High quality Computer Soundcard as a pre/pro

**aud19** · 06 February 2006, 14:46 Monday

Personally I prefer M-audio or Lynx Studio soundcards over Creative products but that's just me

**Clive** · 07 February 2006, 20:27 Tuesday

What!!? are you a nerd or something..................what kind of stupid question is that?.............Oooops wrong forum..................Hey just kidding Jkoola. :T

Welcome to that Guide mate and thank you for taking the time to post your querries :thanku:

I believe that you may get some other responses from those gurus at club "Tower of Power" I will ask that this thread be moved there if you like

**David Meek** · 07 February 2006, 21:46 Tuesday

Hi gang, I moved this thread into our Tower Of Power forum as it will get a better response in there.

**JKalman** · 07 February 2006, 21:49 Tuesday

Originally posted by jdkoola

Hi all,

I just wanted to say that I'm new to this forum and website and I find the lack of hostility pretty refreshing :T .

At any rate, I was wondering if anyone has experimented with using top quality soundcards from companies like SoundBlaster as a prepro. I am in the process of putting together a home theater system, and I was going to buy a separate receiver and put together a home theater PC.

SoundBlaster makes some "pro" level sound cards such as the SoundBlaster Audigy 4 Pro, here's a link to their website, sorry if links are not allowed:

http://www.soundblaster.com/products...ct=10853&nav=1

It is THX certified and supports the full range of todays surround sound formats. It includes 2 digital audio inputs (1 coax, 1 toslink). Naturally I would have to purchase an amp to go along with it.

I'm thinking about this because since I'm building a home theater PC anyways, I thought this would be a good way to save money and space.

Regards,

jkoola

The newest Sound Blaster card chips are supposed to be pretty incredible and allow you to upsample and oversample your music I believe. I haven't experimented much with this though yet. I think what keeps me from experimenting with the computer and audio is the lack of protection from EMIs. It is very easy for jitter and some other things to occur in a computer system because there is so much going on there unrelated to the audio. For every thing running in your system you are dealing with more jitter and other problems. For this reason it is hard for me to consider a computer a high end audio device at this time.

One solution for this however, is that you can use a DAC like the DAC1 and store music on your computer. Since the Benchmark DAC1 reclocks the signal using its UltraLock technology, you can save a lot of music in lossless mode on your PC and then play it through the DAC, eliminating the jitter in the DAC1. This doesn't solve the problem with the computer, so I still don't consider it a high end audiophile device, it just eliminates the jitter and other issues before it is passed through the DAC (the UltraLock clock is located right before the DAC chip in the DAC1 component).

**JKalman** · 07 February 2006, 21:54 Tuesday

I think setting up a chain like this:

Computer --> DAC1 --> Preamp/Amp/Integrated/etc --> Speakers

Could work pretty well. You still end up having to buy separate equipment though. I would look into what sound cards out there do to solve problems with Jitter/crosstalk/EMI, etc. It is possible that the DACs on that new SB card do take care of a lot of these problems, therefore making my issues with computer audio null. I did read that the DACs in the new SB card are supposed to be pretty high end compared to everything that has come before on computer sound cards.

I'll eventually look into it myself when I complete my regular audio system and move on to updating and putting some surround sound on my computer.

**audioqueso** · 08 February 2006, 08:06 Wednesday

These guys are on the right path, jdkoola. I had a music server that I used just for around the house, but not for critical listening. After a discussion we had here, I was convinced that my music server can equal or perhaps out-perform a dedicated CD player, and it's almost there.

My DVD player is a Pioneer Elite DV-47 (I think). I use the digital coax connection and allow the Marantz to do the decoding for some types of music. For the other types of music, I use the DAC from the Pioneer. The competition is my music server. I had a computer with all my CDs ripped at 192 VBR (LAME) mp3 with EAC on a dedicated 120GB harddrive. I say dedicated because there was nothing on it but my audio files. Another small harddrive had the OS files. I used a Hercules Fortissimo II sound card and output the signal through an optical cable to connect it to my Marantz pre-amp. It sounded good, but compression sacrificed bass and soundstage.

After a discussion here, I started trying some new steps. First, I purchased a new 400GB harddrive, and I am still in the process of ripping all my CDs again using Monkey Audio lossless compression. It takes about 300mb an album. I was advised to try Money Audio. When I first tried Money Audio lossless compression, I still heard a loss in soundstage, but I found out that it was because of my soundcards and Windows resampling. I purchased an Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 LT card, output the audio files via ASIO with absolutely no resamping, and through a digital coax connection to my Marantz. So now I have my music server playing bit-by-bit perfection of the actual CDs. I've A/B'ed several CDs between my Pioneer using the Marantz DAC vs my computer using the Marantz DAC, and I can not hear the difference. It sounds just like the actual CD being played. My next step in upgrading my source is to purchase a Bencmark DAC1.

FYI, upsampling in the souncard does not improve the sound of the music. That's crap. Perhaps I can't hear it now because of I am using my Marantz DAC. Perhaps I'll hear the difference with a DAC1. However, right now there is no difference. It might technically improve the resolution, but the change in resolution can not create 'improved sound'. Some highs are more noticable, but just a bit. If you take a picture and change the resolution to something higher, it's still the same picture.

**JimmyNeutron** · 29 April 2006, 21:35 Saturday

This is an interesting thread. I also have a music server that I built myself and I am using a Soundblaster PLatinum card. It's connected to my pre using the digital output on the soundcard. I have about 400 gigs of music as FLAC files and they sound wonderful when played back. The music server front-end is also a joy to use - I use Meedio. Now, I have heard over on the Soundblaster forum that the line of Soundblaster cards have serious issues with compatibility issues with many motherboards. Although mine works just fine with no hitches on my MB, it still has a higher than normal noise floor when compared to a regular CD player. This is a very small issue. But I wish it still had a lower noise level. I have heard great things about the M-Audio line of cards. Anyone have any experience with them?

Anyway, I say go for it to making a HTPC. I built mine myself but it's geared more for music than for movies (although it can do all of that). The Meedio front-end is really cool and allows me to use the remote that came with my Soundblaster card to control the whole system - pretty cool. After having a computer connected to my stereo for many years I decided to build this one from scratch to match the rest of my components. A music server is very convenient. I find myself listening to 400 gigs of music on random play and hearing songs I thought I had long forgotten. You'll enjoy yours!! Good luck.

Here's a pic of my music server:

**Vinny** · 30 April 2006, 11:29 Sunday

JimmyNeutron,

I have the M-Audio Revolution for 3years(i preordered it way back the time). I also have the Audigy2Platinum and Prodigy 7.1. Audigy2 and Prodigy were bought after I have the revolution but I am still using the Revolution for the sound card and the others are left behind. Prodigy has the same Envy chipset and it is also a pretty good card, but Audigy simply remained lowest among the food chain and Prodigy has some minor issue with its dual sound card driver to keep mixing the effect into the output among changing default sound device(I use bluetooth headset for skype which change the default audio device upon connection). Otherwise I would take Prodigy>Revolution>Audigy2. In terms of sound quality Revolution stays at the top though, yet using a little bit more resources than the Prodigy which I place it to be the second place.

**Hdale85** · 16 May 2006, 13:18 Tuesday

I'm concidering this for my HTPC http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...10LT-main.html

High quality Computer Soundcard as a pre/pro

High quality Computer Soundcard as a pre/pro

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