Any cheap and easy way to get the audio from a PS5?

[breeminator]

With the Black Friday sales now on, I can see a great PS5 deal, and was about to buy one, but thought I should just check the specs first, and it appears the console has no audio outputs. I'm currently using the optical output from my PS4 Pro.

I don't want to use a device to extract the audio from the HDMI signal, as I can only see problems being caused by that, e.g. I haven't seen a device yet that states it supports 4k 120hz.

What I really want to do is to directly get the audio out of the console, e.g. via USB or bluetooth, rather than interfering with the video signal. I've done some searching, and found many people with the same problem, though most only seem to want to get a headset to work, and the solutions aren't general enough to work for me.

It's honestly unbelievable to me that they'd remove such a basic feature as audio output. I can understand that they say it had low usage (I imagine most users just use the sound from their TV), but why couldn't they in that case sell it as an optional extra like they're doing with the disc drive for the new PS5.

So, I'm asking here just in case anyone else had this problem and has found something that works and is fairly cheap, to get an optical audio output from the console via USB or bluetooth? It has to be optical, I don't have an unused analogue input on my amplifier.

Also, if you do have a solution, does it work when playing 4k Blu-Ray discs, where I imagine there might be extra copy protection issues?

 

[wfooshee]

So whatever you're feeding the sound to accepts the optical but not the HDMI? Just guessing, I suppose you're putting HDMI into the TV but you are feeding optical to a sound system so you don't use the TV speakers? Does your sound receiver not handle HDMI? I feed my console into my receiver, and use the receiver's HDMI out to feed video to the TV. (When I feed the console to the TV directly and then use the TV's output into the receiver, it becomes stereo only, no 5-channel.)

 

[Daz555]

The most elegant solution I guess would be a shiny new AV receiver that has your required specs but that will cost you a good chunk of cash.
You say you've not found a HDMI splitter/extractor - a quick Google seems to show that there are devices available. For example: https://feintech.eu/en/collections/hdmi-audio-extractor

 

[breeminator]

So whatever you're feeding the sound to accepts the optical but not the HDMI? Just guessing, I suppose you're putting HDMI into the TV but you are feeding optical to a sound system so you don't use the TV speakers? Does your sound receiver not handle HDMI? I feed my console into my receiver, and use the receiver's HDMI out to feed video to the TV. (When I feed the console to the TV directly and then use the TV's output into the receiver, it becomes stereo only, no 5-channel.)

Yes, I'm using just a basic stereo system that has CD/radio/amplifier. The PS4's HDMI goes to the monitor, and an optical cable to the stereo system. It works absolutely perfectly for all my PC and PS4 console gaming, listening to the radio, and playing CDs. I do actually have a home cinema receiver in the living room, but am selling it because it's ridiculously complicated and has always sounded terrible in that room despite having used its calibration mic to supposedly optimise the sound for the room. I have a basic simple stereo system in there that sounds absolutely fantastic with no messing about at all other than to just do a bit of bass and treble adjustment.

The most elegant solution I guess would be a shiny new AV receiver that has your required specs but that will cost you a good chunk of cash.
You say you've not found a HDMI splitter/extractor - a quick Google seems to show that there are devices available. For example: https://feintech.eu/en/collections/hdmi-audio-extractor

Yes, I really don't want to use an AV receiver as I've never found one that has the simplicity of a basic stereo system. I already have one but it's huge, heavy, consumes a ton of electricity, and you can't do much to it without having its menu on a screen, and even then it's insanely complex to use and I've never got a good sound out of it in this living room.

I found an extractor on Amazon that supports 4k 120hz, but at £80 it's just too much. It's crazy to be paying for the electronics needed to handle and pass through a 4k 120hz video signal just to get at the audio signal. It could have been catered for in the console (even if it needed the user to buy something extra to access it) far more cheaply than that, as it could output it before combining into the HDMI signal, avoiding the need for all that expensive circuitry.

 

[MatskiMonk]

@breeminator What outputs does the TV have?

I have to use a widget for the same reason as you (old AV Amp no HDMi), which works fine (was much cheaper than £80 but no idea if it's 4k 120Hz friendly or not), but my last TV had optical out and that was much easier.

You say the stereo you want to use is fine for PC gaming.... it's a **** solution but if you ran PS5 remote play on the PC in the background that could pass the audio to the stereo as though you were on the PC.

What is the receiver you are getting rid of, and what speakers is it hooked up to?

