Dali Zensor AX - analog or digital input better?

[aburany]

In short, my use case: in my home office, I have a pair of Dali Zensor AX 1, connected to a high-end PC through SPDIF/TosLink. Here I'm listening to music exclusively from my PC (Tidal HiFi/master and CD).
Situation: My SoundBlaster Z's SPDIF out died; I want something better than the motherboards output; so far I'm happy with my Dali AX 1 and don't necessarily want to change but would like to get the best quality out of it.

I know that Zensor AX was considered poorer than its passive counterpart due to its cheap amp and DAC (the thread I found here); I was wondering if I'm about getting a new sound card anyway, would it make sense to rather go analog with a quality card/external DAC (thinking of Sound Blaster AE-7 or AE-9) supposing if that way I would skip/replace the DAC with something better than the integrated?
On the other hand, Dali has an interesting statement on the product sheet, telling: "Both the analogue signal and the signal from the Bluetooth interface is passed through the A/D converter and converted from its analogue state into a 24 bit 96 KHz digital signal" - if I get this correctly, analog is first converted to digital as well, so in the end I'm still better with using feeding signal?



...or eventually, should I just try to sell these speakers and get a decent amp + passive Dali, or a real active speaker?

Any opinions are appreciated.

 

[shadders]

Hi,
If using the PC for sound output, then a new soundcard (due to the other failing) is best and using the TOSLINK output into the speakersl DAC. Using the analogue output of the soundcard which is then digitaised just adds unnecessary noise.

If you are happy with your speakers, then why not keep those as opposed to being influenced by someone else's opinion in a thread a few years ago.

Regards,
Shadders.

 

[aburany]

Hi,
If using the PC for sound output, then a new soundcard (due to the other failing) is best and using the TOSLINK output into the speakersl DAC. Using the analogue output of the soundcard which is then digitaised just adds unnecessary noise.

If you are happy with your speakers, then why not keep those as opposed to being influenced by someone else's opinion in a thread a few years ago.

Regards,
Shadders.

Thank you shadders, I didn't say I was unhappy, it's more about wondering/asking for an opinion. I actually like the sound of the Zensor AX 1 a lot, regarding its size and price.
There's a few-year-old Marantz amp + Dali Zensor 5 sitting in my living room, and of course, I like that setup much more. But most probably sounding better not only because those are passive + discrete amp, but those are bigger speakers, bigger space, etc. a different level than listening on a 20sqm.
I'll get a decent sound card with low jitter for SPDIF.
One more question I'm thinking about: if one day I'd go maybe with PC -> amp -> passive speakers, would an analogue output quality of a sound card matter, or in that setup digital would be still the way to go? (and leaving digital to analog conversion to the amplifier?)

 

[shadders]

Thank you shadders, I didn't say I was unhappy, it's more about wondering/asking for an opinion. I actually like the sound of the Zensor AX 1 a lot, regarding its size and price.
There's a few-year-old Marantz amp + Dali Zensor 5 sitting in my living room, and of course, I like that setup much more. But most probably sounding better not only because those are passive + discrete amp, but those are bigger speakers, bigger space, etc. a different level than listening on a 20sqm.
I'll get a decent sound card with low jitter for SPDIF.
One more question I'm thinking about: if one day I'd go maybe with PC -> amp -> passive speakers, would an analogue output quality of a sound card matter, or in that setup digital would be still the way to go? (and leaving digital to analog conversion to the amplifier?)

Hi,
Given that PC's are quite noisy, then it is optimal to use digital out from the PC. You can get a reasonable sound from the PC and soundcard, but the ground connection may be noisy.

Regards,
Shadders.

 

[aburany]

Hi,
Given that PC's are quite noisy, then it is optimal to use digital out from the PC. You can get a reasonable sound from the PC and soundcard, but the ground connection may be noisy.

Regards,
Shadders.

Well, there is Sound Blaster AE-9 for example which has a kind of external, desktop positioned DAC (I believe just for this reason). So it's like a PC sound card/external DAC crossover. It costs a lot (around $300), but also great by specs and reviews with e.g. 129db SNR.
So to put it differently, in such a setup, could a quality DAC connected to an AMP analogue way have its benefits over digital + amp doing DAC? (given I don't want to spend fortunes on an amp, but stay below $1k).
The above-mentioned Sound Blaster is more expensive than some also good sound cards, but $300 vs $150 wondering that might be a good investment if I'd use it as a DAC one day.

 

[shadders]

Well, there is Sound Blaster AE-9 for example which has a kind of external, desktop positioned DAC (I believe just for this reason). So it's like a PC sound card/external DAC crossover. It costs a lot (around $300), but also great by specs and reviews with e.g. 129db SNR.
So to put it differently, in such a setup, could a quality DAC connected to an AMP analogue way have its benefits over digital + amp doing DAC? (given I don't want to spend fortunes on an amp, but stay below $1k).
The above-mentioned Sound Blaster is more expensive than some also good sound cards, but $300 vs $150 wondering that might be a good investment if I'd use it as a DAC one day.

Hi,
I examined the AE9 specification, and my assumption is that the performance figures given are based on the DAC specification, and not soundcard measured performance.

Again, i would only ever use the optical output of a PC, as that is optimal. You are better off spending your money of a cheap soundcard with optical output, and the remainder on the external DAC or amplifier.

Regards,
Shadders.

 

[aburany]

Hi,
I examined the AE9 specification, and my assumption is that the performance figures given are based on the DAC specification, and not soundcard measured performance.

Again, i would only ever use the optical output of a PC, as that is optimal. You are better off spending your money of a cheap soundcard with optical output, and the remainder on the external DAC or amplifier.

Regards,
Shadders.

Thank you. Indeed, this (and some other PC sound cards with the external units) are rather marketed only for their headphones/headphones amp abilities and not as generic DAC to be connected to any speaker system.
I really appreciate your input and efforts here; I will just go with a decent sound card with low jitter and continue using the optical output.