[Svendstar]

The inboard Soundcard on my laptop broke, so I, i in my lack of knowledge made the mistake and bought Asus Xonar u3 without proper investigation of the equipment. after listening to it a few minutes, comparing it to i my iPhone, and reading online reviews of it, i concluded it was not good enough for my needs/tastes.
 
I am primarily looking for a high fidelity audio Soundcard with the most accurate and precise soundreproduction possible. and am considering bying the FiiO E10, or the FiiO e17, but these are headphone amps, yet i have heard that they can be used as soundcards? i am just worried about that the mini usb plug suggest low audio quality.
 
Btw, discovered that the highest compatible quality audio on the Asus xonar u3 is 16bit 48000hz. and i also found the bass and clarity a bit lacking compared to my iPhone, and how my computer sounded previously. I'm currently using Grado sr80i to listen to musik.
 
budget is not a problem!
 
any help and/or advice will be sicerely appreciated.
thanks

 

[Svendstar]

Ok i lied, budget is not that of a big deal but the cheaper i can get my desires fulfilled the better!

 

[PurpleAngel]

The Fiio E10 & E17 are not sound cards, but they are better (audio quality wise) at driving headphones in some ways then sound card.
Unless you need something for surround sound for gaming or movies, stick to the Fiio.
You you want something for both laptop and iPhone, get the Fiio E11.
As you can not use the DAC from the E10 or E17 with the iPhone, the E11 is a better value.
For you laptop, just get the DAC Destroyer ($50), USB DAC, sells on eBay, ships from Canada.

 

[Svendstar]

Well, it IS primarily for my computer, as stated i wont need it for gaming so much, neither movies as I can't find any in High quality for my computer, so my tip-top priority is for music.

But now now I am seriously considering purchasing the FiiO E17, not only do they claim it can be used as a replacement soundcard on the computer, but you can also purchase a special cable to connect it to your iPhone.

Sorry for asking but, what is DAC?

To only thing that worries me about the FiiO, is that the USB port can only handle up to 24bit 48khz, is that a lot? Compared to the 24bit 196khz the machine can handle at other ports?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Well, it IS primarily for my computer, as stated i wont need it for gaming so much, neither movies as I can't find any in High quality for my computer, so my tip-top priority is for music.
But now now I am seriously considering purchasing the FiiO E17, not only do they claim it can be used as a replacement sound card on the computer, but you can also purchase a special cable to connect it to your iPhone.
Sorry for asking but, what is DAC?

To only thing that worries me about the FiiO, is that the USB port can only handle up to 24bit 48khz, is that a lot? Compared to the 24bit 196khz the machine can handle at other ports?

The Fiio E17 is a digital (an analog) input device with DAC and a headphone amplifier, there more details to the E17 that I'm not bothering with for this discussion.
The Fiio E17 is not a sound card, is is only 2-channel stereo sound, which is fine for music, but the E17 does not offer any surround sound processing (for games and movies) like a sound card.
The Fiio L cable connects from the iPhones LOD port to the line in jack on the E17 (which bypass the E17's DAC).
Apple's LOD port allows the E17 to bypass the iPhone headphone amplifier, providing a cleaner analog audio signal to the E17 (or other Fiio products).
DAC is a Digital (zeros & ones) to Analog (wave) Converter, audio today is stored and processed in a digital format.
But amplifiers and the human ear are analog, so an audio signal has to be changed from digital to analog before it is set to an amplifier and/or headphone jack.
Anything that stores/processes and outputs audio will have a DAC, sound cards, computers, IPhones, iPods, iPads, mp3 players ,TVs, modern receivers, cell phones, etc.
Outputing from USB (digital) is fine, I believe recorded music (like CDs) is limited to 44.1Khz, so the 48Khz limit is fine.
I believe DVD movie audio can not take advantage passed 96Khz and only Blu-ray can take advantage of 192Khz.