Best soundcard for use with amplifier?

jmhduck

jmhduck

jmhduck

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Hi guys,

I recently bought myself a Yamaha RX-V100D receiver and some Mission M71i speakers.

I currently just have my onboard laptop soundcard and I'm looking for something better.

What would you guys recommend, are there any good usb soundcards? I'm currently thinking a usb soundcard with optical out would be good, as that would be more versatile.

I am planning on building myself a new rig when I get back to the UK so I could get an internal soundcard if they're a lot better.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated ;)!
 
I would probably stretch to £200.

This is probably a stupid question but whats the difference between a DAC and a soundcard? I just googled that DAC and it seems that it takes audio in and outputs analogue, wouldn't it be better to use optical straight into the amplifier?
 
A soundcard is like a 'jack of all trades' DAC. In that it copes with EAX for gaming, software 'enhancements' such as crystalisers that are supposed to make them sound better, multiple processors and hardware dedicated to making sound in games faster and other things I am not sure about.

A DAC is simply a digital to analogue converter. You plug a digital source in one end and get analogue out of the other. Its like a high quality soundcard that does have all the added crap of a soundcard like crystalisers, gaming processors etc.

I dont think you can run optical straight into the amplifier as it will still be a digital source. You need the dac or a soundcard to output to an analogue signal first

I know this isnt a very good description but you get the idea. If I were you I would ask on avforums aswell as my answer is very basic.

Also sorry for the late reply, i have been having a few drinks over the weekend and didnt want to give you a crappy drunken answer!
 
No problem for the slow reply! Hope you had a good weekend.

I'm pretty certain I can plug optical strait into my amplifier as it has 3 optical inputs. It also has various dolby decoding built in etc. It's this one here.
 
jmhduck said:
No problem for the slow reply! Hope you had a good weekend.

I'm pretty certain I can plug optical strait into my amplifier as it has 3 optical inputs. It also has various dolby decoding built in etc. It's this one here.
Click to expand...

You could, but I would say that a standalaone DAC would be better than the DAC in the yamaha amp. If music is your thing then get yourself a DAC, then plug the x2 phono cables from the DAC into the stereo phono inputs on your amp and just run it without any of the dsp crap and dolby pro logic, and let it run straight 2 channel for music.

I use optical from my sky_hd box into my processor (old yamaha dsp-e800), but also have the phono outputs of my sky HD box hooked directly to my stereo amp powering my fronts speakers. Listening to music directly to the stereo amp is far superior to through optical and processor.
 
-Ad- said:
You could, but I would say that a standalaone DAC would be better than the DAC in the yamaha amp. If music is your thing then get yourself a DAC, then plug the x2 phono cables from the DAC into the stereo phono inputs on your amp and just run it without any of the dsp crap and dolby pro logic, and let it run straight 2 channel for music.

I use optical from my sky_hd box into my processor (old yamaha dsp-e800), but also have the phono outputs of my sky HD box hooked directly to my stereo amp powering my fronts speakers. Listening to music directly to the stereo amp is far superior to through optical and processor.
Click to expand...
I'll still need a soundcard to output the optical to the DAC though. If I wanted 5.1 would I need multiple DACs?

It sounds like using a DAC is better for music but for films strait into the amp might be best - is that correct?

What soundcard/DAC would you recommend?
 
Alright anyone going to stop me before getting one of these? If I am outputting to a DAC will still need an optical output which my laptop doesn't have.
 
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