[renji1337]

Alright heres the deal, i have a xonar dx and a yamaha RX 467V receiver and 2 6950 ati gfx cards

how should i send my sound for the best quality?


Should i do HDMI to the receiver and then hdmi from receiver to monitor?
Should i do SPDIF optical to the receiver and then hdmi from pc to monitor


also should i plug my headphones (ad700's) into my soundcard, or my receiver?


what gives best audio quality for speakers and for headphones.

 

[sonci]

Good questions.
I think you should experiment, a bit since you'll get only subjective opinions.
The easiest way should be hdmi from Ati to receiver, while use the the xonar for another pc, will it sound better? Try and please share
as for the headphone out it will depend on the receiver quality
but try to experiment soundcard analog out too, if your receiver has analog input, it could be a nice surprisse

 

[Astrozombie]

Yes sir, only one way to find out. That's why i'm going to try the Xonar DG, then E10, then Xonar ST and maybe even the Audinst MX-1 eventually.
 
What is the deal with a PCI-E card that doesn't even get power from it and requires a molex connector? Srsly

 

[sonci]

Personally I use Prelude 7.1 out to receiver input, I like to listen to dvdaudio in 5.1, using foobar- asio- dvda plugin and since dts/dolby live are lossy format, this is the only lossless way for the format.
There is the downside of too much cables and probably not high quality 3.5mm to RCA converters, but I dont know any 5.1 rca out soundcard,

I tried several times comparing between soundcard dac and receiver dac(Marantz entry level) for stereo music, but since soundcard out is amplified, you should match volume level too, and ABx is not that easy.

 

[slidesear]

The idea is that the power will be cleaner if used directly from the power supply. It can be noisy and unreliable from the PCI bus.