[JMT391]

Hello all, I recently posted a general thread in here about a college audio setup. My question now resides in the DAC part of the setup, regarding sound cards vs. external DACs.

I know this is probably one of those never ending arguments, but I'm not looking for a war here. My question is simply this:

I will game on this PC, so I will need the 7.1ch abilities of an internal sound card in order to use positional audio. Music, however, is my first priority. If I spend about $150-$200 on a sound card (most likely from the Asus Xonar series), that will serve as a quality DAC for my system right? I assume the alternative option of using SPDIF passthrough from the onboard audio to an external DAC (or using a usb one) in the same price range would yield similar results, but doing that would sacrifice me my precious 7.1.

I seem to see threads asking about sound cards and external DACs equally. I just don't want to spend money on the wrong thing.

EDIT: If it matters at all, this will be powering Audio Technica ATH-AD700s/900s or Denon DT2000s depending on if I go open or closed (amp in the future is a strong possibility as well)

 

[lxxl]

I personally wouldn't recommend on board SPDIF, even it's in digital format. Most motherboards can't provide a clean fed; I'd do a test personally with your SPDIF out from your motherboard before you decide to go that route.