[Funky_Junk]

Im in the process of setting up a headphone system on my computer, using a t-amp and a decent pair of AKG K18's. Right now I have onboard sound and Im wondering if it would make a noticeable difference to buy an Audigy 4 soundcard. I wasn't sure it would make a difference since the amp alters the sound signal anyway? So is it worth the extra money to get a sound card?

 

[Melchior]

I consider digital type sources (soundcards, standalone cd players) to mostly sound the same within their respective families. This is only to a point however. Onboard sound and low end soundcards generally sound like garbage, amp or not. YMMV, but I had what I thought was a nice philips thunderbird card, which after comparing with my Delta 410 was noticably inferior in sound quality, both heard and measured, except for games.

 

[Stephen_Ri]

I'm not familiar with the AKG K18 headphones, but unless they have specific resistors (as do some very high end 'phones), you won't be able to run them from a T-amp, which is designed for speaker output, not standard headphone output. But to answer your main question, I would say that the soundcard is important, and that the primary job of a good amp is to bring out the pure, high quality signal it is receiving, not to color it (desirable tube affects aside); so assuming that the card is unimportant because "the amp alters the sound signal anyway" really is quite an error. I do not recommend an audigy card, since a cheaper and, as consensus would have it, better sounding option is available in the form of the Chaintech AV-710, which I use myself. I have compared it to the hollow, bland sound created by my previous generic card, and found it vastly superior.

 

[c0mfortably_numb]

Soundcards makes all the difference in the world, I would never use nor recommend on board sound. I use an emu0404, which allows you to use ASIO (Audio Stream Input/Output) in programs like Foobar2000 which made a huge improvement over my Audigy soundcard using directsound.

 

[]|[ GorE]

A better measuring sound card definitely sounds better over-all.Theres more of everything !

 

[shawntp]

Yes - With a seperate headphone amp your sound card is basically your DAC and makes a big difference as it is what is actually creating music for your ears out of those boring 0's and 1's.

The M-Audio transit is a decent cheap USB audio-out option. Most likley better than on board sound.

 

[jjhatfield]

I'm getting my Echo Indigo DJ today for my laptop. It has to be better then my onboard sound card, because when I use my computer as a source next to my ipod as a source... Blech! The iPod sounds worlds better. I hope the Echo Indigo sounds better then the iPod.

 

[c0mfortably_numb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjhatfield I hope the Echo Indigo sounds better then the iPod.

I would think it would, the echo as far as I know support ASIO, so if your not already using Foobar2000 I suggest downloading it, also download the ASIO component

 

[jjhatfield]

Quote:

Originally Posted by c0mfortably_numb I would think it would, the echo as far as I know support ASIO, so if your not already using Foobar2000 I suggest downloading it, also download the ASIO component

Right now I use iTunes and am very happy with it. I hear lots about foobar2000 and ASIO and and bitperfect and what have you, but am still very confused about how all that is going to make my music sound better. When I read through threads about foobar and foobar vs. itunes the numbers start to go over my head. What I'll have to try is once I get my full rig setup, d/l foobar and the asio component and just do some side-by-sides with iTunes to see if I can discern a difference.

Another problem is I love the new iTunes 7.0 layout so much, and I love the way it syncs with my Nano, all very slick and cool.

 

[Funky_Junk]

can somebody elaborate more on ASIO? What exactly is it and does it improve sound quality?

 

[shawntp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Funky_Junk can somebody elaborate more on ASIO? What exactly is it and does it improve sound quality?

Audio Stream Input Output

Its a software layer of the widows OS that devices hook into to do audio processing. It used to be a pain for people doing recording with software packages like Pro Tools (which is why I switched to apple w/ core audio for recording back in day ...but windows processing has caught up in recent years).

Basically if you design a device like a usb sound interface to communicate using ASIO then you plug it in and it talks through ASIO to your Windows OS and can become your audio interface.