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For Micro DAC, which input is bette sound? USB or optical/coaxial?

post #1 of 16
8/27/05 at 10:33pm
Thread Starter 
Hi, I am thinking about a stand alone DAC in my budget. Headroom Micro DAC could be my choice. Since it accepts both USB and optical/coaxial, I was wondering which one should I usually use when connect to my computer?
Soundcard is Audigy. So it can output optical and USB. Which port can produce better sound? USB or optical/coaxial?

Thanks a lot!!!
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post #2 of 16
8/27/05 at 10:49pm
In your case, the USB would be better. I wouldn't bother using the Audigy's optical out (it's not bit-perfect).
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post #3 of 16
8/27/05 at 11:07pm
Thread Starter 
then which soundcard optical out would be good? I thought they are all the same, when only talking about optical-out.
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post #4 of 16
8/27/05 at 11:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by diablo9
then which soundcard optical out would be good? I thought they are all the same, when only talking about optical-out.
The Audigy upsamples to 48 khz then streams that through the optical out.

Cheapest soundcard with bit-perfect optical out is the AV710. Of course, transport matters, and more expensive soundcards would be better transports, but the real question is if YOU can hear a difference or not.
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post #5 of 16
8/27/05 at 11:34pm
I am interested since I am thinking of purchasing one myself. Also, do you have to load drivers separetly or are they built into the microamp. Thanks.
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post #6 of 16
8/27/05 at 11:39pm
then, compared to a better soundcard, like, say the xtrememusic, is the USB cable _still_ better?
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post #7 of 16
8/28/05 at 12:04am
I would say USB no matter what the soundcard. Unless I'm way off, the USB is a pure digital data streaming that hasn't been touched by the soundcard. Leaves all the audio processing to the DAC (which is what you want).

--Illah
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post #8 of 16
8/28/05 at 12:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrarroyo
I am interested since I am thinking of purchasing one myself. Also, do you have to load drivers separetly or are they built into the microamp. Thanks.
No drivers, just plug and play with Windows XP. It uses the generic USB driver instead of some special driver set.
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post #9 of 16
8/28/05 at 1:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Illah
I would say USB no matter what the soundcard. Unless I'm way off, the USB is a pure digital data streaming that hasn't been touched by the soundcard. Leaves all the audio processing to the DAC (which is what you want).

--Illah
The problem with running the Micro DAC through Windows is that the Micro DAC does not bypass kmixer. You are not getting a bit-perfect stream through USB this way. I can also control the volume using the iTunes volume slider (this will change when I hook up the Micro DAC to my Airport Express, though).

Mac users won't have such a problem through USB, though the data will still be at 16 bit depth.
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post #10 of 16
8/28/05 at 2:51am
so does this mean that the MicroDAC has inferior SQ through the USB connection since it does not bypass kmixer? What negative effects are there to using USB, since it does not bypass kmixer and will the SQ be reduced compared to using optical/coax out?
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post #11 of 16
8/28/05 at 5:55am
Thread Starter 
so the question becomes: with AV710 installed, which sound is better, USB or optical. With audigy, which sound is better, USB or optical. The latter is apparent.

from best to worst, it would be
AV710 or better soundard with optical>with USB>audigy with USB> audigy with optical, is this order correct?

BTW: what's another choice of bit-perfect soundcard that is better than AV710 and also in $100 range?

Thanks a lot!!!
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post #12 of 16
8/28/05 at 6:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Teerawit
The problem with running the Micro DAC through Windows is that the Micro DAC does not bypass kmixer. You are not getting a bit-perfect stream through USB this way. I can also control the volume using the iTunes volume slider (this will change when I hook up the Micro DAC to my Airport Express, though).

Mac users won't have such a problem through USB, though the data will still be at 16 bit depth.
Shouldn't you, Micro DAC users, have to send some feedback to USB-Audio 'bout
lack of good USB ASIO drivers, and ask, if they're willing to make one for you
(for example they bundles USB-ASIO drivers with Apogee MiniDAC) .

jiitee
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post #13 of 16
8/28/05 at 1:50pm
The USB doesn't support 24/96, which the optical/coax does, so if you have lots of 24/96 audio, the USB won't be as good. But if you have mostly 16/44 stuff (which you almost certainly do), then the USB is probably better, as the Audigy resamples it to 48KHz and the USB will take it straight.
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post #14 of 16
8/28/05 at 4:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Teerawit
No drivers, just plug and play with Windows XP. It uses the generic USB driver instead of some special driver set.
Say under a software player like foobar2000, how would you select the source? Would it show up as generic USB device in the preferences?
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post #15 of 16
8/28/05 at 4:44pm
Also the AV-710 can be flashed to the Prodigy firmware, which apparently has an even better digital out.

I'm not a huge fan of the way Windows handles USB devices, it's been a bit flakey for me sometimes. I posted a similar thread in the source forum, and nearly everyone said that they were using USB and had no problems.
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