Rate your soundcard / dacs

[lan]

After reading Iron_Dreamer's numerical rating of various soundcards, I thought it would be interesting to hear other people's rating of their various experiences with soundcards and DACs. When I hear somebody says X blows away Y, I always wonder what that really means to them and where they're coming from.

Let's say Sound Blaster Live! = 1.0.

I will have to add my own ratings later. I must think more about them. It's nearly 4Am and I must go on mini vacation in a few hours. These are not in 100% correct order yet.

emu 1820m modded
ART DI/O (boldercables modded MENSA)
47Labs Shigaraki
Benchmark DAC1 24/96
emu 0404
emu 1212m
RME Digi96/8 PST
M-Audio Audiophile 24/96
M-Audio Audiophile USB
M-Audio Sonica
M-Audio Revolution
Hercules Fortissimo III
Sound Blaster Live! - 1.0

 

[ayt999]

can we include items such as the DAC in CD players?

 

[pbirkett]

No offence, but I dont see where this is really any use... all of these can only ever be subjective opinions.

 

[ooheadsoo]

Not much in audio isn't, right?

 

[pbirkett]

Yes thats right, which means rating things on absolute scales is misleading and inaccurate, because it does not take into account taste or preference. Also, my feeling is that a high price tag will earn some products free points on such a scale, whether they deserve them or not.

Lets get one thing straight though, I am not commenting on any of the components listed, because I aint heard them, but I feel the need to express my scepticism towards threads like this, no offence intended.

 

[ooheadsoo]

I think it has its place and purpose. Done strictly your way would render any starred or point review worthless to a degree. Most mags would be out of business

We all have to start from somewhere with some frame of reference, right? Also, having many rankings from different perspectives offers additional insight.

 

[pbirkett]

To me, a description of how it sounds rather than rating them as a percentage would be more useful. Hifi components will sound radically different in many cases, meaning that a more expensive product may rate better on a scale like this may not be suitable for someone not looking for its particular qualities, regardless of its perceived quality to some.

Thats all I am saying

 

[tiberian]

benchmark dac ~ apogee minidac (still not too sure about this, they sound so different it is hard to rate)>>>>>>>>>>>echo indigo>>>>>m-audio transit

 

[Skarecrow]

E-MU 1212m - 7.5
M-Audio Revolution 7.1 - 5
Hercules GTXP - 3.0
Aureal Vortex 2 - 3.0
Nforce2 onboard sound - 1.5
sound blaster live value - 1.0
AC '97 onboard sound (circa via KT133) - 0.3

I'm leaving room at the top.

 

[Shizelbs]

Audigy 2 - 5
nForce2 - 2
SB Live! - 1

(all of which are pretty unacceptable for music playback)

 

[bg4533]

Chaintech AV710 - 8
nForce2 Onboard (Asus A7N8X Deluxe) - 5
Soundblaster 512 - 3
AC97 Onboard (ECS K7S5A) - 1

I am new to this, so my ratings probably arent worth much. I don't own a Soundblaster Live, so I cant compare anything to it. The onboard sound of the ECS K7S5A is the worst I have, not much static, but music is very lifeless and dull. I just got the Chaintech AV710 and hooked up my Etymotic ER6s to the HQ output and was completely surprised by it. No detectable static with the volume on high and amazing sound.

 

[Adriel]

Haha. I can play along. Soundstage used to do numerical ratings, and then they did away with them, but at least they had numbers for each category. Here's a few categories:

weight, heaviest to lightest:

Sony SCD-CE775 including 5 SACD discs
Soundstorm including laptop
Monarchy Audio DIP Classic including power cord
Scott Nixon DacKit including 3Xdc power supply
Ego-Sys Waveterminal U2A including USB cable
Sony MD portable
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 including breakout cable
Creative SB Live value
Realtek AC97 on-board sound chip, including output jacks

