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Purely digital (DAC-less) sound card?

post #1 of 12
5/17/11 at 12:42pm
Thread Starter 

Is there such a thing? Something like an internal S/PDIF transport I mean, pretty much like the ESI Juli@ if you remove the analog half.

 

I've been looking around, but can't find anything, which I find quite strange. Since most audio enthusiasts use expensive external DACs anyway, analog outs just means you're paying for something you'll never use. A really high quality internal S/PDIF transport on the other hand...

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post #2 of 12
5/18/11 at 4:29pm
Thread Starter 

Ok, so I asked the same question to HT Omega, just to see what they had to say, and wadda you know... apparently they are planning to release just such a product.

 

Quote: 
We have checked this S/PDIF exclusive sound card which based Cmedia chipset. 
And it is one of our future product list.  

And we're also developing high quality USB DAC too. We're going to release it on end of this year. 
I think you like it too. 

In any case, if you need any information, please let me know any time.

Thanks.
Sincerely,
HT OMEGA - Tech Support

 

Just thought someone might find this interesting. Sounds awesome!

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post #3 of 12
5/18/11 at 9:17pm

Sounds interesting.

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post #4 of 12
5/19/11 at 9:16am
Thread Starter 

It won't have bit-perfect support for 88.2 and 176.4 kHz apparently. More info:

 

Quote:

Thanks for your feedback.

 

However, I’m afraid that it is not handle those signals. It supports 44.1, 48, 96 and 192khz.

And we have tested s/pdif exclusive prototype. However we’re waiting new chipset from Cmedia.  We do want to add HDMI signal handling feature.

It depends on Cmedia schedule. I think we may receive new chipset information on end of this year.

 

If you need further information, please let me know.

 

Thanks

Sincerely,

HT OMEGA – Tech Support

 

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post #5 of 12
5/19/11 at 10:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by th0m View Post

It won't have bit-perfect support for 88.2 and 176.4 kHz apparently. More info:

 

 



C-Media chipset. Is to be expected. IME, they are not worth the circuit board they get printed on.

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post #6 of 12
5/19/11 at 10:46am

Digital out is becoming more and more common on motherboards. Mine has TOSLINK out and it works great.

 

And of course most computers have USB ports so if you get a DAC with USB connectivity you don't need a soundcard either.

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post #7 of 12
5/19/11 at 11:05am
Thread Starter 

Yes, of course. My motherboard has both coax and toslink outputs, but the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired. I know some say that a digital signal is what it is (that it's always the same 1's and 0's) and can't be improved, but just comparing the onboard coax output to the Juli@'s, the difference is huge. Whether it's because of jitter or whatever, I don't know, but the difference is there. That's why I'm interested in a high quality S/PDIF transport; if improvements are that noticable between onboard/Juli@, an even higher quality transport should mean even better SQ.

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post #8 of 12
5/19/11 at 11:16am

There are a few great cards used for transport only - for music, my favorite would be the EMU0404PCI.  For gaming, any of the X-Fi based cards are great, personally I use a modified XtremeMusic with transformer-coupled S/PDIF output straight from the buffer chip.

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post #9 of 12
5/19/11 at 12:10pm
Thread Starter 

ESI Juli@ is also a very highly regarded sound card, and I actually had an E-MU 1212m PCIe for a while, but I found the drivers to be overly complicated for only playing music. I have long considered modifying the Juli@ by replacing the voltage regulator with one from Burson or Teddy Pardo, replacing all the capacitors with Elna Cerafine/Silmic and, like you said, adding a separate transformer-coupled S/PDIF output. But, since I'm not all that handy with a soldering iron myself, I would have to have someone else do all this for me. I would be a whole lot easier if you could just buy a no-nonsense high end transport, similar to what a modified one would consist of.


Edited by th0m - 5/19/11 at 1:14pm
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post #10 of 12
5/19/11 at 12:10pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by th0m View Post

Yes, of course. My motherboard has both coax and toslink outputs, but the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired. I know some say that a digital signal is what it is (that it's always the same 1's and 0's) and can't be improved, but just comparing the onboard coax output to the Juli@'s, the difference is huge. Whether it's because of jitter or whatever, I don't know, but the difference is there. That's why I'm interested in a high quality S/PDIF transport; if improvements are that noticable between onboard/Juli@, an even higher quality transport should mean even better SQ.


If there is actually an audible difference, my guess would be that the coax connection could be picking up noise or inducing a ground loop, due to the fact that there is an electrical connection between the DAC and the computer. With TOSLINK, there isn't any possibility of this, since the connection is optical.

 

As far as the "sound quality" issue goes, so as not to get into a familiar argument, I'll just say "save your money." You really don't need another transport.

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post #11 of 12
5/19/11 at 12:14pm
Thread Starter 

Toslink has no support for >96kHz though, which is necessary for me.

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post #12 of 12
5/19/11 at 12:18pm

Here's another option for higher bitrate support, if you're convinced you need it. Not exactly a bargain but not outrageously priced, either.

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