[zachary80]

I've been out of the loop for a while and am looking for help upgrading at least my desktop HTPC sound card. Right now I'm thinking a soundcard with solid optical out would be most beneficial to my setup. I'd like it to be able to send at least 5.1 to my receiver for movies/games, and have the ability to also connect it to a higher quality DAC. USB would be nice so I could use it with my laptop too, but primarily I'm looking for a desktop solution so PCI is fine too. Speakers are currently run though my low/mid range Onkyo receiver, serious listening is done through my HD580's. I have a MobilePre hooked up to my receiver via analog (stereo) as my temporary solution.

 

[ROBSCIX]

For budget priced unit check the entry level Xonars, they should have the features you are looking for.  The cheapest one, is the Xonar DS..IIRC and it has DTS-C encoder so it can encode any of your audio such as games etc to a DTS stream and send it to your receiver.
This would make the card very versatile for connecting to a receiver.
There are many cards out there that offer DDL and DTS-C aswell as passthrough for S/Pdif so look around for a products within your budget that has the features you want.
What is your budget?
 

 

[zachary80]

Quote:

For budget priced unit check the entry level Xonars, they should have the features you are looking for.  The cheapest one, is the Xonar DS..IIRC and it has DTS-C encoder so it can encode any of your audio such as games etc to a DTS stream and send it to your receiver.
This would make the card very versatile for connecting to a receiver.
There are many cards out there that offer DDL and DTS-C aswell as passthrough for S/Pdif so look around for a products within your budget that has the features you want.
What is your budget?
 

Thanks for the reply. I don't have a hard budget and am just looking at my options right now. From my experience the sq in games isn't that high of quality, and I use my PS3 for blu rays. I suppose I would be looking more around $100 or less instead of $200+. I'll probably use my XDAC (takes optical and coaxial) and maybe my neglected pimeta as a higher quality headphone audio solution once I have a digital source

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

For budget priced unit check the entry level Xonars, they should have the features you are looking for.  The cheapest one, is the Xonar DS..IIRC and it has DTS-C encoder so it can encode any of your audio such as games etc to a DTS stream and send it to your receiver.
This would make the card very versatile for connecting to a receiver.
There are many cards out there that offer DDL and DTS-C aswell as passthrough for S/Pdif so look around for a products within your budget that has the features you want.
What is your budget?

The Asus Xonar DS does come with DTS, but not Dolby.
 
 
 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

I've been out of the loop for a while and am looking for help upgrading at least my desktop HTPC sound card. Right now I'm thinking a soundcard with solid optical out would be most beneficial to my setup. I'd like it to be able to send at least 5.1 to my receiver for movies/games, and have the ability to also connect it to a higher quality DAC. USB would be nice so I could use it with my laptop too, but primarily I'm looking for a desktop solution so PCI is fine too. Speakers are currently run though my low/mid range Onkyo receiver, serious listening is done through my HD580's. I have a MobilePre hooked up to my receiver via analog (stereo) as my temporary solution.

The Asus Xonar DG ($30, PCI, Dolby Digital) does come with S/PDIF digital optical output, I'm not sure if the DG could power the Senn HD580 (300-Ohm),
but I'm assuming you plug the HD-580 into the Onkyo.
You could always get the Fiio E10 for use with the Laptop.
 
 
 

 

[zachary80]

Quote:

The Asus Xonar DG ($30, PCI, Dolby Digital) does come with S/PDIF digital optical output, I'm not sure if the DG could power the Senn HD580 (300-Ohm),
but I'm assuming you plug the HD-580 into the Onkyo.
You could always get the Fiio E10 for use with the Laptop.
 
 
 

You've confused me with respect to DTS/DD support on this card; from a practical standpoint, does it matter which it supports? I'm pretty ignorant on the matter. AFAIK, different sources change as I'm consuming media, my receiver takes them, and I get sound, but don't notice an audible change in my current system between formatss.
 
That Fiio E10 at least looks like a viable option for use with my laptop. I'm currently listening to music far less than normal but I will mark it down as a possible future purpose.
 
I said the laptop was a side note earlier because right now it is primarily used in my bedroom where my SACD+HD650 setup is...but if it had better sq I might use my better headphones with my laptop more often.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

You've confused me with respect to DTS/DD support on this card; from a practical standpoint, does it matter which it supports? I'm pretty ignorant on the matter. AFAIK, different sources change as I'm consuming media, my receiver takes them, and I get sound, but don't notice an audible change in my current system between formatss.
That Fiio E10 at least looks like a viable option for use with my laptop. I'm currently listening to music far less than normal but I will mark it down as a possible future purpose.
I said the laptop was a side note earlier because right now it is primarily used in my bedroom where my SACD+HD650 setup is...but if it had better sq I might use my better headphones with my laptop more often.

Most Asus Xonar cards come with Dolby Digital, but the DS does not come with Dolby Digital, just DTS.
But S/PDIF digital output bypasses the audio processing of the sound card anyway.
If your motherboard comes with a built in S/PDIF digital output, you might not even need a separate sound card.
It's past my bedtime and my brain is half dead, so hopefully someone more knowledgeable then me will step in.
 
 
 

 

[zachary80]

My motherboard is pretty basic, only analog audio out.
 
Here is another question:
How well do the ATI Radeon cards pass audio over HDMI? If my receiver is decoding the signal anyway then a soundcard might be redundant

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

The Asus Xonar DS does come with DTS, but not Dolby.
 
 
 

I never said it did.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Here is another question:
How well do the ATI Radeon cards pass audio over HDMI? If my receiver is decoding the signal anyway then a soundcard might be redundant

You would have to check the specifications on the cards features.  If your receiver does do the decoding as not all HDMI based receivers decode audio, then you could just use that.
DDL and DTS-C are both lossy encoding routines, so if you are connecting to your receiver, you might be better off with analog connections.  These can provide better sound quality over S/Pdif based on what card
you go with and the overall quality of the DAC's in both units.
 

 

[zachary80]

Quote:

You would have to check the specifications on the cards features.  If your receiver does do the decoding as not all HDMI based receivers decode audio, then you could just use that.
DDL and DTS-C are both lossy encoding routines, so if you are connecting to your receiver, you might be better off with analog connections.  These can provide better sound quality over S/Pdif based on what card
you go with and the overall quality of the DAC's in both units.
 

 
I'd already been looking at upgrading my video card too. I'd be looking at ATI's in the $200 to $400 range, and upgrading my reciver so that it can take the HDMI audio (need this anyway due to lack of connection options)