[KevC]

I'm gonna miss having digital out. But my speakers aren't THAT great anyway, and the rear speakers are really crummy.

I've heard tons of great things with the chaintech card. I've got a few questions though. How well does it do audio in? My stupid TV card will only do analog audio out, as in there would be a 1/8th jack from the card to my sound card on the back of my computer. Stupid if you'd ask me, but tha'ts how they did it.

So basically....

TV->line in.
lineout->headphone amp->hd497s/sr60s (still deciding)
???->speakers

Thoughts?

 

[NightWoundsTime]

I've taken to running a 1/8" - RCA for my tv tuner as passing it through a card degrades the sound quite a bit. If you don't have a source switcher it can be a pain though swapping out RCA's.

I'd say the one major improvement over the Soundstorm *should* be a reduction of the noise floor. I know my soundstorm is very noisy, and I'd hope the Chaintech is a little more isolated. My Terratec card isn't quite dead silent but close. The EMU 1212M was completely silent when I had it.

For this level setup I'd recommend something simple for the headphone amp. MINT or Supermini should be fine. I slightly prefer SR-60 to the Senn 497 but you'll be fine either way.

EDIT: Don't rule out a vintage Marantz for amplification. It'll give you a few inputs and some tone controls. My Marantz with an SR-80 was a really fun setup.

 

[Mr.Radar]

One problem with the AV-710 is that in high quality mode the inputs don't work.

 

[KevC]

High-Quality mode is Digital, no? I'd be using Analog...

 

[bg4533]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevC High-Quality mode is Digital, no? I'd be using Analog...

High quality is for both digital and analog. For analog you must use the 7/8 channel output jack though. I found the AV710 to be a big improvement over Soundstorm, especially with my Etymotic ER6s. Far less noise and more realistic sound. With the ER6s the noise was the big thing though.

 

[skitlets]

I also found the av-710 quite a few steps above the onboard soundstorm. Far less noise, tighter bass, and less sibilant highs.

 

[KevC]

When you guys say soundstorm, are you talking about the digital out? Or the standard AC97.

 

[skitlets]

im referring to the ac97 output, though I still find that superior to the audigy1.

 

[breez]

You can use only up to 48KHz playback rates when you want functional analog inputs. To achieve this while using the 7/8 channels with Wolfson DAC you might need to switch to High Samplerate mode and back to regular 2 channel (also in the samplerate tab you might want tick checkbox "automatic").

 

[KevC]

I'm fine with having 2 channels. Does that mean I can't use 24/192?

 

[Mr.Radar]

The AV-710 supports up to 24/96 for playback (on the Wolfson DAC in high res mode, 24/48 without high res mode) and 16/48 for recording.