[devwild]

I own a G5 PowerMac, and I use it as my main computer source for audio. To my ears, the G5 onboard sound is better than average (at least most PC stuff I've used), but I am wondering how well the G5 would benefit from a card like the M-Audio Revo (which at least claims OSX compatibility).

One frustration with the G5's is that I have been unable to find more details on the integrated parts online, but I was at least wondering if anyone perhaps had some real world experience with this coupling or something similar.

Thanks,
dev*

 

[S_Dedalus]

I just found apple's specs for the G5's integrated sound. I'd guess that any decent card, av710 on up, would handily outperform it.

 

[blessingx]

G5s have optical outs if I remember. Are you considering skipping the cards and going for a DAC?

 

[devwild]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx G5s have optical outs if I remember. Are you considering skipping the cards and going for a DAC?

It would certainly be a viable option, though I've never looked into external DACs before, so I'm not sure what the options are.

 

[devwild]

Quote:

Originally Posted by devwild It would certainly be a viable option, though I've never looked into external DACs before, so I'm not sure what the options are.

If anyone has suggestions for an appropriate external DAC, I'm all ears/eyes/whatever

 

[Nospam]

It would help to know the price range you were looking at.

The only DAC I've heard (and own) is the CI Audio VDA-1. It's gotten good reviews, it's not too expensive, I like it, and it does sort of match your PowerMac's enclosure

 

[devwild]

That's just the thing, I don't even really know what to expect for an external DAC, that's kind of why I asked. I know nothing.

Greater than $300 tends to scare me off for a component such as this, and greater than $200 makes me at least step back question the worth. I'm prone to choose my point of dimishing returns fairly low (at least until I have a better job, or win a lottery, yes?

).

And don't be tackin' the Mac ownership thing on me as a contradiction to that. As much as I love the G5, and OSX, it will probably be my only Mac unless some things change in AppleLand in the next few years.

 

[mbryda]

Quote:

Originally Posted by devwild And don't be tackin' the Mac ownership thing on me as a contradiction to that. As much as I love the G5, and OSX, it will probably be my only Mac unless some things change in AppleLand in the next few years.

Like what? It's a better time than ever to own a Mac. Developers are coming over, marketshare is slowly increasing, and the thing JUST WORKS!

 

[hedrick]

NOTE: I'm going to base comments on my Powermac G4. It's always possible that the G5 has better analog handling.

What are you planning to connect the sound card to? Your receiver? (Your profile claims you have a Kenwood 7100, which I assume is the fairly recent model with the all-digital amp.) I have a G4 with a Revolution 7.1. I also have an iBook with a Headroom Total Bithead. I find the Revolution into a NAD C372 and the Total Bithead are noticably better than the Macs' headphone outputs, although the headphone outputs aren't that bad. But it's likely that the Mac headphone out isn't your best current option. I'm guessing that you're probably feeding your receiver from the G5's digital output. I wouldn't be confident that you would get better results from the Revolution's analog out than from feeding your receiver digitally from the G5. The Kenwood 7100 is supposed to be pretty good. Unless its headphone processing is significantly inferior to its speaker output, I'm sceptical that a Revolution would do better. It's basically a comparision of the Revolution's DAC vs. the 7100's digital amp.

But if you're asking how the Mac headphone out compares to a Revolution, I think you'll see an improvement from the Revolution, depending upon what you're feeding the Revolution to. Or try the Total Bithead. It should do OK if your headphones aren't too demanding. It works fine with Sennheiser 497 and 580, but not with my old AKG K340. (I admit that a K340 is probably an unfair test.)

 

[devwild]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hedrick What are you planning to connect the sound card to? Your receiver?...

The receiver is downstairs, I would either be using the dedicated headphone jack directly, or using the card in conjuntion with the Home-Vibe. Now that I've done my homework on speakers though to set up my HT system, I may get a second receiver and speaker setup for computer use a year or so down the road- then I would be using that (and maybe a different headphone amp...)

 

[sc53]

You asked about inexpensive outboard DACs--the two that come to mind right away are the ART DI/O and the Ack! Dack. I don't know if either one has an optical digital input though, it may be just coaxial. If you can spend in the $500 range, you can find the CAL Alpha tube DAC (used price on Audiogon); CAL also made the Sigma tube DAC that you can find for about $200 used on Audiogon. They are both really good, I've used them in my stereo system in the past. I know the Alpha has an optical digital in, don't remember if the Sigma does.

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nospam It would help to know the price range you were looking at. The only DAC I've heard (and own) is the CI Audio VDA-1. It's gotten good reviews, it's not too expensive, I like it, and it does sort of match your PowerMac's enclosure

i also recommend the vda-1. it has both optical and coax inputs and sounds fine as it is, but can be upgraded with power supply (vac-1) and mods later on (modwright.com) that deepen the bass and improve on clarity.

 

[drfnord]

I have a VDA-1 also, connected to the optical out of my powermac. It makes a definite difference, being new to audiphiledom, I was somewhat skeptical before I got it, thinking that a external dac couldn't make that big of a difference, but proved myself wrong. I hear more detail, and the soundstage is much improved. Not as big an improvement as when I upgraded my headphones, but still significant.

Brian.