Hi

I finally decided to replace my soundcard with something decent, prefferably with something envy24HT based like M-Audio Revolution or AudioTrak Prodigy 7.1. However I have several specific questions about the drivers.

1.From the extensive reviews I see that M-Audio drivers are probably the best at managing speaker systems - they can control crossover, set the delay and mute/set volumes for each individual speaker when speakers are connected via 1/8" jack. The question is if all those options are still available if speakers are connected via SPDIF out?
2.Also can you do the same thing with AudioTrak Prodigy 7.1 drivers?
3.The way I want to use the soundcard is to connect speakers via SPDIF output and headphones via linear 1/8" jack on the bracket. The question goes for both soundcards - do I have to switch between two somewhere in the control panel every time or will both digital and linear outputs work simultaneously (that way I can just power down my speakers if I don't want to use them or just "mute" headphones if I want to use speakers only)?
4.I also want to buy a set of decent headphones, prefferably Sennheisers 500+, most likely 580 or even 600, the question is will those cards be able to drive 580/600 to a decent sound volume without noticable distortions? Yes I know lots of you will suggest to buy a headphone amp with them, and that it would improve sound quality a lot but at this time I am not planning on buying one, maybe in the future but not now. So, if you have HD580/600 and one of those soundcards, could you plz test your soundcard with headphones plugged directly into your soundcards?

Thanks

Hardware-wise, the Audiotrak is very similar to the Terratec Aureon 7.1 Space - just with electrical instead of toslink digital i/o. And unlike the Revo, it also features the onboard headphone amp, so I'd prefer the Prodigy or the Terratec for direct headphone connection. But, sorry, I don't think the speaker options will work for s/p-dif output - an on-the-fly ac3 recoder would be needed for that purpose, and I don't believe that anything (with the possible exception of the nForce audio) could feature that without expensive licensing and massive cpu load...

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

OK, thanks lini for that insight, but I hoped for somehting more definite As for Terratec vs. Audiotrak, first, I heard some nasty things about terratec drivers and second it's also more expensive - 150 when prodigy 7.1 costs only a 100. And just out of curiosity are you sure that Revo doesn't have a headphone amp? I haven't looked at datasheets (dunno where to find them) but from the photos Revo has something very amp-like on the upper left corner of the PCB.

Come on guys, I know AudioTrak is a rare bird, but I also know that loads of you have M-Audio Revolution, plz help me out...

1. No. SPDIF only supports 2 channel (up to high res) and compressed multichannel (DTS/DD). Usually when you send DTS/DD, the receiver / preamp handles bass management, etc. In multichannel case, the soundcard is in bypass mode.

3. The digital out and analogue out on Revo are not simultaneous. You have to use the control panel to select the kind of output you want.

4. I think another concern besides volume level and low distortion is whether if it will sound thin. I never could try HD580 out on Revo because I had 1/4" cable. Revo does sound a bit analytical and is a bit bright as frequency graph goes up a little at treble end. That's my impression with other headphones.

JazzJackRabbit: I wouldn't place a bet on that, but from the pics I've looked at I'd say the Revo doesn't have an integrated headphone amp. And if the Prodigy is way cheaper at your place (the Terratecs are much cheaper over here...): Excellent, go for that - I just wanted to give the info, that the Prodigy and the full-grown Aureons share almost exactly the same board layout and components. Concerning driver issues of the Terratec, I haven't noticed any problems, when I tried it myself - apart from a missing option for distributing stereo over all speakers of a connected multichannel loudspeaker system (which was present on the DMX 6fire, iirc).

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

I recently tried out some Sennheiser 570's on my Revolution and was unimpressed. Volume was only a little lower than other headphones (read: cheap and nasty), but it sounded awful. There just wasn't enough support behind the music.

Basically, if you're not going to get an amp, you'll get better music out of cheaper headphones that require less power, since the Revolution really underdrives the Sennheisers.

Quote:



The 570's are particularly inefficient though... my step-father has them and while my AudioTrak Opto Play drives the 590's beautifully, it struggles to drive the 570's and won't even produce loud volumes let alone a full rich signal. On the other hand, the 580's and 600's are supposed to be quite hard to drive so performance may be very similar or worse.

-EDIT-

you might consider picking up some HD 280 Pro's ($69.99 if you print the PC Mall buy page and run over to your local Guitar Center), the HD 590's, Grado sr60/80's or the Sony V6/7506's and wait on the 580/600/650 until you are ready to get a good amp to go with them. Any of the above should work well from either soundcard.

Thanks for all the input guys, you really helped I think I'll go with AudioTrak.

Jasper
you might consider picking up some HD 280 Pro's ($69.99 if you print the PC Mall buy page and run over to your local Guitar Center), the HD 590's, Grado sr60/80's or the Sony V6/7506's
I definitely don't wanna buy Senn 2xx/4xx series for two reasons. First is that I had 497 once and I couldn't wear them for more than one hour, after that my ears started to hurt as all 2xx and 4xx series have the same pads I don't want to buy any of them. Second reason is that I didn't really liked how 497s sounded, I don't know how to describe it, they had the clarity and definition, but the sound was... dry. I returned them to the store. So for ergonomics reasons I would rather go with circumaural headphones and of all other headphones you listed only 590 and maybe 7506? are circumaural... 590 are outrageously overpriced, they cost almost the same as HD-580 so I would rather buy 580 if I knew for sure that the soundcard will be able to drive them. Tough choice, I guess I could buy 580/600 now and if the card won't be able to drive them, buy an amp couple of months later...