A question of sound and soundcards or DAC's

[steveinspain]

OK, this may be better placed in the home cinema and hifi section, but following on from the thread entitled A question of Sound, I thought I would place this here in the hopes of attracting some of the same peoples replies !

I have an M-Audio 2496 soundcard, and sadly, windows 7, meaning no drivers for the card.
I want to connect my pc to my hifi, and am wondering about getting a DAC - something like a Beresford 7250 or even the Caiman, which is a moddified 7520.
If I did so, could I sell on my soundcard, as I assume I would connect the DAC to the onboard sound digital output. Any thoughts about this ?
The stereo is pretty high end - modded Naim gear and way better than what was their top-of-the range a few years back.

 

[steveinspain]

Might be worth waiting for M-Audio to get their ar*es in gear over driver support. When I had my Delta 66 I just used the vista x64 driver and it was fine (their beta 7 drivers were poop).


The 2496 will sound infinitely better than the onboard sound so have a hunt around on M-Audio's site for the Vista drivers and see if they work (they did for me) and I would advise just waiting for the 7 ones when they do finally appear. Saving you money as well...

I was still on XP until I went over to W7, so no vista drivers for me...
Not a question as such, but just how long will one need to wait for M-Audio to get their A**e's in gear and release drivers for people like me ?
Still unsure what to do...

 

[steveinspain]

A DAC is sort of like a soundcard except it's always external and dosn't have any effects, it's just a digital to analogue converter, the most extras you'll get is a headphone amp and volume control.

Which may make it rather appealing - If I can use it to replace my pe-amp then it is one box that can be sold on, covering the cost of the new box and much more..!

 

[steveinspain]

I would only want to replace the Naim pre-amp if I found something as good for lots less money, and as for buying a Naim DAC (or a S/H Chord) - I cannot afford it !
My basic need is to connect the pc to the stereo, and I don't want to wait ages - M-Audio are not the fastest at releasing drivers, as mentioned !
If I can get something like the Caiman that will give me a pretty decent sound from the pc, plus a headphone amp, then that is fantastic.
The pc is not my main source - vinyl then cd are, but for background, I guess the pc would become the most listened to, as it would be left on random all day. As hughythomas says, source first, and I am hoping to try to improve the pc source.