Question about onboard SPDIF / transport to a DAC

just Scott · 25 May 2008 at 17:37

Hey guys

Just a quick question. I've just bought a new DAC, which is going to be the source in my headphones setup. The DAC's only inputs are SPDIF (optical and coaxial). Now, my motherboard has onboard digital outputs of both kinds, but I'm always hearing how bad the quality is from them. So I was wondering, what would be the best way to get around this? I've got about £20 to spend.

Should I get a sound card with digital outputs? For about £20 I could probably get a cheap Soundblaster - the question is, would it output higher quality than my motherboards SPDIF output? Also, if you search the popular auction site for "usb to spdif" there are a couple of adapters from Hong Kong, does anyone know if they'd do a good job or not?

Thanks for any input.

just Scott · 25 May 2008 at 19:14

Ah I see. So there's no benefits of a different digital output then?

just Scott · 25 May 2008 at 19:24

Great, thanks mate you've saved me 20 quid.

just Scott · 25 May 2008 at 22:09

So erm, should I get a sound card or not?

Bare in mind my headphones are pretty transparent and would most likely reveal flaws in a system. I have Sennheiser HD650s.

just Scott · 25 May 2008 at 22:42

dave-lew99 said:
If you're going to buy a soundcard, only do it if you can lock the clock on it to that on your DAC, i don't know the make/model of your DAC to be able to tell you if it has that feature.

It's not going to be cheap, so use the onboard for now and see what you think.

Not sure what you mean by that.

This is the DAC I have.

just Scott · 26 May 2008 at 11:48

dave-lew99 said:
Obviously you don't have a clue what you're talking about if you think i get phrases from audiophile magazines - i have sat and i have heard the difference it makes myself, i can also hear the difference on small capacitor change on a tweeter crossover makes - that was some testing i did for a research company.

That DAC doesn't appear to support external clock anyway, i was assuming since it was a standalone DAC it would be somthing more fully featured, that's just a digital headphone amp to me.

It's only a £60 DAC. It has a headphone amp and pre-amp built in as well yeah. I won't be using them though, I have a separate headphone amp.

Apparently it's the best DAC in the price range though.

just Scott · 26 May 2008 at 13:54

dave-lew99 said:
No, it's commercially sensitive and it was done in the lab.

On a £60 DAC you won't be able to tell, i was assuming the OP was spending upwards of £1,000 as thats generally where standalone DACs start being worth it, this is nothing more than a digital headphone amp.

It's a DAC with a headphone amp. If it was just a "digital headphone amp" then it wouldn't have the feature to bypass the amp and use it as a standalone DAC. Unless I'm missing something...

I think I'm going to take AbsenceJam's advice this time mate. He seems to be a bit more realistic about it.