[chych]

brosselle,

The AP24/96 is here: http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/audiophile.php

However the 24/48 cards may be a better value, since you really aren't going to play with 96khz sound from the computer: http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/dio2448.php

From that you go to an ART DI/O, I think www.fullcompass.com has the best prices (you may have to call them), <$150 or so. If you look on www.audigon.com you can usually get good deals on upgraded ART units.

But from that, you cannot plug a headphone in until you get an amplifier, so chose your upgrade path carefully.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Hey all you Art DI/O lovers -- has anyone tried it with an upsampler, say the DSP from GW Labs, or maybe that one from Sonic Frontiers?

 

[lini]

chych: Oh, don't get me wrong - I was more amused than confused, because your statement seemed to me like: "Hey, there can't be receivers. Because a tuner does this, and an amplifier does that."

Also agreed: It might be cheaper to obtain a certain quality level by combining a seperate dac with a separate headphone amp. But there are also products like this one: http://www.gracedesign.com/products/901/901frame.htm (the one I mentioned above as high quality amp with integrated dac - I just hadn't found the thread). Nevertheless, I'm not sure which quality level brosselle desires, neither I'm sure whether he'd like some additional features, too, so an additional look into usb-soundmodules and personal-pc-amplifiers couldn't harm, I guess.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: Some Extigy-News: We finally got our test sample, a fortnight ago, but I haven't got too much info, yet, because Sepp (our lab chief) is just doing the hardware-testing. Results so far: 87 dB SNR in our system; sound seems alright to Sepp (I'll do some proper listening later on, when he's done); the thing stinks (literally, not generally - even out of the box, but the more when it get's warm); and it has some minor quirks. And maybe even more important: According to Mr. Deinhardt, Creative Germany, the Audigy and Extigy aren't AC'97-cards, anymore, and don't resample from external sources. The 48-kHz-resampling only applies for game sound effects (EAX). I'm not sure, whether that's really true, but maybe I can check that with some thourough auditioning, as soon as Sepp is done - although this will take some more time, because Sepp just left for the Intel Developer Forum in SF.

 

[brosselle]

Quote:

Originally posted by lini chyBut there are also products like this one: http://www.gracedesign.com/products/901/901frame.htm (the one I mentioned above as high quality amp with integrated dac - I just hadn't found the thread).

Hmmmm.......

I think that is exactly what I was looking for.

Brett

 

[kelly]

I have to admit, it'd be nice to have something small that combined a good DAC with a hood headphone amp to use at work.

But that thing is $1495 and none of you guys have reviewed it yet.

 

[brosselle]

Quote:

Originally posted by kelly But that thing is $1495

Ouch!!

I missed that part. It would be exactly what I am looking for if was about $500 (or less).

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by kelly But that thing is $1495 and none of you guys have reviewed it yet.

Actually, isn't it more like US$15,000? In which case it is off by more than US$14,000...

 

[lini]

Dusty: Kelly was referring to the 901 (see: http://www.gracedesign.com/price/priceFrameset.htm), not the Orpheus. But 1500 bucks are still quite a lot - that's why I mentioned other possible solutions, too

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Yup, figured that out. Never mind. Please ignore above post. :")

 

[ai0tron]

I didn't mean to correct you chych!

Someone just gave me a card with these words on it: DAC, a, built, the, doesn't, have, Orpheus, in. And told me to write a question with them and post it on head-fi... So I did it.

 

[mkyy]

Chych, so is it possible to omit the SB Live! and go directly from my DVD Rom (my DVD-Rom do have a digital output) to the ART DI/O -> amp -> cans.

 

[lini]

mkyy: It probably won't work, because most dvd-/cd-rom drives just use ttl signal levels, whereas a proper s/p-dif-port has 0,5 to 1 Vpp with biphase mark coding. So unless you can dig up another converting solution, you'll need your soundcard for that task.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini