[springtide]

I'm looking at replacing my DVD and CD Player with a HTPC I'm building. This will (hopefully) be my main source for all CD, WAV, DVD’s as well as acting as a PVR. Also, the other point is that as it’s going to be a “consumer device”, then it should be a setup and forget affair. I don’t want to be having to change settings just to play a CD, DVD etc.

So, I'm looking for a soundcard that will provide:-

- Provide AC3/DTS Pass-though to my A/V Amp (Coaxial SPDIF)

- Output CD Quality analogue to my stereo (as the DACs on my Marantz 7300 A/V Amp aren't as good as my CD Player) via unbalanced (phono) connectors.

The DVD-RW Drive I've been looking at (Plaxtor SATA) appears to have digital out.

I'm not too worried if the card has a external box as long as it's not the 19" rack size (The main point is to consolidate boxes)

I'm down to two:

1) RME HDSP9632
2) E-MU 1820M

I'm also had suggestions about M-Audio 1010LT as well as the EMU 1212M.

Reading the manual, it's not clear if the E-MU 1820M will pass AC3/DTS straight out of the Digital Output (the RME has the "Non-Audio Setting")

I've asked a similar question over on AV Forums (http://www.avforums.com) and they appear to have more knowledge of the RME cards, and most of the posts on Head-Fi are more towards the E-MU cards.

I'm looking for a card that will give a good upgrade compared to my A/V Amp DACs. One post I saw with the RME card was that "If your going to go for the RME you may as well get a DAC-1". In the UK the RME 9632 is approx £275 while the DAC-1 is £1000 which is over three times the price. E-MU 1820M is approx £300.

The M-Audio 1010LT and the EMU 1212M cards are approx £150 in the UK. The

Has anyone had any experience with these cards to compare them?

I have a pair of the Kef iQ7's which are pretty bright, so I don't want anything that will sound too clinical otherwise this will obviously get emphasised by the speakers.

 

[dasbin]

E-MU will not pass anything other than regular 2-channel PCM over the SPDIF.

They've said they've been "considering" adding AC-3 support to their drivers for over a year due to user demand, but at this point it just seems like they're saying that so people will buy the cards hoping that one day it will have AC-3, but it never will.

 

[fewtch]

Here's an offbeat suggestion: Why not get both? Switch between them with some sort of decent quality switchbox, or just swap the jacks. When you decide which you like better, sell off the other card... soundcards retain a good percentage of their original value, as long as they're current models.

 

[Jasper994]

IME from the brief listen I got to the RME Hammerfall line, it sounds better than the E-MU 1212m. The 1820m is not a significant upgrade from the 1212m as far as pure sound quality. Any gains that are made are simply based on having external power and being somewhat removed for the "noise" of the pc that the 1212m is pretty damn good at rejecting anyway.

As was already mentioned, the E-MU cards don't currently support DD/DTS passthrough. It's been said they may add it, but we've been waiting a very long time so I'm not counting on anything. The 1820m can do 5.1 but you'd have to get powered studio monitors to do it. Additionally, the E-MU line requires you to change settings in Patchmix whenever you want to switch between music and DVD. There is a way to configure it to allow for both but then it downmixes the 48khz DVD signal to 44.1khz. Alternatively, you could upsample your music to 48khz and have a clean DVD signal but I don't think either option is desireable so I generally switch back and forth. It's not that difficult to do, but the RME doesn't require any switching at all.

Since the RME is less money, I'd just go with it if I were you.

 

[haclongba]

You should get a RME card

I am very happy with my HDSP9632 now

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

I am almost certain the HDSP is capable of DTS output through its digital outputs. It is without a doubt my favorite soundcard, as it has the best sound quality and most useful (yet still simple and not cumbersome) drivers I've ever used, and is not the physical behemoth that the EMU cards are. If you can afford the HDSP, it has my highest recommendation. EMU cards are best as a sound quality for the buck source, for those who can only spend $200 or less. The HDSP is what I'd want as a part of my truly-high-end PC source.

 

[springtide]

Thanks. I've just placed an oder for an HDSP9632

I saw a review of the RME DIGI96/8 here:

http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/s...hreadid=236215

There's a section in the text:

"For this test we had two PC set-up as follows: Dan’s Windows XP based Audio PC with Delta1010 and LynxTWO cards, both with ASIO drivers. Player was 4am Music console with ASIO plug-in, music files were all uncompressed WAV ripped with Exact Audio Copy. I contributed Carillon Audio PC (Windows XP) with RME DIGI96/8 PAD (driver bypasses kmixer so ASIO was unnecessary). Player was Sonic Foundry Siren (currently reincarnated as Sony Screenblast SIREN), music files were encoded in Perfect Clarity Audio loss-less compression."

That seems to imply that the RME drivers for the DIGI96/8 PAD "bypass the kmixer", so you don't need to use am ASIO player. Is this true for the DIGI96/8 PAD? And if so, is this also true for the 9632?

 

[deandob]

Jasper994,

Can you explain how to get DVD 5.1 from the analog outs? I have just installed my 1820m with the new drivers and I cant get any of my DVD software to recognise the center and surround channels. It looks like only WAV1/2 is recognized outside of patchmix? I have tried many combinations to the point of frustration!

Regards,
Dean

 

[springtide]

Searching the forums, it looks like the RME 9632 drivers do bypass the kmixer. (btw - I'm not that familiar with the kmixer, ASIO drivers or the general Windows sound architecture).

Am I right in thinking that there would be no improvement in sound by using an ASIO player over say Windows Media while playing back CD or WAV files through the analogue out? (with the RME cards)

 

[CSMR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by springtide - Provide AC3/DTS Pass-though to my A/V Amp (Coaxial SPDIF) - Output CD Quality analogue to my stereo (as the DACs on my Marantz 7300 A/V Amp aren't as good as my CD Player) via unbalanced (phono) connectors.

If it's the same amp, why not use analog connections for dvds?

 

[deandob]

The analog connections are very good, however, as I posted above, it looks like outside of patchmix you can only get stereo output (WAV1/2) which is pretty useless for DVD use

I'll continue to try to get this to work - but if anyone more experienced with the EMU line / Patchmix could help out that would be appreciated.

Regards,
Dean

 

[Erukian]

can someone explain this from the latest emu driver patch?

Quote:

Added support for up to 8 channels of audio playback through the E-DSP Wave device. This allows the digital audio system to play certain types of multi-channel content (WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE format) (NOTE: Also requires PatchMix DSP V1.81 or later)

does this mean 7.1 support on digital in or out? or..?

-Joe

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by springtide That seems to imply that the RME drivers for the DIGI96/8 PAD "bypass the kmixer", so you don't need to use am ASIO player. Is this true for the DIGI96/8 PAD? And if so, is this also true for the 9632?

Yes on both accounts. BTW that article was what prompted me to try the RME a few years ago, and start a bit of a trend around here. I think that review might overblow the quality of the 96/8 a bit, but it doesn't miss the point that RME makes some great cards. Have fun with the 9632!