[fatalpastry]

Hi, i'm a total noob and this is my first post but I have always loved good sound. 
 
My question is, I have an old audigy 2 zs and I also have an x-fi extrememusic (or some similair x-FI i would have to take apart another computer to get at it to check)
and I just bought a bravo v2 tube headphone amp to use my audio technica ath-m50. Currently I have been using just onboard audio from my asus sabertooth z77 but
I was wondering what would be the best possibly configuration I could use from what I have? Would it be best to use the digital out from one of the soundblaster cards and input that into the bravo v2 and plug the cans into that? 
 
Ideally I would like the option which would give me the best sounding audio, I don't really care for messing with equalizers or anything so a way to get just the pure signal through the tube into my ears would be what I want the most I think. I'm not using a sound card right now because my friend convinced me the new motherboards have better onboard but i honestly think my old ass crapblaster sounds better than the onboard, but the bravo hasnt shipped so I cant play with it yet
 
thanks for your time!

 

[DefQon]

Only two way's to connect that Bravo to your onboard/external sound card.
 
1. Line-out cable from the amplifier to the soundcard/onboard
 
2. Amp RCA to a DAC, digital out (or toslink cable) to the onboard soundcard, although I don't think your Audigy has optical out.
 
All the best,

 

[fatalpastry]

Thanks, but I still would like to know what would be better using onboard or the soundcard to run to the DAC?
 
the mother board is alot newer so it could have better onboard audio from my limited knowledge?
 
motherboard is http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/SABERTOOTH_Z77/
 
sound card is http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?prodID=4915&prodName=Audigy%202%20ZS&page=0
 
and i also have a http://us.store.creative.com/Sound-Blaster-XFi-XtremeMusic-BStock/M/B000AY7A1I.htm
 
(its not a bstock but that has the picture lol)

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

Thanks, but I still would like to know what would be better using onboard or the soundcard to run to the DAC?
 
the mother board is alot newer so it could have better onboard audio from my limited knowledge?
 
motherboard is http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/SABERTOOTH_Z77/
 
sound card is http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?prodID=4915&prodName=Audigy%202%20ZS&page=0
 
and i also have a http://us.store.creative.com/Sound-Blaster-XFi-XtremeMusic-BStock/M/B000AY7A1I.htm
 
(its not a bstock but that has the picture lol)

 
I have the Audigy it's not bad but both the Xi-fi and Audigy are very old products from Creative's line of sound cards. The onboard Realtek will best both the Audigy and Xi-fi in terms of sound performance. The Audigy and Xi-fi's are only slightly better in terms of usage for gaming where stuff such CMSS3D and enhanced equaliser's come into play.

 

[fatalpastry]

Thank you so much!