RagingForces
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2009
- Posts
- 60
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- 10
Can someone please give me some advice regarding a recommended next step for better quality audio for my computer? I have been researching but do not have a firm grasp on what the real life quality of of the various products is.
So far I can say the following descriptive bits fairly definitively. I am a headphone user who cares about stereo music quality above all else. I am currently sporting the Shure SRH-840 headphones, but am auditioning all models I come across. I likely will never go above 250ohm anytime soon.
Also, I am a gamer, and am quite fluent in computer hardware. I play OpenAL, DirectX, and EAX 5.0 titles. I primarily play FPS (CoD4/Crysis/TF2) and racing titles (GRID/DIRT2). I've been playing games since Sound Blaster Pro and Gravis Ultrasound cards, and have kept up with the technologies as they have come onto the scene.
Lastly, I watch Blu-Ray titles on my PC, but am not interested in bitstreaming anything to a receiver. I will keep all my sounds on my computer in either headphone or 2.0 loudspeaker configuration (running out to a receive via sp/dif)
I currently have my headphones going to either the onboard (meh), or my receiver via the toslink. I am looking to make a substantial upgrade in dac/amp performance over either of these solutions. The onboard is an ASUS P6T Deluxe V.2. The ADI AD2000B audio chipset is sufficient for basic needs, but I feel that it may be ready for an upgrade to something of higher quality. I am currently running Windows 7 64bit. I typically listen to all my music out of Foobar WASAPI or MediaMonkey.
Naturally, as listed in the topic, I am considering either a high end soundcard upgrade or a portable dac/amp such as an iBasso D2+ or a D10. When it comes to the soundcards, I understand what gaming capabilities I will have, but what I don't understand is how well these cards can compare to dedicated audio dac/amps such as the iBasso models. Also, I'd like to understand how well these cards can stack up against the dac/amps when you perform opamp rolling. Naturally I understand that a portable dac/amp will give me a dac/amp away from a computer, but this is not really a primary concern for me.
Basically I am after the best reasonably priced solution that will work for a critical music listener and then secondly as a gamer. In a very distant third place priority would be movies on blu-ray.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, and i'll follow up any questions that get brought up.
So far I can say the following descriptive bits fairly definitively. I am a headphone user who cares about stereo music quality above all else. I am currently sporting the Shure SRH-840 headphones, but am auditioning all models I come across. I likely will never go above 250ohm anytime soon.
Also, I am a gamer, and am quite fluent in computer hardware. I play OpenAL, DirectX, and EAX 5.0 titles. I primarily play FPS (CoD4/Crysis/TF2) and racing titles (GRID/DIRT2). I've been playing games since Sound Blaster Pro and Gravis Ultrasound cards, and have kept up with the technologies as they have come onto the scene.
Lastly, I watch Blu-Ray titles on my PC, but am not interested in bitstreaming anything to a receiver. I will keep all my sounds on my computer in either headphone or 2.0 loudspeaker configuration (running out to a receive via sp/dif)
I currently have my headphones going to either the onboard (meh), or my receiver via the toslink. I am looking to make a substantial upgrade in dac/amp performance over either of these solutions. The onboard is an ASUS P6T Deluxe V.2. The ADI AD2000B audio chipset is sufficient for basic needs, but I feel that it may be ready for an upgrade to something of higher quality. I am currently running Windows 7 64bit. I typically listen to all my music out of Foobar WASAPI or MediaMonkey.
Naturally, as listed in the topic, I am considering either a high end soundcard upgrade or a portable dac/amp such as an iBasso D2+ or a D10. When it comes to the soundcards, I understand what gaming capabilities I will have, but what I don't understand is how well these cards can compare to dedicated audio dac/amps such as the iBasso models. Also, I'd like to understand how well these cards can stack up against the dac/amps when you perform opamp rolling. Naturally I understand that a portable dac/amp will give me a dac/amp away from a computer, but this is not really a primary concern for me.
Basically I am after the best reasonably priced solution that will work for a critical music listener and then secondly as a gamer. In a very distant third place priority would be movies on blu-ray.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, and i'll follow up any questions that get brought up.