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What would you do? ....

post #1 of 3
8/30/11 at 11:50am
Thread Starter 

Hello,

 

Just wanted to say... These are great forums they have been extremely helpfull...

 

Anyway onto the question..... What would you do in my situation.....

 

I have a Xonar D2 soundcard to my external DAC and also I have  an onboard AD1988B on my Asus p5b deluxe motherboard.

 

I have read a lot about jitter, transports, reclocking onboard chips etc. and I am still not sure wether to keep the D2 or sell it and use the onboard coaxial spdif....

 

Firstly does anyone know if this onboard chip does bitperfect output (doesnt reclock to 48khz) How do I know this? I can select 44100khz in the options... Does that mean that it is outputting that or might it still reclock it?

 

I have tried switching between both but I cant do a direct A/B switch so it is difficult to decide... The D2 does *seem* to sound better but then it may be "psychoacoustic" I am not sure!

 

Can anyone help me with this because I dont have much cash atm but also want optimal sound.... I am also considering swapping it for the new Asus Xonar Essence One but ill see peoples responses first.

 

My setup is currently as follows : Xonar D2 > Spdif Coaxial > 3metre Cable > Cambridge Audio Dacmagic > Nad 315 Bee >Shure SRH840 Headphones OR b&w 602 s3 speakers...

 

What do you all think I should do? Any help is much appreciated!

 

 

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post #2 of 3
8/30/11 at 7:45pm
Is there a problem with the sound? Do you hear noise, hash or anything like that?

If not, keep what you have. Don't chase the dragon just because you can.

If you're feeling bored with the setup, try a new music genre. Get into classical, jazz, world music, or something you've never really listened to before.

Cheaper than buying more gear and you'll get more out of it.
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post #3 of 3
8/30/11 at 7:57pm

I was under the impression that the standard coaxial and SPDIF-outs on PCs were just fine for high quality audio signals. You should be fine without the sound card.

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