upgrade from onboard sound ?

[Blackdawn]

Deciding whether to spend out on a rDAC or Dacmagic to upgrade the sound of my lossless files on PC. The soundcard I have is just a standard onboard Realtek HD card (apparently supporting 24bit 192KHz Audio). Is it worth spending £200-£300 for a new DAC or won't there be enough improvement? I am using with headphones not HiFi system. Cheers

 

[jasonmiddleton]

Don't get either, there is another option. I've got a brand new custom built PC that I buolt myself with a top of the range on board soundcard and it's rubish. How do I know that? I've got a DAC Magic and I can switch between the onboard sound and the DACMagic. The on board sound sounds like the music is playing inside a cardboard box. My amp is a 20 year old Sony, which I'm replacing with an Arcam A18 next week. If I can tell the difference with a cheap 20 year old amp, with headphones you'll notice wolrd of difference. If you plan to continue to use headphones try an ASUS XONAR soundcard which is about half the price of a rDAC and has a very good headphone amp built in. I thought about buying one but went for the DACMagic as I use speakers. If I used headphones then I would have bought a XONAR instead. If you get an amp at a later date, you'll still get very good sound from it. Make sure you get the right version as one fits standard PCI slots and the other fits a PCI express. You can put the money you save towards a nice pair of headphones. Good luck and enjoy.

 

[Blackdawn]

Thanks very much Jason. Okay I'm still in two minds.

Option 1 - Get a DacMagic or rDAC and also headphone amp (not sure which). The gives me a dedicated Headfi rig. Its also more flexible because if I decide to use the DAC ocasionally on my HiFi, this will improve the SQ here too.

Option 2 - Get Asus xonar (the ones without fan) or Cantatis Overture 192. Limits me with drivers/software etc. Good because of price but cannot use the DAC to upgrade the HiFi sound as its in another room.

I was thinking if I get the rDac it has a good USB connection, so could use this and by-pass the onboard sound altogether. This may give better results than using the coaxial output.

I'm pretty set on buying a pair of AKG 271Mk2 headphones, so maybe I should just see how I get on with these to begin with and then look at DACs later.

 

[AudioPlaya]

Definitely worth it to upgrade anything over £100 will be streets ahead of the realtek.

Check out the Beresford caiman TC-7520SE - £189 includes a headphone out plus plenty of inputs for later use. There are a few other DAC/headphone amp combos out there too.