# of physical I/O connections, not including interface I/O

Sony SCD-CE775: 6
Ego-Sys Waveterminal U2A: 6
Creative SB Live value: 6
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 w/digital breakout: 5
Realtek AC97 on-board sound: 5
Monarchy Audio DIP Classic: 3
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 w/midi: 3
Sony MD portable: 2
Soundstorm onboard: 2
Scott Nixon DacKit: 1

aesthetic factor:

N/A

digital output quality:

Monarchy Audio DIP Classic, RCA: (10)
Ego-Sys Waveterminal U2A, Toslink: (5)
Realtek AC97 onboard sound, Toslink: (4)
Sony SCD-CE775, Toslink: (4)
M-Audio Audiophile 2496, RCA: (4)
Creative SB Live value, RCA: (4)
Ego-Sys Waveterminal U2A, RCA: (3)
Soundstorm onboard sound: N/A
Sony MD portable: N/A
Scott Nixon DacKit: N/A

analog line-level output quality:

Scott Nixon DacKit w/3Xdc power supply: (10)
Sony SCD-CE775, few mods: (5)
M-Audio Audiophile 2496, several mods, tweaks: (2)
Ego-Sys Waveterminal U2A, few tweaks: (1)
Realtek AC97 onboard sound: (1)
Soundstorm onboard sound: (1)
Creative SB Live value: (1)
Sony MD portable: (0)
Monarchy Audio DIP Classic: N/A

Who would "totally blow away" The Incredible Hulk:

Sony SCD-CE775: "held its own", but no "giant killer"
Ego-Sys Waveterminal U2A: crumpled
Monarchy Audio DIP Classic: crumped
Scott Nixon DacKit: smashed
Realtek AC97 onboard sound with Shuttle XPC case: smashed
Soundstorm onboard sound with laptop: smashed
Sony MD portable: smashed
M-Audio Audiophile 2496: destroyed, totally blown away!
Creative SB Live value: destroyed, totally blown away!

Ultimate shootout:

Realtek AC97 onboard sound: too small, didn't get hit!
Sony SCD-CE775: jacked up
Monarchy Audio DIP Classic: heavily jacked up
Ego-Sys Waveterminal U2A: all jacked up
Scott Nixon DacKit: totally blown away!
Sony MD portable: totally blown away!
M-Audio Audiophile 2496: totally blown away!
Creative SB Live value: totally blown away!
Soundstorm onboard sound with laptop: totally blown away!

 

[Scrith]

Benchmark DAC1 = 9.5
EMU 1212M = 6.5
VIA Envy (onboard soundchip for my motherboard) = 1.75
Audigy 2 ZS = 1.5 (w/ resampling to 48K in Foobar2000, otherwise an 0.5)
My portable MP3 player (Archos Jukebox 20) = 1

The jump from Audigy to 1212M was bigger than the one from 1212M to the Benchmark DAC1, but the Benchmark is clearly the best.

Edit: another revision...either the DAC1 is burning in, or I'm really starting to appreciate the difference between it and the 1212M. With some A/Bing back and forth to make sure I'm not completely imagining it, I'm pretty sure it rates a bit higher than I originally had it.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrith The jump from Audigy to 1212M was bigger than the one from 1212M to the Benchmark DAC1 (which I've only had one day, so maybe it's not broken in yet?), but the Benchmark is clearly the best.

Makes sense to me, going from complete trash to something very nice, is definitely a larger improvement than going form something very nice to something excellent.

 

[some1x]

where is iron_dreamer's rating thread?

as for my own:
Theta anti-jitter unit + AudioAlchemy DDE ----- 9*
AudioAlchemy DDE ---------------------------- 8
Chaintech AV710 ----------------------------- 4.5
SoundBlaster PCI128 -------------------------- 1

When I bought the used Theta TLC+AudioAlchemy combo, I thought the Theta did not improve the sound. After treating all the jacks with ProGold, the sound improved... I'm guessing the coax jacks on the TLC or DDE were dusty or partially oxidized.