quality sound card for hifi

[admin_exported]

hi,

i want to stream music from the net direct to my cyrus setup via a DAC.

does the sound card used affect sound quality at all and if so can anyone reccomend the best card available?

many thanks

 

[John Duncan]

If you're streaming to a DAC and are using a wireless streamer like Squeezebox or Airport Express, the soundcard in your PC is irrelevant. You say "music from the net" - what do you mean by that? Downloaded to iTunes? Spotify? Last.fm? etc etc...

 

[Anonymous]

at the moment i am streaming from my sound card onboard the motherboard via a digital out direct to the DAC

 

[Anonymous]

usually stuff from radio sites etc such as proton radio download sites such as beatport also

 

[John Duncan]

In which case, if you have a digital out, it shouldn't affect the sound quality at all - it's usually only if you're using the soundcard's own DAC to stream via a PC's audio output that issues arise, provided you have the volume turned up full on the PC.

Happy for somebody to correct me viz-a-viz ASIO and ISAPI drivers (

) in windows...

 

[lazar1980]

Well, if you have a separate DAC you can just connect pc and dac with usb cable and in that case no need for sound card at all.

 

[John Duncan]

if the DAC has a USB input...

 

[lazar1980]

Thanks for input Mr. Duncan

 

[John Duncan]

Well luckily yours and my DACs do have a USB input, doesn't mean they all do...

 

[Anonymous]

ok thanks for the help =)

 

[pete321]

JohnDuncan:Well luckily yours and my DACs do have a USB input, doesn't mean they all do...

Isn't the USB option of streaming supposed to be inferior to using a SPDIF if your PC has one?

 

[John Duncan]

Depends on the DAC, and depends on whether you have any higher-res music; dunno about the Beresford but the DACMagic is limited to 16bit through USB, but can handle up to 24 bit through SPDIF. May not be an issue for most people.

 

[Anonymous]

pete321:

Isn't the USB option of streaming supposed to be inferior to using a SPDIF if your PC has one?

No, unless you are playing music with a resolution better than the 48kHz/16b currently supported by USB.

 

[Anonymous]

pete321:

Isn't the USB option of streaming supposed to be inferior to using a SPDIF if your PC has one?

No, unless you are playing music with a resolution better than the 48kHz/16b currently supported by USB.

 

[Anonymous]

pete321:

Isn't the USB option of streaming supposed to be inferior to using a SPDIF if your PC has one?

No, unless you are playing music with a resolution better than the 48kHz/16b currently supported by USB.

 

[PJPro]

Pete10:pete321:

Isn't the USB option of streaming supposed to be inferior to using a SPDIF if your PC has one?

No, unless you are playing music with a resolution better than the 48kHz/16b currently supported by USB.

That's an emphatic no then (refering to triple post).

 

[PJPro]

As JD says, if you're using digital out on the soundcard, then it probably doesn't really matter. However, there are better and worse drivers supplied with the soundcards. You could try alternatives such as ASIO4ALL to see if any improvements are discernible.