Soundcard for bitperfect optical out and ripping vinyl
Nov 24, 2008 at 5:42 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 10

Svirre

Head-Fier
Joined
Jan 12, 2008
Posts
56
Likes
0
So, I finally got around to ordering a vinyl rig. I have about a hundred records but nothing to play them on! I know, total madness... I went a bit back and forward and what's on the way is the following:

Rega P5 with a RB700 arm
Ortofon Rondo Bronze pickup
Black Cube statement RIAA

I off course want to make 24/96 rips, so I was wondering what I should get. I would preferred a pci-card and I also need optical out to my Benchmark DAC1, so I won’t be using the card for anything else than ripping vinyl and the optical output.

I've looked at HT Omega Claro Halo and it seems perfect. Are there any other alternatives I should considder?
 
Nov 24, 2008 at 6:25 PM Post #2 of 10
Quote:

Originally Posted by Svirre /img/forum/go_quote.gif
So, I finally got around to ordering a vinyl rig. I have about a hundred records but nothing to play them on! I know, total madness... I went a bit back and forward and what's on the way is the following:

Rega P5 with a RB700 arm
Ortofon Rondo Bronze pickup
Black Cube statement RIAA

I off course want to make 24/96 rips, so I was wondering what I should get. I would preferred a pci-card and I also need optical out to my Benchmark DAC1, so I won’t be using the card for anything else than ripping vinyl and the optical output.

I've looked at HT Omega Claro Halo and it seems perfect. Are there any other alternatives I should considder?



M-Audio Audiophile 192
E-MU 1212M
LynxTwo
RME Hammerfall (or w/e the thing is called)
ESI Juli@ or MaXio
E-MU 1820


Why would you buy Claro Halo if all its doing is optical output? Aside from just wanting to pay more for the hp amp and other features you'll never use, what other motivation is there? The Claro on its own is the exact same processor, exact same D/A, etc, just no hp amplifier, and if you're using optical output, who cares about the nice cinch outputs (they're single ended btw)

afaik you can actually get the Claro Plus for less than the price of the Halo, all because you aren't buying the "new" toy, or paying for the hp amp, so I'd ditch the Halo personally, because it isn't perfect for this

personally, since recording is something you're worried about, look at M-Audio, Lynx, and E-MU heavily, the 1820 is probably the best performance-to-price, given that it'll compete with the more expensive Lynx and RME cards in terms of quality, and it costs about half as much (and has an inordinante amount of I/O), the Audiophile 192 would be a good move as well, however it isn't going to be quite as super quality as thee 1820 (its also about half the price), and of course the RME and Lynx solutions are positively amazing, however you'll approach $1500 quite quickly
 
Nov 24, 2008 at 6:37 PM Post #3 of 10
I asked on another site and they strongly recomended the HT Omega Claro Halo, I don't really know what's what when it comes to recording so I took their word for it. Lucky I asked here as well, I can see.
smily_headphones1.gif


The E-MU 1820 looks good, though it is a bit of a hassle with an external device. But preformence is off course the most important thing, so if an external device will make the rips better quality, so be it.
 
Nov 24, 2008 at 6:41 PM Post #4 of 10
If I understand correctly the plain and simple M-Audio Audiophile 2496 offers bitperfect output with ASIO and has somewhat good DAC with 24 bit / 96 kHz capability. The 192 enlarges the figures.
 
Nov 24, 2008 at 8:11 PM Post #5 of 10
Quote:

Originally Posted by progo /img/forum/go_quote.gif
If I understand correctly the plain and simple M-Audio Audiophile 2496 offers bitperfect output with ASIO and has somewhat good DAC with 24 bit / 96 kHz capability. The 192 enlarges the figures.


yes, the 24/96 is a pretty dated card (I want to say 7-8 years, but I might be a bit off, so give or take a year, I know they've been around quite a long time though), that isn't a bad thing, but there are better implementations of the Envy24 (i.e: ESI Juli@)

the Audiophile 192 is a newer generation board, has better S/N figures, newer revision of the Envy24, support for 192khz audio, and does 4in/4out vs 2in/2out, so it'll do better for capturing from your vinyl

as far as the suggestion of the Claro Halo, it *is* a good soundcard, however its essentially the Claro with a headphone amp, and cinch outputs, thats all wasted fluff for you, because you're using the Benchmark which means all you need is the optical signal, and good line-in, which means something like the E-MU 1820 or one of the M-Audio's or ESI's will serve you better (as they'll provide clean digital output, and very clean analog input, as they're designed to capture, not playback (primarily that is)

iirc the 1820 has its own phono preamp, although if you've already got a good one, I'd stick to that
 
Nov 24, 2008 at 11:59 PM Post #6 of 10
I would not consider getting a sound card if your onboard sound controller is bit perfect capable.
 
Nov 25, 2008 at 12:36 AM Post #7 of 10
Quote:

Originally Posted by punk_guy182 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I would not consider getting a sound card if your onboard sound controller is bit perfect capable.


Yes but to record 24/96 rips of LPs he will be doing input as well and that's where he should be focusing. I don't think onboard would be suitable for the input and A-D conversion.
wink.gif
I am not well-versed in analog recording features on cards but I imagine the OP will want to focus on that part of the card because anything with a quality A-D section should have good digital output too.
 
Nov 25, 2008 at 12:41 AM Post #8 of 10
In theory it is, but I sometimes get this weird noise while using the internal soundcards optical output. I then have to restart the song and sometimes the entire program to get everything sounding good again. It happens in Foobar2000 while using WASAPI and it happens while watching movies and even watching videos on youtube. It's quite weird. It has happened in three different OS, so I'm tired of the problem. Regardless of that, my main objective for getting a new soundcard is ripping vinyl and that requires a certain quality.
 
Nov 25, 2008 at 1:03 AM Post #9 of 10
I use a X-FI elite pro as a transport for bitperfect. No complaints. Very strong signal and holy smokes do things sound nice.

The X-FI Titanium is only $100 now on Newegg.
 
Nov 25, 2008 at 1:17 AM Post #10 of 10
You can pick up an X-fi for around 40 dollars delivered on Ebay, that's where I bought my xtrememusic.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top