DAC or Sound Card
- Thread starter Jibs
- Start date
iaudio
Well-Known Member
A little more description would help, Jibs.
Whats the config of your pc?
Whats the rest of your set up like? Amp? Speakers? Headphones?
And ofcourse, what is your budget?
Whats the config of your pc?
Whats the rest of your set up like? Amp? Speakers? Headphones?
And ofcourse, what is your budget?
spirovious
Well-Known Member
usb DAC can be flexible solution.
Thad E Ginathom
Well-Known Member
Jibs, consider this:
DAC -->Digital to Audio Converter. It goes one way. It takes a digital signal from your PC, or other source, and converts it to Analogue for your sound system.
Of course, you must be able to get a digital signal from your PC, and to do this, you will need a sound card anyway, although it might be the one your motherboard already includes.
Sound Card --> DAC and ADC: will usually have Analogue to Digital Converter as well, so that you can use analogue sources to make digital recordings on your PC.
Sound cards come in a bewildering assortment of varieties, begining with simple 2-channel analogue in/out, moving on to include MIDI, and bifurcating into those intended for home use with, eg 5.1/7.1 output (and a variety of digital in/out too) to those intended for home/professional studio applications for multi-track recording and mixing. Some of these can be very pricey, but DACs may carry the label "hifi" and may therefore have astronomical prices, as is true of any other hifi kit.
The market is wide open, the world's your oyster, and there are a number of different threads already open discussing DACs, Sound cards, and PCs as sources both of stereo music and of home theatre...
DAC -->Digital to Audio Converter. It goes one way. It takes a digital signal from your PC, or other source, and converts it to Analogue for your sound system.
Of course, you must be able to get a digital signal from your PC, and to do this, you will need a sound card anyway, although it might be the one your motherboard already includes.
Sound Card --> DAC and ADC: will usually have Analogue to Digital Converter as well, so that you can use analogue sources to make digital recordings on your PC.
Sound cards come in a bewildering assortment of varieties, begining with simple 2-channel analogue in/out, moving on to include MIDI, and bifurcating into those intended for home use with, eg 5.1/7.1 output (and a variety of digital in/out too) to those intended for home/professional studio applications for multi-track recording and mixing. Some of these can be very pricey, but DACs may carry the label "hifi" and may therefore have astronomical prices, as is true of any other hifi kit.
The market is wide open, the world's your oyster, and there are a number of different threads already open discussing DACs, Sound cards, and PCs as sources both of stereo music and of home theatre...
alitaher2009
Member
well it depends on your budget
Thad E Ginathom
Well-Known Member
Yes and no.
You can spend a lakh on a sound card, if you want.
The big difference between the technical sound-card/interface market and the hifi DAC market, is the difference between "technical" and "hifi". Nobody in the technical world would spend more money on something because it had the word audiophile printed on the box ---after all, we don't actually plug the box into anything! :lol:
The question is not "DAC or Sound card" --- it is DAC or DAC: just, they are in different places. I'm not against hifi DACs (who knows: I might even buy one, one day). I am against the marketing dogma that says no system is complete without one, and the perceived "wisdom" that says that you must take only digital audio out of a PC, leaving the analogue-outs of a good sound card neglected, and a bigger hole in your wallet for the extra box.
There is no must about it.
Of course, a particular setup with sound-card/DAC might sound better than one with analogue-out from the card, and both total budget, and how it is allocated to card or to card/DAC is going to apply in exactly the same way is it would if we were talking about a CD player and an integrated amplifier.
The big thing is, that by beginning with analogue-out from your card, you loose nothing. If you decide that your card's DAC is not up to your requirements, you can then go on to buy the external unit. By going out with both on the shopping list, as if one cannot exist without the other, you loose the experience, the chance that you may not need a DAC and the interest on the cash!
Of course, if you already have an expensive, high-grade, multiple-input DAC at the heart of your digital sound system, then you have different requirements, with a different shopping list: you don't even need analogue out on your PC interface!
You can spend a lakh on a sound card, if you want.
The big difference between the technical sound-card/interface market and the hifi DAC market, is the difference between "technical" and "hifi". Nobody in the technical world would spend more money on something because it had the word audiophile printed on the box ---after all, we don't actually plug the box into anything! :lol:
The question is not "DAC or Sound card" --- it is DAC or DAC: just, they are in different places. I'm not against hifi DACs (who knows: I might even buy one, one day). I am against the marketing dogma that says no system is complete without one, and the perceived "wisdom" that says that you must take only digital audio out of a PC, leaving the analogue-outs of a good sound card neglected, and a bigger hole in your wallet for the extra box.
There is no must about it.
Of course, a particular setup with sound-card/DAC might sound better than one with analogue-out from the card, and both total budget, and how it is allocated to card or to card/DAC is going to apply in exactly the same way is it would if we were talking about a CD player and an integrated amplifier.
The big thing is, that by beginning with analogue-out from your card, you loose nothing. If you decide that your card's DAC is not up to your requirements, you can then go on to buy the external unit. By going out with both on the shopping list, as if one cannot exist without the other, you loose the experience, the chance that you may not need a DAC and the interest on the cash!
Of course, if you already have an expensive, high-grade, multiple-input DAC at the heart of your digital sound system, then you have different requirements, with a different shopping list: you don't even need analogue out on your PC interface!
jaudere
Well-Known Member
Hi,
I recently bought creative xfi 5.1 surround Usb Sound card.
