[Riordan]

could it be that there is THE one perfect soundcard for music enthusiasts on a budget? bit-perfect digital output and audiophile analog stereo output at the unbelievable price of 25$ ?
apparantly yes. it's the chaintech av-710.

but could it also be that the company producing this marvel doesn't WANT to sell it?
apparently yes. at least they don't want to sell it in europe. the av-710 is still, months after release, unavailable in the eu.

in the us, two big online stores sell it - but one doesn't ship outside of north america at all, and the other has extremely high shipping costs. two small european online stores also sell it, one in norway, one in switzerland - both outside the eu, both only selling in their own country (ah yes, and liechtenstein...)

am i the only one thinking this is rather odd? i guess chaintech/via mostly sell mainboards/chips and they probably don't even know how good their own soundcard is - but why then did they buy the company producing it?

 

[gaboo]

I hope you realize that the head-fi market is utterly small compared to the multi-channel gaming/dvd market. An their card is just another budget card out there for the vast majority of people...

 

[Riordan]

yes, i know. doesn't help my frustration, though

 

[gaboo]

Btw, you have the Benchmark DAC-1 (in your profile). Why do you need this card so badly? Plenty of cards with digital out on par with this one. Its clock circuitry is nothing special and Envy24HT-S chips are found on many cards...

 

[Riordan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gaboo Btw, you have the Benchmark DAC-1 (in your profile). Why do you need this card so badly? Plenty of cards with digital out on par with this one. Its clock circuitry is nothing special and Envy24HT-S chips are found on many cards...

the only thing i need is bit-perfect digital out - without resampling. my research led me to believe that there are only a few cards that do this (most of them with the envy24HT-S) - and none are nearly as cheap as the chaintech. the only one readily available to me would be the terratec at roughly three times the cost. it might be a better card all around, but i really only need the bit-perfect digital out...

i'd be very greatful if you could tell me of another card under 50$ with true bit-perfect digital out - so far i found none.

 

[cosmopragma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riordan could it be that there is THE one perfect soundcard for music enthusiasts on a budget? bit-perfect digital output and audiophile analog stereo output at the unbelievable price of 25$ ? apparantly yes. it's the chaintech av-710. but could it also be that the company producing this marvel doesn't WANT to sell it? apparently yes. at least they don't want to sell it in europe. the av-710 is still, months after release, unavailable in the eu. in the us, two big online stores sell it - but one doesn't ship outside of north america at all, and the other has extremely high shipping costs. two small european online stores also sell it, one in norway, one in switzerland - both outside the eu, both only selling in their own country (ah yes, and liechtenstein...) am i the only one thinking this is rather odd? i guess chaintech/via mostly sell mainboards/chips and they probably don't even know how good their own soundcard is - but why then did they buy the company producing it?

?????????
I've recently purchased two of these cards from Computergeeks, one for my GF and one for a fellow finnish head-fier (lacking a credit card).
Shipping costs were 16 $ for both cards, shipping for one card costs 14 $.
BTW, the analog out isn't that great, especially compared to my Benchmark.
Not exactly what I'd call "audiophile".

 

[gaboo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riordan the only thing i need is bit-perfect digital out - without resampling. my research led me to believe that there are only a few cards that do this (most of them with the envy24HT-S) - and none are nearly as cheap as the chaintech.

My limited experience with this is that bit-perfect digital out is a matter of drivers. Even for chaintech I seem to recall that you have to use drivers from another card.

Quote:

the only one readily available to me would be the terratec at roughly three times the cost. it might be a better card all around, but i really only need the bit-perfect digital out... i'd be very greatful if you could tell me of another card under 50$ with true bit-perfect digital out - so far i found none.

I've not been to Europe for a while, so I'm not familiar with the market there. Sorry, I can't help you with that...

 

[Riordan]

cosmopragma,
now that's good news... when i tried to buy 3 cards (the others for a friend of mine) the shipping costs given by the website were much higher, more like 25$ per card.

i guess i'll try again

btw, i don't need the analog out for the same reason that you don't need it...

 

[Riordan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gaboo My limited experience with this is that bit-perfect digital out is a matter of drivers. Even for chaintech I seem to recall that you have to use drivers from another card. I've not been to Europe for a while, so I'm not familiar with the market there. Sorry, I can't help you with that...

no, from what i've read here and elsewhere it's not just a driver issue - it seems most consumer cards resample no matter what (they have to in order to comply with the ac97 specification). and the creative labs cards (all audigys included) apparently do a shoddy job to boot.

thanks for your help anyway