[FallenAngel]

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of upgrading my work system and need a soundcard (or DAC) for work. For soundcard, it needs to be LOW PROFILE, that leaves few choices like Asus Xonar DX (should be OK quality, mods available), SIIG Soundwave 5.1 (not much info), Audigy SE (not likely any good). On the DAC side, I am already using a nice AlienDAC with BlackGate outputs but I might change the outputs to nicer film caps so it'll have to be quite a bit better to be a worthy upgrade.

Any suggestions? I'm also not much of a fan of buying DACs, I'll consider building an OPUS first.

 

[BadassBob]

How about an Audiotrak Prodigy HD2? I used to have one and it was an excellet sound card. It comes with both a standard and low profile PCI bracket. The opamps are also swappable, so you can roll opamps to suit your tastes. If you go to Florida Music Co Music Technology Store you can get one for $75. It has a built in headphone amp, 2 RCA outs, and a 3.5mm line in.

 

[FallenAngel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadassBob /img/forum/go_quote.gif How about an Audiotrak Prodigy HD2? I used to have one and it was an excellet sound card. It comes with both a standard and low profile PCI bracket. The opamps are also swappable, so you can roll opamps to suit your tastes. If you go to Florida Music Co Music Technology Store you can get one for $75. It has a built in headphone amp, 2 RCA outs, and a 3.5mm line in.

I really don't need (nor do I want) a built-in headphone-amp, I would greatly prefer a pure line-out (which I might just have to mod). The HD2 looks nice, but that's a little expensive for VT1721 (Same Envy24HT-S as AV-710).

Thanks for the recommendation though, I'll definitely look into buying and modding this card unless there is something that really stands out instead.

 

[FasterThanEver]

> The HD2 looks nice, but that's a little expensive for VT1721
> (Same Envy24HT-S as AV-710).

The HD 2 has the same AKM 4396 DAC chip as the EMU 0404 USB and a number of other good quality soundcards. The Envy chip is a practical way to provide the PCI facing interface.

Bill

 

[FallenAngel]

Thanks for the info. After a few posts in diyforums.org, I think I'll be building an ESS Sabre DAC with a USB-I2S receiver. Now on to play the waiting game.

 

[nettokung]

Somebody know about this ...
ESI U24-XL 24-Bit USB Audio Interface w/ S/PDIF -  USB Audio Interfaces*-* Audio Interfaces / Recording Systems*-* Studio & Recording*-* PSSL.com

Is it a good sound?