I've been looking at the onkyo RN855 with a pair of monitoraudio bronze 2's for my office, I can add a sub for more bass later as well but the budget won't allow at the minute. In terms of connection to my PC, would I best using optical or USB? Or would I be better getting a dedicated sound card and using line out to connect in stereo? Thanks.
Onkyo RN855 connection
- Thread starter JoshR1989
- Start date
Digital connection bypasses analog circuitry of integrated, so there's no need for separate sound card.
Optical connection also prevents possibility of any ground loop issues.
And while motherboard's integrated (assuming it's PC of your signature) likely lacks Dolby Digital encoding which would be needed for 5.1 sound, stereo works over optical as standard PCM.
If you want to use also headphones then sound card would have advantage over intergated.
(good headphones give good immersion in games with binaural sound)
Optical connection also prevents possibility of any ground loop issues.
And while motherboard's integrated (assuming it's PC of your signature) likely lacks Dolby Digital encoding which would be needed for 5.1 sound, stereo works over optical as standard PCM.
If you want to use also headphones then sound card would have advantage over intergated.
(good headphones give good immersion in games with binaural sound)
What would offer the best sound quality though?
I do use headphones when everyone else is sleeping but I've only got akg k92's so nothing special or mega difficult to drive.
Optical would be the best connection for speaker use, because of not caring about quality of mobo's integrated sound card implementation and elimination of any ground loop/electrical interference chances.
For connecting headphones that Onkyo, isn't that great.
It has craptacular 70 ohm output impedance for its headphone output.
So electrical damping factor sucks when combined to low impedance headphones.
If you use headphones for gaming then sound card would have advantages.
Though not sure how well that K92 does for gaming.
While open K700-serie AKGs are among the best, that's quite bass strong and mids lacking:
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/akg-k92.php
Besides good directionality there should be also good feel of distances if headphones are any good in first minute of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1_20T8x_OI
If it sounds more like head in bucket under water, that's sign of bad/inaccurate headphones.
For connecting headphones that Onkyo, isn't that great.
It has craptacular 70 ohm output impedance for its headphone output.
So electrical damping factor sucks when combined to low impedance headphones.
If you use headphones for gaming then sound card would have advantages.
Though not sure how well that K92 does for gaming.
While open K700-serie AKGs are among the best, that's quite bass strong and mids lacking:
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/akg-k92.php
Besides good directionality there should be also good feel of distances if headphones are any good in first minute of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1_20T8x_OI
If it sounds more like head in bucket under water, that's sign of bad/inaccurate headphones.