Asus Xonar D2 and External DAC's

[Arlekiin]

Hello,

I have tried to investigate it and have read alot of articles but i am still not clear on this.

I have Asus Xonar D2/PM and what I want to know is...ist there a point for me to get an external DAC sound quality wise?

At the moment I use
Flack->Xonar d2->Sony TA-3200F->Canton SC 5 speakers.

Yah I know I need a preamp

Anyways I want to know if there is a point in getting an external DAC not totally cheap one if Im gonna get one it could be around 300$? Is that reasonable?

Thank you,

 

[macrog]

I ran my Xoanar d2, d2x, stx and now st all into a Cambridge 840c cd/dac and the improvement in sound quality is very worthwhile. Do run coaxial digital out though as toslink certainly doesnt sound as good IMHO.

 

[Arlekiin]

Thank you very much a definite opinion

...Wait a minute macrog, you went through all of them? Xonar D2/MP, D2X and STX? If you did you are mad? Or what would be the reason in owning 3 very similar cards....? Maybe I got something wrong though...

Then again this Cambridge CD deck/DAC of yours is bretty expencive piece of equipment. I wonder if Yulong Mark 2 would improve my sound quality by a worthy margin.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f7/rev...ne-amp-429968/

 

[macrog]

The sound quality even through the coaxial digital output has improved with each upgrade. i.e. D2 > D2X > STX > ST

The ST was the biggest sound quality improvement.

My musiland monitor 02us sounds better than any of the Xonars bar the ST (The STX and ST both have upgraded opamps to lme49720nas)

Hope this helps

I would change soundcard every week if I kept on getting sound quality improvements

 

[Arlekiin]

So basically when I plan to use external dac via Coax it makes sense to keep the card and go straight to DAC as you described every step was an improvement for you but if I go on using Coax and DAC I dont use Xonars onboard opamps...

 

[SirDrexl]

Yeah, he's saying he actually got improvements in sound using different cards. I don't know why; maybe jitter is less on higher-end cards?

A note about using S/PDIF: on the D2 (and possibly other cards) there are different "devices" that you'll see in the sound section of control panel. There's "Speakers (ASUS Xonar D2 audio device)" which is the analog output that you would use with headphones or speakers directly connected. There's "S/PDIF Pass-Through Device," and then "Speakers (ASUS Xonar Converter)" The last of those is intended for making recordings of protected audio files like from iTunes.

Now, you can actually get S/PDIF output from the first "speakers" device I mentioned, if you check off SPDIF Out in the Xonar's own control panel. However, when doing tests with DTS WAV files, I could never get bit-perfect output using that device. I have a suspicion that it may be re-converting analog audio back into digital, which is another step and you'd want to avoid that. So, make sure you set up Foobar or whatever to use the S/PDIF passthrough. I use WASAPI so that it will mute any other sounds that may get played and change the audio.

 

[macrog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arlekiin /img/forum/go_quote.gif So basically when I plan to use external dac via Coax it makes sense to keep the card and go straight to DAC as you described every step was an improvement for you but if I go on using Coax and DAC I dont use Xonars onboard opamps...

Yes. The Xonar also gives the option of upsampling (up to 192khz) which is useful.

 

[ROBSCIX]

What is the price difference between your card and the DAC your using now?

 

[Arlekiin]

I am not using a DAC at all yet... I am using nearly 200$ USD card Xonar D2/PM. And I am eyeing Yulong DAC which is 300 USD.

The funny thing is that the Xonar ST costs the same (200USD range).

At the moment I am using Xonar's line out meaning I am using its onboard dacs.

Also I use the upsampling...

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by macrog /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes. The Xonar also gives the option of upsampling (up to 192khz) which is useful.

What is the price difference between your card and the DAC your using now?

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arlekiin /img/forum/go_quote.gif I am not using a DAC at all yet... I am using nearly 200$ USD card Xonar D2/PM. And I am eyeing Yulong DAC which is 300 USD. The funny thing is that the Xonar ST costs the same (200USD range). At the moment I am using Xonar's line out meaning I am using its onboard dacs. Also I use the upsampling...

I was asking the other guy. Sometimes DAC's are the best fit and sometimes cards are the best fit. Depends on budget and what you need for features and options.