Soundcard with a good digital out
Jul 29, 2004 at 2:42 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 12
Ivion

Ivion

New Head-Fier
Joined
Mar 7, 2004
Posts
44
Likes
0
I'm currently investigating a digital source upgrade, and I think I will settle for a Ack! dAck! and a yet to be decided soundcard. As the Ack! dAck! only accepts 44KHz/16-bit, the card doesn't have to oversample and the card should be able to output 44KHz/16-bit if I tell it to, and nothing else.
tongue.gif

The Ack! dAck! has a "75W RCA input" which needs to receive a S/PDIF signal, so I need a card which has a digital RCA output, right? I do not know very much about this, so if something I type here is incorrect, please say so.
smily_headphones1.gif

I do not know how 'clean' the digital signal must be for the Ack! dAck!, maybe someone can clarify that? I'm willing to shell out as much as needed to get a nice digital transport, but be considerate, I do not need the top of the line or something like that. I like to stay in the grey area between mid- and hi-fi where I (I believe) currently am.
biggrin.gif
I just want a soundcard which can provide a reasonable signal to the Ack! dAck! so I can also enjoy my digital music collection.

As if those demands weren't enough already, the soundcard must work in Linux (as I only use Linux), but you don't have to take that into consideration. Just fire your suggestions and I'll check if the soundcard is supported.

PS. Can you also give tips and information about what kind and which cable I should use to connect my soundcard to the Ack! dAck! ?

Many thanks in advance.
 
Jul 29, 2004 at 7:51 PM Post #3 of 12
Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Radar
You should look into the M-Audio cards on this list with [Rio] or [Ro] in the Notes column.


Would the M-Audio cards provide a good enough digital out for the Ack! dAck! ? Because I read somewhere on this forum that the Ack! dAck! doesn't do any filtering whatsoever.
 
Jul 30, 2004 at 12:05 AM Post #4 of 12
If you didn't need Linux support I'd reccomend the EMU 1212m which is suppost to have killer digital outs (and onboard power conditioning to help reduce the jitter caused by the dirty power in most computers). I don't think that the M-Audio cards have the best digital outs, though they can't be too bad. If at all possible you may want to use the optical outputs on whatever card you get and an external Coax<->TOSLink converter to avoid the compter's dirty ground.
 
Jul 30, 2004 at 1:07 AM Post #5 of 12
I've also looked around a bit, and I think I've got a small list of which cards would be suitable (from reading their discription):

RME Digi96/8 PAD
M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496
Hoontech Soundtrack Digital-XG

These cards seem to've got reasonable (in case of the M-Audio) or good (RME & Hoontech) support in Linux and have coaxial RCA S/PDIF out. I'm leaning towards the M-Audio or the RME. Is the price difference between the two really worth it? Or is the M-Audio output good enough and will the RME not be much of an upgrade?

The Hoontech seems pretty good, it's got what I need and is well supported in Linux because of their collaboration with the ALSA developers (idem ditto with RME) and it's price is nice compared to the other two. Sadly I wasn't able to find much experiences with this card here on Head-Fi...so if anyone has any experience with that card, I would really like to know.
biggrin.gif
 
Jul 31, 2004 at 12:53 AM Post #9 of 12
Mr. Ack! (sorry I forgot his name) is working on a USB input for the Ack! I have no idea how long before it will hit the market, but if Linux supports external USB dac ( I can't imagine why it wouldn't) you will be much better off in the long run. USB seems to be a much better method for getting digital bits to a DAC and you won't have to buy an external card to get digital out. Just a thought.
Steve
 
Jul 31, 2004 at 3:10 PM Post #10 of 12
Quote:

Originally Posted by triodesteve
Mr. Ack! (sorry I forgot his name) is working on a USB input for the Ack! I have no idea how long before it will hit the market, but if Linux supports external USB dac ( I can't imagine why it wouldn't) you will be much better off in the long run. USB seems to be a much better method for getting digital bits to a DAC and you won't have to buy an external card to get digital out. Just a thought.
Steve


How do you know this? Heard it from Mr. Ack! (I don't know, and have never known, his name
tongue.gif
) or from some other source? And when did you hear this?
If you heard it from 'the man' himself; I think I'll inquire about the process' state and how long it might be till it's finished.
 
Jul 31, 2004 at 8:55 PM Post #12 of 12
For future reference, the man you speak of is known to the mundane world as Chris Own. Just so we don't have any newbies running around searching for the mysterious Mr. Ack!
smily_headphones1.gif


(And it's great to hear that he's working on a USB input for the dAck! That would certainly simplify matters...)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top