Soundcard upgrade or amp upgrade good enough - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

nevrlost · 12-13-2005, 02:39 PM

I currently have a Chaintech AV710 with a very cheap amp off ebay. I have a gilmore lite on the way, should be here any day. Question is - Would upgrading my soundcard to a emu 0404 be dramatic improvement with the gilmore over chaintech and gilmore? Thanks in advance.

gordolindsay · 12-13-2005, 06:31 PM

From what I've read you would do very well by upgrading your soundcard. It will probably be a bigger difference than upgrading your amp. (?)

Or you could keep the AV-710 and get an external DAC. Something like the DAC-AH for $135. That would be my plan.

fjf · 12-13-2005, 06:49 PM

I use the optical out of the chaintech to an external DAC and it sounds very good.

jpr703 · 12-13-2005, 06:50 PM

The Lite is a very revealing amp and I'd suspect that you're going to want that soundcard upgrade pretty soon.