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Originally Posted by HeadFi Fanatic /img/forum/go_quote.gif
A dedicated DAC is only responsible for converting digital signal to high quality analog signal. DAC can be balanced as well in which PC's can't (they don't have an XLR output). However it's garbage in, garbage out. If your onboard soundcard produces bad digital signal, your DAC will suffer as a result along with your headamp and headphones. A DAC is not responsible for cleaning up digital signal, it only converts it.
That said, what you need is a really good DSP sound card to process or create the digital signal itself. I'd recommend using digital spdif like coaxial or optical since usb doesn't block out EMI. Also, a soundcard can help take the workload off the cpu. So to get the best out of everything, you need a dedicated DAC and a dedicated DSP. Otherwise DAC comes first imo.
Hope it helps.
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Of course sound cards can have balanced outputs, usually they are 1/4" TRS.
You are correct about garbage-in = garbage-out; most onboard are not bit-perfect and usually aren't timed properly (jitter).
DSP as in Digital Signal Processing - assuming we're mostly interested in playback, we simply want an interface to the PC, soundcard (PCI) is just fine. Output using S/PDIF is OK, but depends on implementation, optical in general isn't that great because the to/from optical introduces timing errors. Coax is better, but should be done with a pulse transformer. Quite common with higher end cards.
About sound cards taking load off CPU, it REALLY REALLY doesn't matter unless you're running on a 10-year-old PC. Seriously, really not something to ever consider with any PC bought in the last 5 years.
USB vs S/PDIF : EMI is the least of your concerns, read a few of the other threads, there are many.
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Originally Posted by FL210 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Thank you folks. Any idea what the difference between SoundCard and DAC?
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See above for most of the answer. Generally Soundcard is a transport (receiver for PC) and DAC. Standalone DACs are just DACs, no transport, they need a transport to feed them content (using S/PDIF, USB, I2S, whatever).