i solved my problem, and it was staring me right in the face.
after spending many many hours trying to find a solution to this problem, and searching every blog and tech forum i could, i eventually did the following.
uninstalled all sound drivers, and codecs, then booted machine in safe mode and used a driver removal software to check that all drivers were infact gone (software found a few items still remaining in registry and system folders) rebooted machine, and installed R1.95 drivers. pretty basic so far.
i then installed ac3 filter AC3Filter and settup so that ac3 uses spdif pass through.
installed media player classic x64 version
(for some reason when i use vlc and setup to use spdif sound is laggy, jumpy, echoee, or plays ok for a few seconds the gap then plays for a few seconds then gap) [rather annoying]
then went back to digital properties and adjusted my output to 24bit 48Hz
and vola problem solved for me.
i think that because i was trying to use 24bit 96Hz output my amp would only see this as stereo.
so basically check your output sample rate and see if your amp/ digital reciever can infact decode the sample rate you have it set your sound card to output.