 

[Lion-Face]

A USB DAC that will plug into the PS5 via USB and output Optical or Analog sound. Just check compatibility first. I understand the Behringer UCA202 is suitable for what you are looking for. But I haven't used it myself or any other DAC for PS5 so I'm just going off a quick google search.

 

[the13PeSK]

I'm exactly on the same boat as @breeminator is, interesting what you've suggested @Lion-Face , need to check this.

Currently using USB DAC on my PC and have my One X connected through optical audio to another DAC then everything goes to audio splitter and then headphones and speakers. Lack of optical audio (or any other kind) on PS5 was the only thing holding me back from buying it...

 

[breeminator]

A USB DAC that will plug into the PS5 via USB and output Optical or Analog sound. Just check compatibility first. I understand the Behringer UCA202 is suitable for what you are looking for. But I haven't used it myself or any other DAC for PS5 so I'm just going off a quick google search.

Wow, you know, it hadn't occurred to me that you would be able to plug in any old PC USB audio interface and have it work! I've done some searching now, though, and I'm not sure it does work. Someone here is using a PC audio interface, but they're getting the audio from the monitor rather than over the USB connection to the PS5:


There's also this, where they talk about needing a specific firmware and cable to make it work with PS5:

Connecting a USB DAC to PS4 or PS5 – JDS Labs Blog

blog.jdslabs.com

So I don't think it can be the case that you can just use a standard PC audio interface and get at the PS5's audio from a USB port.

I've just tried it with the PS4, and the PS4 didn't recognise the audio interface as a means of audio output, there was no option to choose it for audio output in the PS4's settings, and no sound came through it.

Hmm, there is this, though, that does explicitly claim PS4/5 compatibility. Pasting the amazon link isn't working, but it's "Cubilux USB A to TOSLINK Optical Audio Adapter, USB Type A to SPDIF Digital Converter Compatible with Windows Linux PS4/PS5", which is just under £22, and that would be an acceptable cost if it works.

 

[the13PeSK]

Any, but need to be UAC1 standard:

 

[Grayfox]

My PS5 is connected to my monitor via HDMI and since my monitor does not have speakers the way I get audio involves me, connecting a line in cable to the headphone output on the controller and my motherboards line in port.
I then use a script to quickly change input devices from mic to line in, and loop back audio from line in to my headphones which is another device altogether.

No reason at this point why i cant record any audio using Audacity.

 

[Mr Latte]

With the Black Friday sales now on, I can see a great PS5 deal, and was about to buy one, but thought I should just check the specs first, and it appears the console has no audio outputs. I'm currently using the optical output from my PS4 Pro.

I don't want to use a device to extract the audio from the HDMI signal, as I can only see problems being caused by that, e.g. I haven't seen a device yet that states it supports 4k 120hz.

What I really want to do is to directly get the audio out of the console, e.g. via USB or bluetooth, rather than interfering with the video signal. I've done some searching, and found many people with the same problem, though most only seem to want to get a headset to work, and the solutions aren't general enough to work for me.

It's honestly unbelievable to me that they'd remove such a basic feature as audio output. I can understand that they say it had low usage (I imagine most users just use the sound from their TV), but why couldn't they in that case sell it as an optional extra like they're doing with the disc drive for the new PS5.

So, I'm asking here just in case anyone else had this problem and has found something that works and is fairly cheap, to get an optical audio output from the console via USB or bluetooth? It has to be optical, I don't have an unused analogue input on my amplifier.

Also, if you do have a solution, does it work when playing 4k Blu-Ray discs, where I imagine there might be extra copy protection issues?

I use this which is compatible with PS5 including 120Hz support.
It will pass through/copy the EDID from the source.

It enables me to connect, even my PC to use an HDMI output from the motherboard as the primary soundcard. I then use a different output from the GPU to the monitor/TV. This device is also compatible with Sonos, which requires input from a TVs Audio Return Channel. Meaning I can then output Dolby Atmos from PC into my Sonos ARC and a 7.1 setup.

I can confrim:
PS5 = Dolby Atmos
PC = Dolby Atmos (controlled via phone/tablet using Sonos app)

You should be able to use the OPTICAL output so pretty darn sweet little box.

An alternative may be to use the Soundblaster X4 USB soundcard which is compatible with PS4/PS5 to take audio from console as USB and then output it via OPTICAL or headphones. I cant remember and not certain if it supports only stereo / 5.1 or 7.1 over USB though.