[508Parkour]

I was leaning towards DAC but I wanted an opinion.

 

[DavidJ1973]

Deferred Acquisition Charges are typically amortized over the life of the policy as a percentage of Estimated Gross Profits, as outlined in FASB 97. Logically this only applies to the GAAP treatment of such a policy, as the STAT treatment does not permit the capitalization and amortization of policy acquisition charges.

 

[Honkytime]

Deferred Acquisition Charges are typically amortized over the life of the policy as a percentage of Estimated Gross Profits, as outlined in FASB 97. Logically this only applies to the GAAP treatment of such a policy, as the STAT treatment does not permit the capitalization and amortization of policy acquisition charges.

 
Interesting but i dont think its what hes looking for.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I was leaning towards DAC but I wanted an opinion.

We need more info.
Budget?
Assume this is for a Win PC?
For music? movies? gaming? FPS gaming?

 

[508Parkour]

We need more info.
Budget?
Assume this is for a Win PC?
For music? movies? gaming? FPS gaming?
 

Budget would be pretty low. It's one of those situations where I want to spend $50-$75 but if it is absolutely neccesary, I can go higher. But it hurts if I do. This would be for a win/linux computer that I may hackintosh (im not sure if I can say that on this forum). Its mostly for music, secondly video editing, and I might do a tiny bit of gaming.

 

[Anarion]

In my opinion OEM Sound Blaster Z probably gives the best bang for € at that price point.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  I was leaning towards DAC but I wanted an opinion.

 

  We need more info.
Budget?
Assume this is for a Win PC?
For music? movies? gaming? FPS gaming?

 
 

  Budget would be pretty low. It's one of those situations where I want to spend $50-$75 but if it is absolutely neccesary, I can go higher. But it hurts if I do. This would be for a win/linux computer that I may hackintosh (im not sure if I can say that on this forum). Its mostly for music, secondly video editing, and I might do a tiny bit of gaming.

 
Soundcard vs DAC
 
soundcard vs DAC?
 
USB DAC vs Soundcard
 
Soundcard vs External DAC
 
Soundcard vs DAC+Amp?
 
Browse through those, if you have any specific clarifications on any point there and can't make a decision, post it here

 

[exiton]

Sound Blaster Z or this DAC/amp http://www.nutsaudio.com/product_info.php?cPath=2&products_id=107. Both use the same DAC chip.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Budget would be pretty low. It's one of those situations where I want to spend $50-$75 but if it is absolutely neccesary, I can go higher. But it hurts if I do. This would be for a Win/Linux computer that I may hackintosh (im not sure if I can say that on this forum). Its mostly for music, secondly video editing, and I might do a tiny bit of gaming.

Not sure if there is Linux drivers for the C-Media CMI8786 audio chipset?
But the Asus Xonar DG sound card is only $27.99

 

[exiton]

Xonar DG is about as good of a bang for your buck as you can get. I'm using mine for optical out into my DAC for Dolby headphone.

 

[GramKraker]

Deferred Acquisition Charges are typically amortized over the life of the policy as a percentage of Estimated Gross Profits, as outlined in FASB 97. Logically this only applies to the GAAP treatment of such a policy, as the STAT treatment does not permit the capitalization and amortization of policy acquisition charges.

 
lol i'm watching breaking bad and scrolling through head-fi and i come across this pic

 

[NamelessPFG]

Budget would be pretty low. It's one of those situations where I want to spend $50-$75 but if it is absolutely neccesary, I can go higher. But it hurts if I do. This would be for a win/linux computer that I may hackintosh (im not sure if I can say that on this forum). Its mostly for music, secondly video editing, and I might do a tiny bit of gaming.

 
Hmmm...I wonder what internal sound cards even have OS X drivers for Hackintoshing purposes. Doesn't help that the only Intel Macs with expansion slots are the old Mac Pros, and the new Mac Pro already did away with that, presumably because they expect people to buy external PCI-Express bays to connect to the Thunderbolt ports.
 
Between that and Linux usage, I would actually NOT recommend Creative cards. Sure, X-Fi cards work now, but it took far too many years to get to that point, and they only have bare-bones functionality, none of the advanced stuff you'd get under Windows. C-Media chipset cards (Asus, HT Omega, Auzentech's non-X-Fi offerings) would give you a lot less trouble there, I would think.
 
Even if you do mention the possibility of gaming, you consider it minor at best, hardly the priority for your uses. That eliminates Creative's main advantage.

 

[stv014]

Originally Posted by NamelessPFG /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Between that and Linux usage, I would actually NOT recommend Creative cards. Sure, X-Fi cards work now, but it took far too many years to get to that point, and they only have bare-bones functionality, none of the advanced stuff you'd get under Windows. C-Media chipset cards (Asus, HT Omega, Auzentech's non-X-Fi offerings) would give you a lot less trouble there, I would think.

 
Xonar cards work fine on Linux, but of course all the advanced DSP features (Dolby Headphone etc.) are missing; I think even on Windows they are actually implemented in software. However, what works at least works reliably, the ALSA driver is stable and also has decently low latency. There are some minor features that might not be available on Windows, like configurable DAC filtering (not that I think it is very useful), and reliable stereo upmixing on multichannel cards (on Windows, it depends on the audio API being used whether it works or not).
 
I have not used Creative cards for a while, but for those that were based on the Emu10k1 chip, the hardware DSP was made use of, even if not for any proprietary gaming audio like EAX. It was used for hardware mixing, sample rate conversion, tone controls (IIRC), and as a MIDI synthesizer. Additionally, Emu10k1 DSP code could be compiled and uploaded to the chip, allowing any effects if you knew how to code them (I used it to implement a parametric equalizer on my SB Live). I do not know how much support the drivers have for the Emu20k2 on the newer X-Fi cards (of which I have none), however.

 

[NamelessPFG]

Xonar cards work fine on Linux, but of course all the advanced DSP features (Dolby Headphone etc.) are missing; I think even on Windows they are actually implemented in software. However, what works at least works reliably, the ALSA driver is stable and also has decently low latency. There are some minor features that might not be available on Windows, like configurable DAC filtering (not that I think it is very useful), and reliable stereo upmixing on multichannel cards (on Windows, it depends on the audio API being used whether it works or not).  
I have not used Creative cards for a while, but for those that were based on the Emu10k1 chip, the hardware DSP was made use of, even if not for any proprietary gaming audio like EAX. It was used for hardware mixing, sample rate conversion, tone controls (IIRC), and as a MIDI synthesizer. Additionally, Emu10k1 DSP code could be compiled and uploaded to the chip, allowing any effects if you knew how to code them (I used it to implement a parametric equalizer on my SB Live). I do not know how much support the drivers have for the Emu20k2 on the newer X-Fi cards (of which I have none), however.

 
Somehow, I'm not surprised at the advanced functionality being unavailable under Linux, especially when the features involved require licensing and royalties and all that. Makes me wonder if there's any sort of headphone surround implementation for Linux whatsoever, though I'm not sure what games to test it with when most of 'em are Windows-only, and I certainly don't know how it would work out amidst the whole OSS/ALSA/PulseAudio/etc. mess.
 
The EMU10K1/10K2 cards (Live!/Audigy) had decent driver support, from what I understand; it's the EMU20K1/20K2 (X-Fi) cards that are problematic, especially since Creative didn't release any documentation on the DSP. It's wasted hardware under Linux, sadly.