[swerfot]

Hello,
I want to ask you for advice: I wonder about buying a "second-hand" PCI soundcard, the old RME Digi 96/8 PAD PCI for about 280$. I have neither experience nor deep knowledge about PC sound cards, so I'm unsure if this price is reasonable. Overall, this piece of hardware is fairly old, at least 7 years I think. Although driver support is OK, it has drivers for Win7.
Current owner has replaced almost all manufacturer's capacitors with Black Gate's — as far as I understand that is a good improvement for a high-end sound card.

All I want is just a really high quality analog stereo signal — for my audiophilic needs I have Sennheiser HD-600, some high quality records (FLAC and WAV ranging from ~500kbps/24bit/44.1kHz to ~3000kbps/24bit/192kHz) and want to have the best possible listening experience that these headphones has to offer No need for audio recording, production etc. I would really appreciate if you estimate a realistic price for this second-hand PCI sound card. Or maybe you can offer some alternatives under that price range (<280$)?

 

[MerlinWerks]

For me personally, I think $280 is a bit high for this card, I paid $265 for a new one five or six years ago. Are you sure about the Win 7 drivers? Do you have a link? As far as I could tell, they didn't even have Vista drivers for this card, I would love to be able to use it with Win 7.

It is a very nice card, I would probably offer $200 or less for it though, provided the Win 7 drivers exist.

 

[swerfot]

I don't have a link, but current owner said he managed to use it on Windows Vista with no problems. I may ask him about this. However, while searching for a really high quality audio card I temporarily acquired Asus Xonar DS just to feel how Asus cards perform (or it may be no so temporary if it performs really well ). It seems headphone amplifier is needed for this card to properly drive my Sennheiser HD600 (300 ohms impendance).

 

[MerlinWerks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by swerfot /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't have a link, but current owner said he managed to use it on Windows Vista with no problems. I may ask him about this.

If you have the time I'd appreciate it if you would ask him what drivers he is using. I've only seen official drivers up to XP, perhaps those work in Vista as well...

 

[MerlinWerks]

Never mind, the answer is HERE...
I guess I'll just have to try them on Win 7.

 

[ford2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MerlinWerks /img/forum/go_quote.gif Never mind, the answer is HERE... I guess I'll just have to try them on Win 7.

In both Vista and 7 32 bit this card will work with the RME Asio drivers but it will not show up in windows as a sound card,this is not a problem as you just select it as the output in your player.

It will NOT work in any 64 bit version.

It is a great card and has a very nice anologue ouput.

 

[MerlinWerks]

Very good news indeed, Thanks!

 

[ford2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MerlinWerks /img/forum/go_quote.gif Very good news indeed, Thanks!

Forgot to mention,this was with Driver Version 2.11, Digi96 series and Hammerfall series. Win 2000/XP.

I believe that this driver was the last.