Graz
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2004
- Posts
- 726
- Likes
- 15
Looking for some advice here…
Here’s my current office rig:
Laptop-->Creative USB Sound Blaster “Digital Music” (a cheapie, low-end, 16-bit only solution)-->Optical S/PDIF (ebay glass toslink)-->CIAUDIO VDA-1 DAC with VAC-1 Power Supply-->head amp (presently Total Airhead, but soon to be Gilmore Lite)-->ATH-A900
My present configuration includes fb2k/monkey’s lossless, and I’m successfully using asio4all with the Creative USB audio device.
This rig actually sounds pretty bitchin’, especially when you consider that this is my dedicated office rig, but…being the anal, neurotic, head-fier that I am, I just can’t leave well enuf alone...
Sooo…..the piece I need advice with is (clearly) the USB audio solution, as I know that this is most definitely the weak link in my rig.
I do have an M-Audio Audiophile USB, which I know (or at least I think I know) is a superior solution, but I’m not using it for the following reasons:
Excessive popping, even at “Very High” latency setting
Zero success in getting ASIO working with it
No optical S/PDIF outputs (I prefer optical to RCA)
Alternate USB audio solutions I’m considering include:
M-Audio Transit…but I’m unsure if anyone has had success with ASIO w/foobar on this device...and will it perform any better than my Audiophile? Plus, no optical S/PDIF output. OK...so this one's pretty much not what I want...
Waveterminal U24…looks good but seems pricey. Not sure what’s really inside the box & is it really any better than my current solution…will it make a $200-$250 difference? I’m tending to think not, but would love to hear alternate opinions…
Creative USB Audigy 2 NX
( http://www.creative.com/products/pro...4&product=9103 ) … does anyone have any feedback on this device? The specs look decent. I know there’s a fairly rabid distaste for most of the Sound Blaster devices, but this actually looks like a possible option for me, given the role I would need it to play in my rig. I like the idea that its USB 2.0 compliant, however the USB 2.0 implementation described on the Creative link above is kind of vague. To date, this is the only external USB audio solution I’ve seen which even mentions support for USB 2.0.
btw, I’m pretty set on the architecture aspect of my rig. I appreciate that some folks will shout out on the DAC-1…and I know this is a nice piece of hardware...but I’m sticking with my current path for now. At this point, my need is to simply get S/PDIF to my CIAUDIO dac with some decent quality.
Thanks in advance for any input.
Peace,
Graz
Here’s my current office rig:
Laptop-->Creative USB Sound Blaster “Digital Music” (a cheapie, low-end, 16-bit only solution)-->Optical S/PDIF (ebay glass toslink)-->CIAUDIO VDA-1 DAC with VAC-1 Power Supply-->head amp (presently Total Airhead, but soon to be Gilmore Lite)-->ATH-A900
My present configuration includes fb2k/monkey’s lossless, and I’m successfully using asio4all with the Creative USB audio device.
This rig actually sounds pretty bitchin’, especially when you consider that this is my dedicated office rig, but…being the anal, neurotic, head-fier that I am, I just can’t leave well enuf alone...
Sooo…..the piece I need advice with is (clearly) the USB audio solution, as I know that this is most definitely the weak link in my rig.
I do have an M-Audio Audiophile USB, which I know (or at least I think I know) is a superior solution, but I’m not using it for the following reasons:
Excessive popping, even at “Very High” latency setting
Zero success in getting ASIO working with it
No optical S/PDIF outputs (I prefer optical to RCA)
Alternate USB audio solutions I’m considering include:
M-Audio Transit…but I’m unsure if anyone has had success with ASIO w/foobar on this device...and will it perform any better than my Audiophile? Plus, no optical S/PDIF output. OK...so this one's pretty much not what I want...
Waveterminal U24…looks good but seems pricey. Not sure what’s really inside the box & is it really any better than my current solution…will it make a $200-$250 difference? I’m tending to think not, but would love to hear alternate opinions…
Creative USB Audigy 2 NX
( http://www.creative.com/products/pro...4&product=9103 ) … does anyone have any feedback on this device? The specs look decent. I know there’s a fairly rabid distaste for most of the Sound Blaster devices, but this actually looks like a possible option for me, given the role I would need it to play in my rig. I like the idea that its USB 2.0 compliant, however the USB 2.0 implementation described on the Creative link above is kind of vague. To date, this is the only external USB audio solution I’ve seen which even mentions support for USB 2.0.
btw, I’m pretty set on the architecture aspect of my rig. I appreciate that some folks will shout out on the DAC-1…and I know this is a nice piece of hardware...but I’m sticking with my current path for now. At this point, my need is to simply get S/PDIF to my CIAUDIO dac with some decent quality.
Thanks in advance for any input.
Peace,
Graz
