[WSLam]

I am building a silent PC and will be using my Audio Note DAC5 Signature as DAC. I just need a good digital signal, don't mind the internal DAC capability. But I read that even for digital out, sound cards performance vary. Can someone recommend me a sound card with good digital out? AES or RCA (Coaxial) out is fine. thanks.

 

[VitaminJosh]

M-Audio Audiophile 2496 maybe? It seemed to be fairly identical to the Delta 1010 I got rid of on the digital out side of things. Another decent digital out, though more expensive is the RME Digi96/8 PST - that just seems overkill though. Perhaps the newer E-MU cards that are so popular here lately. I haven't had the chance to toy with E-MU 0404, 1212m, or 1820m yet but I am sure other Head-Fiers that jumped on the 96/8 PST bandwagon have E-MU cards by now and can give you a comparison.

 

[Feanor]

The $25 Chaintech card is supposed to have bit-perfect output when/if you do some magic with it.

 

[cadobhuk]

If that DAC is jitter immune,than no need for anything more than Chaintech.If it's not(most likely),then better cards will do better.If I understand correctly.

 

[noiseunit]

I would avoid the Audiophile USB and Revo (and presumably the standard audiophile and other M-Audio cards in the same range). As transports, I found them to be harsh and generally unappealing...somewhere between mediocre and not so good. YMMV.

 

[skitlets]

EMU's offerings? Though I'm not quite sure how the jitter control is compared to the chaintech, but the 1212m has some power filtering on it, if that helps any.

 

[Distroyed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cadobhuk If that DAC is jitter immune,than no need for anything more than Chaintech.If it's not(most likely),then better cards will do better.If I understand correctly.

PM Iron Dreamer. He's tested most of the cards digital outs mentioned in this post with the Benchmark DAC1 and he claims he cant tell the difference from the RME HDSP and the AV710. I wonder if anyone here's even heard jitter before, or just believe it to exist.

 

[CSMR]

That's because the DAC1 is immune to jitter. He also tried another DAC, I can't remember which, and found that the card mattered.

 

[Zoide]

I think he tried a Sostenuto with them.