External sound instead?

Born_2_Kill_83 · 24 Sep 2014 at 18:59

After just purchasing my SB Z I'm thinking of getting rid of it, the reason being I need the space between my GPU's for cooling reasons.

Until I looked today I didn't realise you can get external USB sound cards so to speak, what do I need so I don't loose any quality for gaming and music from what my SB Z gives me.

I'll be using my old HD555's, do these external thingy's just use USB and you plug your headphones straight into them?

Up to £100.

Rroff · 24 Sep 2014 at 19:05

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?catid=1925&groupid=701&sortby=priceAsctake your pick

rids57 · 24 Sep 2014 at 19:12

No space above your top graphics card? I used that PCIe x1 for ages without any trouble, though I did have to move it down to the bottom PCIex4 when I rebuilt as the CPU cooler encroached too much.

Born_2_Kill_83 · 24 Sep 2014 at 19:55

No afraid not, MSI Gaming 7 X99.

rids57 · 24 Sep 2014 at 19:57

right, they do try and cram the PCIe slots a bit too close to the CPU sockets on X79 and X99

Born_2_Kill_83 · 24 Sep 2014 at 20:00

Yeah using the top and bottom slots just to try and get some space between the cards :-(

nails666 · 25 Sep 2014 at 09:48

I'm considering the same Born, I have the Z97 Gaming 7 board and on that I do have a 1x PCIe slot above the first 16x slot that I have my top gpu in but it's very close and with the gpu getting very hot I'm a bit worried about cooking any sound card I put in there!

From a sound quality perspective (speaker and headphone) how would a Xonar U7 compare to a Xonar Phoebus as they are pretty much the same price?

Born_2_Kill_83 · 25 Sep 2014 at 15:28

This I would like to know as well, one of the ones I'm looking at.

rids57 · 25 Sep 2014 at 15:33

TwST is your most likely candidate for answering that as he has them all there.

TwsT · 25 Sep 2014 at 16:02

the u7 is pretty good what is odd is the choice in DAC chip

by all standards it's a chip used it highend home theater equipment so it's not well documented as a DAC for headphone use but then the u7 is designed for multimedia.

It does a good job for the money a bit like the d2x if I'm honest it will fair better than a d2x with headphones though.

there is a U5 coming out very soon.

rids57 · 25 Sep 2014 at 16:27

same chip as used in the Bryston BDA-1 (£2350) and the Astell & Kern AK100 II (£800) :eek:

rids57 · 25 Sep 2014 at 16:48

Talking about external sound cards, you going to be selling the Sound Blaster X7 when it becomes available (December I think)?

It looks to be an absolute beast, it's like an STX/ZxR with a 100W speaker power amp added on - it's even got a headphone stand you plug into the back

http://www.soundblaster.com/x7/#home

Ninja Pirate · 25 Sep 2014 at 22:59

rids57 said:
same chip as used in the Bryston BDA-1 (£2350) and the Astell & Kern AK100 II (£800)

I should point out that the implementation of any DAC chip is much more important than the chip itself. The number of poorly implement ES9018 DAC's on the market is almost laughable...

rids57 · 25 Sep 2014 at 23:37

Yep, it's the circuitry around the DAC chip that defines the sound not the chip itself. I think if it were possible to compare the outputs of the discreet DAC chips they would all be pretty close.

What I was trying to convey was that just because it's in a Creative Labs Sound Blaster box, it doesn't have to be a cheap and cheerful part. Obviously, they don't have the support circuitry and components that the high end DACs do although I do think in a lot of cases those high end DACs are grossly overpriced.