It sounds better than onboard soundcard when i use it with creative software. If i use it as plug and play device without installing the drivers, i cannot make out the difference.
I like the additional feature of 'record what you hear' on the sound card. Using this, i am converting the audio on old tapes into wma for storage on comp. Using this feature, all streaming music(including youtube songs,only the audio part) can also be stored.
I recently bought creative xfi 5.1 surround Usb Sound card.
It sounds better than onboard soundcard when i use it with creative software. If i use it as plug and play device without installing the drivers, i cannot make out the difference.
I like the additional feature of 'record what you hear' on the sound card. Using this, i am converting the audio on old tapes into wma for storage on comp. Using this feature, all streaming music(including youtube songs,only the audio part) can also be stored.
sonosphere
Well-Known Member
Hi,
I don't know if the OP is following these posts, however I am putting in my two cents...
DAC:
1. Pros: Convenient plug & play box. Many boxes come from the legendary names, that assures one of certain sonic quality /flavor associated with those names. (Please note I am saying "certain" SQ, not in terms of better /worse)
2. Cons: The performance of DAC depends on quality of digital signal being fed to its digital input. A DVDP /WDTV digital out may not be as good as digital-out from a CDP (say entry level like Marantz CD 5001). You need to spend on a "transport" like CDP/WDTV/DVDP to send the digital out to the DAC box.
Soundcard:
1. Pros: Cheaper than DAC box of comparable SQ (Assuming that your already had a PC for other uses, only the extra cost of soundcard is compared with a standalone DAC). No need for a "transport" to supply digital-out, if you are playing media files directly from PC's local /removable storage. While playing media file, the aspect of transport induced imperfections in SQ is almost eliminated. Since you already have a PC, you can also use Room EQ Correction software (like DRC) to get flatter freq response from your "system" (i.e Source+amp+Spkr combo).
2. Cons: YOU have to setup the PC to sound good. Considering the sofware / hardware aspects involved in setup, this option is not for the tech-shy people. Not much variety of soundcards available, if you are looking for "Audiophile flavor" cards (There are many cards for Recording Studio applications, however most audiophiles may find their SQ as cold /sterile.). If you PC fans are noisy, they can ruin the music listening experience. Booting time is not fast as boot time of a transport like CDP. (If you can keep your PC in suspend mode, then boot-time difference is small enough to be ignored)
I hope the above will help in decision-making for people who are confused between DAC box and Soundcard choice.
Regds,
I don't know if the OP is following these posts, however I am putting in my two cents...
DAC:
1. Pros: Convenient plug & play box. Many boxes come from the legendary names, that assures one of certain sonic quality /flavor associated with those names. (Please note I am saying "certain" SQ, not in terms of better /worse)
2. Cons: The performance of DAC depends on quality of digital signal being fed to its digital input. A DVDP /WDTV digital out may not be as good as digital-out from a CDP (say entry level like Marantz CD 5001). You need to spend on a "transport" like CDP/WDTV/DVDP to send the digital out to the DAC box.
Soundcard:
1. Pros: Cheaper than DAC box of comparable SQ (Assuming that your already had a PC for other uses, only the extra cost of soundcard is compared with a standalone DAC). No need for a "transport" to supply digital-out, if you are playing media files directly from PC's local /removable storage. While playing media file, the aspect of transport induced imperfections in SQ is almost eliminated. Since you already have a PC, you can also use Room EQ Correction software (like DRC) to get flatter freq response from your "system" (i.e Source+amp+Spkr combo).
2. Cons: YOU have to setup the PC to sound good. Considering the sofware / hardware aspects involved in setup, this option is not for the tech-shy people. Not much variety of soundcards available, if you are looking for "Audiophile flavor" cards (There are many cards for Recording Studio applications, however most audiophiles may find their SQ as cold /sterile.). If you PC fans are noisy, they can ruin the music listening experience. Booting time is not fast as boot time of a transport like CDP. (If you can keep your PC in suspend mode, then boot-time difference is small enough to be ignored)
I hope the above will help in decision-making for people who are confused between DAC box and Soundcard choice.
Regds,
youre asking someone to cook for you without knowing if youre gonna like it
You should seriously try out a budget dac on a loaner to have an idea of what youre getting into
Many budget dacs dont impress over good SC's
You should seriously try out a budget dac on a loaner to have an idea of what youre getting into
Many budget dacs dont impress over good SC's
Can't agree with you on that one. WDTV is a bit-perfect player. Means, it streams the bits as encoded through digital out. Any other player will DO the same.
Thad E Ginathom
Well-Known Member
It seems that Windows drivers will not unless you take care to use ASIO drivers.
I don't have experience of this. My battle is with certain aspects of getting sound from Ubuntu Linux these days, and I hope never to have to go back to Windows, but please read this:
ASIO (Wikkipedia)
Probably this too but there is no room in my small brain to apply it to Windows stuff just now.
Yes, In case of PC, we need to use the ASIO or Kernel streaming. That will avoid any software paths, filters, upsampling, downsampling etc which is done by OS, sound mixers etc. Without that, you are not getting the bit-perfect output from PC.
My above statement was about comparing WDTV with any other hardware player's digital output.
With Linux, things are usually harder because many times, there is no support by the hardware manufacturer's. I read about your efforts to use Linux PC for music playback. Best of luck with your next steps.
Thad E Ginathom
Well-Known Member
Thanks ... it is a challenge, but bottom line is I am only doing all that because I want to 
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