be at least as good (and likely better than) the analog stereo output.

Thankyou for the response sir

...thats exactly what I was doing (while attempting SP/DIF passthrough before I knew that was not possible). The stereo sound quality was a lot better than any other PCI sound card I have heard or used. It's a very good, low end pro recording/mixing card. Just doesn't really fit my needs though. Probably try a different solution, since all I am doing is playback of sound files and home theater 5.1 sound.

From what I saw in the manual and on the web site, I would agree that the card probably isn't a good match with home theater.