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By the looks of things, i can get spdif output from my laptop, but its a 3.5mm jack, i have normal rca sized coaxial cable. Should i get an adapter? or will the soundcard still sound awful?
i am looking for the best quality i can get my hands on, if this means getting an emu 0404, then thats great, otherwise i will go with an adapter... what would i need to look for? would a standard 3.4 to 1/4' work, or does it need to be coaxial specific?
If you have windows XP then your next step, after getting the Bithead will be to go to the ASIO4ALL thread in the computer as source header and learn to bypass some the the built-in XP audio nastiness.
As far as pairing it with another source for the same money you may be able to beat the sound with something like a meier Headsix, but an amp/dac combo for 150 balloons, you will not do better. the Bithead will enable you to get great sound out of more demanding headphones than the standard MP3 player. I know some of them do pretty well like the Cowan players for amp power but I think the Bit head will enable you to reach a higher level of headphone. The Expresscard by Creative is better than some of the built-in chips but no where near the Bithead as far as SQ.
I've had my total bithead for roughly 9 months now and I must say that I think all things considered, such as usb dac, size, portability, sound and price, that it would be hard to beat. I even took it on a week long vacation last summer (which having planned the vacation ahead of time was a factor in getting it) and used it with an old cdp and it still sounded damn good. I'm sure I could of told a difference A/B'ing them since usb uses dac, but I was amazed at how good it still sounded without the dac.
It really boils down to how you use your system, and what you want.
First post here at head-fi, but definitely not new to the forums.
I'm also in a similar boat to the OP. I've got a Dell XPS M1330 that I use as my main source, and a pair of ER-4Ps. The onboard card on the dell is terrible, and I'm looking for a good, relatively inexpensive way to increase the sound quality of the tunes coming out of my laptop. I used to use the Audigy 2 ZS notebook on my last laptop, but the m1330 doesn't have a PCMCIA port. I'd also prefer not use Creative again due to their finicky drivers. I've looked into the total bithead, and it seems to be what I'm looking for.
Is there a better external sound card/amp solution in the $100-$200 price range?
Not a One! Some people will tell you to build your own but if that is not your thing then the Bithead cant be beat in that price range. Just one thing. Get a battery charger and some rechargeble AAA batteries (It uses 4 of them) and you will be set to go. If its plugged into your computer it will run without batteries, right off the USB power.
Linear Mode
