[lator]

I am looking for a quality sound card for outputting digital signal preferrably with RCA digital out. I don't want it to be USB. Price can be anything up to around 1000$. It would be paired with Musical Fidelity X-DAC v3. Thanks in advance.

 

[iSleipnir]

I'm pretty sure that RCA is a dual mono signal so you won't be getting a digital signal that way. Someone else posted a thread looking for a soundcard with a coaxial output but there are not replies yet. I don't know so I can't help in this respect.

 

[[AK]Zip]

The EMU-1212M has a RCA digital out. Thats what I use for my dac.

-Alex-

 

[lator]

Quote:

Originally Posted by [AK]Zip The EMU-1212M has a RCA digital out. Thats what I use for my dac. -Alex-

Hehe, just ordered one of those few days ago. Thanks for the input though

 

[swmtnbiker]

The ESI Juli@ has both coax and optical digital outputs, and its drivers support ASIO natively. I've been very happy with mine.

 

[Zorander]

M-Audio Revolution
AudioTrak Prodigy (non-LT)
E-MU line of soundcards

 

[lordgibbness]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dpippel The ESI Juli@ has both coax and optical digital outputs, and its drivers support ASIO natively. I've been very happy with mine.

Not really an answer to the main question, but I just think the the Juli@ looks like a very nice card and probably doesn't get the praise it deserves. I would opt for one of these over a E-MU (mainly 'cos I don't like the patchmix stuff).

I don't see many people with the ESI Juli@ or the M-Audio Audiophile 192 but from everything I have read they seem like very good cards. The Juli@ is more useful though as it has both balanced and unbalanced outputs.

 

[akwok]

Squeezebox 3..

 

[mikechai]

$1000 budget allows you to get all 1212M, Juli@, AP192 and SB3 to compare and keep the one you like most.

 

[nuhi]

Thing is that E-mu 1212m has onboard RCA output unlike ESI Juli@ and others which use the breakout cable which negates the purpose of high quality digital cables. Just a note if you care for such a thing.

But for music SqueezeBox (slimdevices.com) is better. From what I have read it has nearly ten times less jitter than the internal cards but it can't be used like a normal soundcard, just for music with a special software, so for now I use the E-mu.

 

[mikechai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nuhi Thing is that E-mu 1212m has onboard RCA output unlike ESI Juli@ and others which use the breakout cable which negates the purpose of high quality digital cables. Just a note if you care for such a thing. But for music SqueezeBox (slimdevices.com) is better. From what I have read it has nearly ten times less jitter than the internal cards but it can't be used like a normal soundcard, just for music with a special software, so for now I use the E-mu.

Could you give us the link where it says SqueezeBox has ten times less jitter than internal cards?

 

[nuhi]

Sure,

E-Mu states jitter <1000ps while Slimdevices ~50ps, that's 20 times in favor of latter but folks at Stereophile measured for RME card around 600-700ps for RCA so I concluded 10 times.

E-Mu
"Ultra-low jitter, clock subsystem: < 1 ns" (1ns = 1000ps)

Slimdevices
"Intrinsic jitter: less than 50ps (standard deviation)"

Btw people at Slimdevices forum have measured and confirmed this.

 

[mikechai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nuhi Sure, E-Mu states jitter <1000ps while Slimdevices ~50ps, that's 20 times in favor of latter but folks at Stereophile measured for RME card around 600-700ps for RCA so I concluded 10 times. E-Mu "Ultra-low jitter, clock subsystem: < 1 ns" (1ns = 1000ps) Slimdevices "Intrinsic jitter: less than 50ps (standard deviation)" Btw people at Slimdevices forum have measured and confirmed this.

Thanks!

If that's true, then Squeezebox will have even lower jitter than a well implemented USB-I2S-DAC or USB-SPDIF devices!

That Intrinsic jitter of <50ps, does that apply to its digital output as well?

 

[nuhi]

Check it here.

 

[lator]

My 1212M arrived today and I set it up temporarily with the analog card as well. Using budget interconnectors atm. with 1/4 to RCA adapters. Sounds surprisingly good considering the adapters. Cannot wait to get a DAC but think I will manage nicely these two months with 1212m alone before I can afford one

If you have some advice with Patchmix that I should consider feel free to PM me or post this thread. I would be happy to hear your input. So far I have set up a session for 192Khz ASIO and 44.1Khz ASIO with Wave. Both are working without problems so far and sound impressive.