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Picking up a Schiit Birfrost, need a soundcard

post #1 of 19
7/25/11 at 4:27pm
Thread Starter 

I don't want to use USB so I need a sound card with SPDIF, do I need a good sound card or will the base model Xonar DG do the trick?

 

Like I said, it's going to be fed to a Schiit Asgard/Birfrost combo.

 

 

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post #2 of 19
7/25/11 at 4:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maleficus View Post

I don't want to use USB so I need a sound card with SPDIF, do I need a good sound card or will the base model Xonar DG do the trick?

 

Like I said, it's going to be fed to a Schiit Asgard/Birfrost combo.

 

 


Maleficus,

 

You haven't mentioned your computer gear, but if you have a fairly current onboard audio chip (i.e. ALC 889) and motherboard that provides a female RCA S/PDIF jack, you don't really need to spend money on an additional plug in sound card. If you don't have this, then a base model Xonar will do you fine to get the unaltered digital signal out of your computer via the Xonar's S/PDIF out jack to the Bitfrost DAC's digital input.  You will need to make certain that your computer is set up correctly for bit perfect digital output.

 

 

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post #3 of 19
7/25/11 at 8:10pm
Thread Starter 

My onboard doesn't have SPDIF

 

As for setting up my comp to do bitperfect digital, what does that entail? I use foobar but I haven't modified the setup or anything like that, it's a base install.

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post #4 of 19
7/25/11 at 8:26pm

http://www.head-fi.org/wiki/foobar2000-a-guide-to-set-up

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post #5 of 19
7/25/11 at 9:52pm

FWIW, the DG is limited to optical and 96/24.

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post #6 of 19
7/26/11 at 10:20am

Asus Xonar DX should do 192 or maybe Audiotrak Prodigy HD2 (eBay).

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post #7 of 19
7/26/11 at 10:52am
Thread Starter 

so the DG won't do I need the DX/D1 ?

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post #8 of 19
7/26/11 at 12:51pm

The Xonar have horrid drivers...if all you need is bit-perfect coax, there are plenty of Tenor TE7022L transports around. The cheapest being the "HA INFO U2" AFAIK. A friend of mine has it, and he's very happy.

 

If you really don't want to go USB, these drivers are perfect and a compatible soundcard will run you $10 or less: http://code.google.com/p/cmediadrivers/


Edited by leeperry - 7/26/11 at 12:54pm
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post #9 of 19
7/26/11 at 8:02pm
Thread Starter 

This HA INFO U2 says it is 24/96?

 

Also I'm looking to eliminate the USB component entirely, I want my computer to be the source with SPDIF, feed into the Birfrost/asgard.

 

I'm just trying to get the best sound obviously, and Schiit says SPDIF is the better route. I emailed them and his response was to get a cheap sound card with SPDIF. The 24/96 seems like a concern though so it seems like the DX D1 is the best bet unless I am missing something.


Edited by Maleficus - 7/26/11 at 8:05pm
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post #10 of 19
7/27/11 at 12:01am

Here lol.

 

I had the exact same question for the exact same reason - wanted a Bifrost and Schiit being USB Nazi's.

 

The Juli@ isn't bad @$130 shipped and the drivers/software look great from pictures - I'm out of the country so can't install one yet.

 

I remember seeing somewhere that optical measured much higher jitter than coax. Otherwise, you won't hear a difference with 192kHz, but I wanted it, too, for the simple fact I've downloaded files that were only available in that resolution :)

 

GL.

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post #11 of 19
7/27/11 at 8:56am
Thread Starter 

I've never heard of ESI or the Juli@, interesting.

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post #12 of 19
7/28/11 at 11:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maleficus View Post

I've never heard of ESI or the Juli@, interesting.



Juli@ was the best soundcard in Stereophile's recent listening tests, IIRC.  Also IIRC, a couple of audio industry people (Demian Martin of Nuforce and Auraliti, as well as PeterSt, DAC designer and the author of the XXHighEnd audiophile player for Windows) use the Juli@ in their designs.

 

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post #13 of 19
7/28/11 at 12:11pm
Thread Starter 

Good enough for me, I'll grab one if I can find a decent looking retailer and price.

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post #14 of 19
7/28/11 at 12:32pm

New Juli $129 on ebay.

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post #15 of 19
7/28/11 at 2:16pm

Gyrocom have plenty of Envy24 based boards that will provide up to 192kHz over coax: http://stores.ebay.com/GYROCOM/_i.html

 

Same DSP and drivers as the Prodigy HD2 or the ESI Juli@.

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