[JAG87]

Hi guys,

I decided I want to do something with my speaker setup. I want to ditch my old technics stereo receiver, which is starting to show it's age. The fan is making noise when I turn up the volume, there is a lot of hiss, and there is crossover from FM stations on the the inputs that are beside the tuner.

I also want to ditch my Auzentech prelude, as I cant stand any software by creative anymore. It's gotten to the point where drivers are 230MB for my sound card, and it's just ridiculous.

Knowing that I am only interested in the purest 2 channel stereo that's humanly possible, I considered my options to get a clean enough signal from my PC to my future amplifier. These are TOSLINK (from the motherboard), or USB.

So if I were to buy something like this:

Pioneer USA - Hi-Fi Audio

or this

Outlaw Audio

How does USB work? I have a USB mic, I know I plug it in and it just works, is this the same? How do all USB DACs work, I have always been curious? Will all my games work with this? Does it just natively recognize it? I am using Vista 64 by the way.

I know some will say get a USB DAC + a good 2 channel amp, the problem is I also have HD650s, so if a dedicated 2 channel amp doesn't have a headphone output I am screwed. Do you know of any that have headphone outputs, I don't want to but a separate headphone amp.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[JAG87]

I've been reading all about ASIO, kmixer and WASAPI, and I think my brain is exploding. As far as I understand, with vista I shouldn't have to worry too much about using ASIO, because vista doesn't use kmixer? I will be setting the output to 16bit 48Khz.

Any opinions are appreciated.

 

[FallenAngel]

I don't think your content is 48kHz, CDs are 44.1kHz

 

[JAG87]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallenAngel /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't think your content is 48kHz, CDs are 44.1kHz

Thats true but all movies are 48K, I would be downsampling those. Some game audio is 48K too.