Arcam rDac Reviewed for gaming and music

bemaniac

bemaniac

bemaniac

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Hello, I've been so happy with a new purchase of mine for less than my xonar ST card that I'm now getting rid of the Xonar and keeping it as it is a HUGE upgrade.

This product is the heavy little sturdy box called the Arcam rPac. A £149 box with usb in and phono + headphone out. Basically a USB soundcard for converting whatever you play for your amp or headphones.

Previously I found having a high end graphics card can lead to noise on the pci bus even meaning that the Xonar ST got occasional tiny background sounds when moving the mouse or opening a program, but with the rPac absolutely all internal interference is removed and a crystal clear powerful sound is all that can be heard.

Windows drivers install and output is switched to the device the moment you plug it in so it is literally plug and play - no more xonar drivers and their problems with eax games. I'm told by the dealer I bought from a new usb cable can improve the sound greatly but not to go overboard on the cost of this cable limiting it to £40 extra for a good audiophile entry level one.

With spotify premium (£9.99) the high quality tracks do now sound totally different to the xonar ST with my lower notes separated much better for the subwoofer and the treble being slighly more forward than the ST which is really nice with the uni-q Kef drivers I've got. The rPac has a way with voices but not sibilant at all.

I think only moving upto a £500 dac would improve on this device as a pc soundcard and the performance in guild wars 2 has also been amazing. The headphone amp is more powerful than the ST as well.

Basically if you have £150 for a soundcard and want to just get sound out of your system in the highest possible quality 2.1 then don't buy a soundcard get this it is higher fidelity than the Xonar ST/STX.

Spotify/Flac > USB > rPac with Ultrasone pro900 headphones > Chord Crimson plus phono > Cambridge Audio 650A > silver anniversary XT biwires > Kef q500 + Paradigm 15" 750w Sub
 
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Minstadave said:
The dealer must have seen you coming, super platinum encrusted USB cable sir? That'll be your life savings and a kidney.
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I'm using the one in the box because I too am like you. I am doing my research into snake oil.
I will say that you should make sure you have a cable good enough to be shielded and short enough to maintain the async timing because a 30 meter usb cable would not give great performance and neither would a non magnetically shielded one I think that's all the guy in store meant. He did laugh and say some crazy guy bought an £800 usb cable from their site last month and they don't believe such things are any better than a sturdy short shielded standard cable.
 
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bemaniac said:
Previously I found having a high end graphics card can lead to noise on the pci bus even meaning that the Xonar ST got occasional tiny background sounds when moving the mouse or opening a program, but with the rDac absolutely all internal interference is removed and a crystal clear powerful sound is all that can be heard.
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I still call this BS.

I have the STX myself and an ST, and have installed many of both and only ever came across this issue once or twice which was a fault of the case's front panel IO panel not being earthed/shielded properly.
Never EVER have i come across interference or noise with these cards, even when wedged between massive graphics cards and against a PSU.

The Arcam rDAC is great, there is no denying that, simple too. I would however not even consider it over the FiiO E17 + E09K combo though, it's worth A LOT more than it's sold at IMO.
 
Rossi~ said:
I still call this BS.

I have the STX myself and an ST, and have installed many of both and only ever came across this issue once or twice which was a fault of the case's front panel IO panel not being earthed/shielded properly.
Never EVER have i come across interference or noise with these cards, even when wedged between massive graphics cards and against a PSU.

The Arcam rDAC is great, there is no denying that, simple too. I would however not even consider it over the FiiO E17 + E09K combo though, it's worth A LOT more than it's sold at IMO.
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I do not use the front panel at all just phono directly from the ST to the amp. I have tried it, I put volume very high and move the mouse around because I've got the ST and the rpac plugged in right now I can do really simple side by sides and the rpac is silent whilst the ST makes little lightsaber noises when i move the mouse.
 
bemaniac said:
I do not use the front panel at all just phono directly from the ST to the amp. I have tried it, I put volume very high and move the mouse around because I've got the ST and the rpac plugged in right now I can do really simple side by sides and the rpac is silent whilst the ST makes little lightsaber noises when i move the mouse.
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I would say you had a faulty card maybe then.
 
Any internal sound card can pick up EMI. The Essence may be a superb card, but it's not immune. I've seen a couple comments from others on other forums who had this problem. Probably unlikely that these people investigated a way to get around it. Sometimes a solution can be found, but not always. Most people like things just to work, with the minimal of fuss. In such cases, an external DAC is the only option.
 
I used to have the same issues as the OP. The cause was a CPU power saving state setting that was activated in the BIOS.
 
Asus state that if you can hear noise interference then you should RMA the card, the essence series was designed to remove all external noise. If you're hearing it your card is faulty.

Also appreciate the review OP, will have to hear to believe though.
 
Hehe well I auctioned it now for £100 and it's with a new user who seems happy with it so meh I'm more than happy with my new rpac. Some say it's the best usb bus powered sound you can get. C1e state hmm I'll have a look at my x79 and see tonight.
 
Rexton said:
Asus state that if you can hear noise interference then you should RMA the card, the essence series was designed to remove all external noise. If you're hearing it your card is faulty.

Also appreciate the review OP, will have to hear to believe though.
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Not entirely true, my card hard horrific performance in the bottom pci slot on my motherboard. (sounded worse than the x-fi it replaced and worse than onboard) Shifted it up a slot and it solved the performance problems. Still get slight EMI problems and they aren't related to the card either, they are caused by a ground loop between the card and the amp. Best method of getting around EMI pickup is to either switch over to using professional balanced connections (XLR and 1/4" TRS) or do as the OP has done and get an external dac. Balanced would be my choice as you could still get noise between the dac and the amp, although this is very unlikely.
 
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