Aduiphile Grade soundcards

Yeah they do. The Audiophile 24/96 supports DS, as does the Terratec EWX24/96, DMX 6 fire, etc. The Terratec cards are a cut above for sound quality, my research has told me.

 

Cheers guys. Looks like the M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 or Terratec EWX24/96 for me then Will read up on both of them.

I want to get a "proper" soundcard and ideally one with digital in (for messing about with sampling from CDs) and MIDI in/out (for when I finally get a keyboard again :MILD: ). I don't really care how it sounds with games as long as I can get some sound. I really only play games very rarely.

Michael.

 

Of the two, I would be more inclined to go with the terratec, because it has easier Digital I/O on the card (you have to use a port splitter cable on the Audiophile from the d connector). Either would be a very good choice however. Might be worth keeping an eye out for a cheap DAC though...

 

Heres a good review to get you started on the EWX 24/96

http://www.computeraudio.co.uk/caw/cawreviewshtml/terratecewx2496.html

The Audiophile 24/96 apparently has been slightly surpassed by the cheaper Revolution in analogue quality but if u intend to plug a DAC into it, still go for the Audiophile 24/96 over the Revo.

The EWX only has optical, so if u need co-ax digital then go for the DMX 6-fire.

I'm considering the RME Digi PAD 96/8 for mine. Apparently the quality of that is stunning, but theres no Directsound support in XP for games, and the emulation mode takes about 30% CPU power, so if u want games I wouldnt recommend the Digi PAD.

 

Actually, I'm a bit slow tonight, but I've had an idea Micheal, and I think this is definitely going to be the biggest bang for your buck, if you are prepared to spend that little extra.

Go for the RME Digi PAD 96/8 and keep your SB Live just for games, they should go in no bother.

Here is some reading about the digi pad....

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=236215

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=53426

And you can buy the Digi PAD here for £212....

http://www.netzmarkt.de/thomann/rme...ml?iwid=2&sn=75b65ca68ce89c35aa30c9c2736785a1

Hope this helps

If you get it, give me a shout and I can help u set up Foobar 2000 player with the best sound quality settings, if you are prepared to give it a try instead of itunes

 

from a dmx-6fire user myself, buy with confidence

tis a great product. very clear and clean sound.
the only thing is that it doesn't support GM voices- you have to use VST instruments in Cubase etc.

cheers
its £145 from afterhours.co.uk by the way

 

which is the best sound card for music (rather than games) with a co-axial digital output and not the optical type?

Also, any good but not too expensive stereo amps out there with digital inputs and outputs?

 

Blue Max, I believe the Digi PAD has co-axial out, since its designed very much as a digital card.

 

Do external USB sound devices (always?) hog a significant amount of CPU processing time?

Just wondering, as I may at some point get a decent, but not all singing/dancing PC sound set-up consisting of either internal soundcard with digi out going to an external DAC, or external USB device with phono analog outs - in both cases going to amplified speakers (to save desktop space from having a seperate amp).

I'd only be using it for audio and some PC music applications (but have no interest in support games whatsoever).

Any ideas?

 

Not 100% certain Henry, but I'd think it would, but depending on the speed of your machine you may not notice. OTOH, you may want to upgrade in a decent USB card for stability if nothing else, but I believe some USB cards also come with onboard processing to take some of the load off the CPU.

 

Doh - meant to post in a new topic!

 

Henry - They do indeed. Also, USB 1 doesn't offer huge amounts of bandwidth, and you could well quickly run into contention issues. Best to go for some sort of PCI card imo.

With regard to optical vs coax, the traditional hifi wisdom is that coax is better. Fair enough, but it is worth considering that computers generate absolutely huge amounts of rfi, with the number of clocks in there, motors, switch mode power supply, etc, etc, etc... If you use a coax to connect this to a piece of hifi, you've just given the rfi a nice conduit straight into your hifi. Using an optical lead prevents this from happening. Swings and roundabouts for sure (and the reason I use an optical is because that's what my aureon has out, and I use the coax in on the DAC for the cdp), but something to consider.

 

My motherboard, an Asus A7N8X Deluxe, has built-in sound. Also has an SPDIF digi out (coax but no optical).

CPU is an Athlon XP 1700.

What would you guys recommend in the light of this scenario?

 

Onboard soundcard will probably upsample to 48KHz. I'd still recommend a new soundcard even if you only plan on using it as transport for a DAC. Optical is allegedly better for computers too as it does not transmit the RFI like co-ax can.