Hmm. Touching base back on the ADC bandwagon (I promise - this'll be the last time*: it looks like Mike has kiboshed Schiit ever doing such a thing), Creative Labs have just announced a new external soundcard (computer geek speak for external DAC) called the Soundblaster X7 for $400.
The official website is here:
http://www.soundblaster.com/x7/
But it's hard to get a feel for what it does. PC World has a better summary of its features:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2602913/sound-blaster-x7-preview-creative-labs-aims-to-make-pc-audio-interesting-again.html
Amongst other things, it drives 2 headphones of up to 600 ohms at once and has a 100-watt amp** for passive speakers (sound familiar?).
In true audiophile tweaking style, you need to buy an upgraded power supply to get the most out of it.
Marquee features are Bluetooth with aptX, AAC, NFC and USB connections both for the computer source and for streaming from a tablet or phone, including charging. A Burr-Brown 24/192 DAC and (my emphasis)
a Burr-Brown… ADC for converting analog audio to digital (for recording). In addition it allows op-amp rolling (the millennial generations version of tube rolling) and has six channel Dolby Digital out (but not Blu-ray audio). An optical S/PDIF loop and single analog in are there too.
There's also a bazillion woo-woo DSP effects that can be disabled with a physical switch on the front. Oh, and a built in mic for gaming use or doing room correction.
You can control it from an app on your iDevice or Android (or computer).
Finally, it's a pretty big sucker, standing over half the height of a Macbook screen, with a big-ass volume control and (in what I think is a genius move) has a rack you can attach to the back to store your headphones on.
http://img.creative.com/soundblaster/x7/images/gallery/06.jpg
They've also introduced a couple of portable rechargeable DAC/amps that work with Lightning connectors etc.
This is obviously not the place to discuss this product. If Head-fiers want to start a thread about it, I'm sure they will, but it's not available until December anyway, so…
However!
My point, which I am finally getting to, is that ADCs are not as rarified and unusual as you might think. Creative Labs is not the only computer/gamer focused sound company that makes them (leaving out the amateur/pro-sumer/pro musician stuff). And these are not being marketed to a limited pool of musicians, they're focussed squarely on the gamer market (as their website clearly demonstrates). And the gamer market is fast growing and probably the largest market outside of office users. Plus they all (ALL!) use headphones.
Schiit analogital. Just sayin'.
*Probably
**Car stereo watts, as far as I can tell - not "real" watts.
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