soundcard or dac

[alializadeh]

hi

a simple question, i'm planning to build a mid range/hi end htpc wit mini itx motherboard and z87 socket.

and i want to connect my htpc to my amp, wich is better? pci exprex soundcard? or a dac like music streamer pro?

thank you

 

[joelw]

Usually an external DAC as far as I know, should provide much better processing of music.

 

[abacus]

A quality pro sound card will give you a really top notch sound, (Studio quality) however they are expensive and quite large, and therefore as you are building a small format PC I would go for an external DAC.

NOTE: A lot of pro DACs use a fire wire interface instead of USB so if you decide to go for one of these you will need to add in a fire wire card. (Fortunately they are very small in size)

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[AnotherJoe]

Assuming your music is in lossless - eg FLAC then any 24bit soundcard with an optical out will give the best possible quality.

Something like an ASUS Xonar DS for £35 will be all you need.

If you have a Radeon graphics card that supports HD sound then you could also use that for the sound via either DVI(with the dongle that came with it), or HDMI.