Soundcard with absolute best SPDIF quality?

[HiPerFreak]

Hi everyone,

what soundcard offers the best possible signal quality on its SPDIF output one can buy for money today? I want to drive a high end dolby surround preamp with both stero and AC3 material and I want to get the absolute best quality that is possible out of my PC.

I would be glad to hear your recommendations!

- Daniel

 

[1UP]

Truly high-end....why would you want to use S/PDIF at all??

Otherwise, try the RME Hammerfall...dunno if it does multichannel

 

[iriverdude]

I'm using a M-Audio Revolution 5.1, about £50. Into a Lexicon MC-8. Passes DTS & Dolby Digital, and 44khz for CD's.

 

[yourstruly]

Just get a normal sound card, and get a digital I/O module like one of these

Sound Blaster Digital I/O Module - Add optical and coaxial digital I/O to your Sound Blaster equipped PC.

 

[linuxworks]

if your 'high end' preamp is really high end, then it will do reclocking and you will be wasting your money on 'high end' sound cards.

any old spdif transmitter with normal drivers will output ac3 'raw' and do what you want.

no need to overspend.

 

[HiPerFreak]

Ok, so the question is more like what soundcard has the most solid, stable and high-quality software/driver implementation.

I am not really satisified with my current onboard chip (a ADI SoundMAX AD2000). From time to tme the music sounds quite distored like if you put your music through an effect box and when I pause and resume the track everything is fine again.

End everytime a start or resume a film (the preamp switches from stero to AC3 then) I hear an extremly loud noise/crackle signal for a short time, which is quite annoying (it may also be some other component than the soundcard).

So what soundcards have decent software implementation? The only thing I need is good digital output (no effects, no fancy functions/mixer, etc.).

- Daniel

 

[Wiggy Fuzz]

did your soundcard come with software that you could change stuff like the tone with?

my hp laptop came with SRS WOW drivers, which i could not turn of, if i wanted no sound from the HDMI, and through my headphones, even with the SRS WOW turned "off", it was still being pulled and pinched and distorted noticably. removing the drivers and sound quality was much more pleasing.

 

[Wiggy Fuzz]

jbl radial

 

[HiPerFreak]

The M-Audio Revolution 5.1 looks quite interesting. Does anybody know if it is still right, that it does not support ASIO over SPDIF? Even with the latest drivers (which are dated 4/20/2009 which really suprised me)?

What are the drawbacks of the Revolution 5.1?

Another card that looks interesting is the ESI Juli@ (which also provides 2009 drivers). What do you think about it? Would you prefer it over the M-Audio?

 

[kimragone]

I'm using the Revolution 5.1 and feed a digital signal into my Central Station. Using Foobar 2000 it supports ASIO just fine.
The only drawback I've noticed is the lack of being able to run analog and digital out at the same time. I don't know if that is possible on other sound cards.

 

[iriverdude]

thanks for info about driver update, noticed it fixes asio. I thought won't need asio4all, so uninstalled that but just get silence- I still need it.

 

[HiPerFreak]

Ok, so I still need asio4all? Hmm, that makes the Juli@ even more interesting.

 

[Zaubertuba]

The E-Mu 1212m has excellent software implementation. It includes pretty extensive signal processing/routing options in its Patchmix software, and some very nice authoring/recording tools as well.

Oh, and native ASIO drivers work out-of-the box.

I bought mine used for $75 dollars and it runs really solid.

 

[sonci]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kimragone /img/forum/go_quote.gif The only drawback I've noticed is the lack of being able to run analog and digital out at the same time. I don't know if that is possible on other sound cards.

The EMU1212M, is quiet capable of that.

 

[roadtonowhere08]

If you do not need 192kHz the coaxial S/PDIF from the 1212M is very good. The only thing I did not like from it (besides the lack of 192kHz) is that when changing rates (no music playing), I would get loud pops frequently. To be more specific, I used the coax in conjunction with a cheap DAC to feed my subwoofer and the analogue for my speakers. It worked very well, but the pops were a deal-breaker for me. This is why I got my DAC1 for the balanced and unbalanced simultaneous outs. Other than that, I am still a very big fan of the 1212M, for the fact that it is a serious card with good parts for very little money.

If you NEED 192kHz coaxial out, I would strongly recommend any high end ASUS/HT Omega card. I am pretty sure the the quality of the signal will be a TAD worse than the 1212M, but with a decent to good DAC should make the difference inaudible. I used to be a fan of the M-Audio Revolution 5.1, but their customer service sucked (I could never get anyone to answer the phone {50 (fifty!!!) minutes on hold} regarding the 192kHz output via coax), and (at least at the time) their XP64 driver would give me a BSOD every time Windows loaded. Isolating that issue was a real pain...