Sound card query

joshiks7

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Hi friends,
I have I3 2100 3.1GHz CPU
Gigabyte GA H61MD2 B3 MoBo
Sapphire 6850GPU
Does this GPU (Sapphire 6850GPU) acts as good DAC OR dedicated sound card is needed?
Regards,
 
Hi friends,
I have I3 2100 3.1GHz CPU
Gigabyte GA H61MD2 B3 MoBo
Sapphire 6850GPU
Does this GPU (Sapphire 6850GPU) acts as good DAC OR dedicated sound card is needed?
Regards,

The GPU does not have any option for stereo. It only have HDMI.So forget about GPU. What is your setup, do you have an AV receiver or stereo amplifier? If you have any of them, then try to buy a DAC, much more better option than sound card.
 
hi I will recommend you to use the below one.Its othername for ESI products excellent products very affordable price.Dont go for any asus cards very expensive you will never get satisfied at all (from my personal experience)

For stereo check below link they have ebay store they will ship to India from south korea.if you like to buy then select shipping as Standard Int'l Shipping
so you will be getiing the product in a week $13 will be extra.The economy may be take some long time to arrive.

May be a small customes charge applied then also worth for the money

http://audiotrack.net/en/?ckattempt=1

There excellent external usb dac see below

http://audiotrack.net/en/usb/528

it is using Wolfson dac
 
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Thanks a lot.
Kindly suggest good DAC

You want a Stereo DAC I guess, please state your budget also ?

hi I will recommend you to use the below one.Its othername for ESI products excellent products very affordable price.Dont go for any asus cards very expensive you will never get satisfied at all (from my personal experience)


Hi, which Asus card did you use ? "You will never get satisfied at all" can you please elaborate why ?
 
You want a Stereo DAC I guess, please state your budget also ?




Hi, which Asus card did you use ? "You will never get satisfied at all" can you please elaborate why ?

I cannot explain theoretically but if you spend Rs 11000 on a soundcard then you should get that quality on it but(it should sound like that) I felt that was not there.I have used Asus sonar STX sound card.The stock opamp does not sound well otherwise you need to update the opamp to another one then also I am not sure how it will sound too.We cannot get good opamp in India so you have to buy from outside that will cost you around another 3000.

So just check http://audiotrack.net/en/usb/528 Wolfson dac is very superior its simply great product than Asus
 
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Hi,
Sorry for few silly questions.
I am planning for Swan stereo in future. I would prefer external DAC/not very bulky.
How to connect it to PC? I need decently sounding unit , is Rs 10k budget okay for this?
Regards,
 
How to connect it to PC? I need decently sounding unit , is Rs 10k budget okay for this?
Regards,
If DAC has usb,then it is the easiest way to connect.Other than that spdf/optical connection is the way.But your motherboard should have those outputs.
 
Fiio E12 Mont Blanc seems to be a headphone amp so it will not fulfill your need for a dac.
Fiio X1 is a portable audio player. It doesnt need E12. It will work fine without E12.

Now regarding your external dac requirement, you could look at 3 options already available or wait for one cheaper option that will be released shortly.
1) dragonfly usb dac
2) meridian explorer usb dac
3) geek out 450 usb dac.
All these will cost above 10k.

Or wait for Schiit Fulla which should cost around 6k.

Extra benefit of all these dacs are that they are the size of a usb pen drive and so can also be used easily with a laptop (portable).
 
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To the OP, I would not write off sound cards so easily.

I have an Asus sound card on a high end system I have set up. I have compared the output from the card with a number of external DACs that included an Arcam, an Emotiva and a few others. Mind you I am talking about a sound card at Rs.x and external DAC up to a max of Rs.2x. Anything beyond that would be an unfair comparison.

I did not find any reason to dispose off the sound card and use any external DAC. In literally every comparison, the sound card delivered either as well, or even better at times. The improvements were in sound stage and accuracy. The drum beats were without any echo and died faster. Many people may not like that, but I prefer sound to die instantly, unless specifically meant otherwise by the artist.

A sound card has a number of advantages, the most important of which is the proximity to the source. This will minimise the possibility of noise creation. The more the electronics you add between the source and the speakers, the more the possibility of noise and distortion.

Cheers
 
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