Without wanting to sound ignorant..

mrk · 6 Oct 2011 at 16:50

It's a different termination, sound quality is not going to differ

I upgraded to the STX from the D2X as I wanted a better headphone out as the STX has a dedicated headphone amp built in. Upshot was the stereo out to the amp improved as well, bass is slightly more detailed and vocals in music are a bit clearer.

joebingo · 6 Oct 2011 at 18:49

kylew said:
Don't listen to people who say things like "if you've spent a decent amount of x then you should be spending a decent amount on y" it's a logical fallacy.

These same people will also advise you to buy expensive cables to make the sound system "shine" as well.

It's not necessary at all to have an expensive sound card just because you have a good amp and speakers. The best thing for you to do would be to run a digital cable to your amp from your PC, I'd imagine most if not all modern motherboards have digital sound outputs by now, be they optical or coaxial.

Looking at your motherboard, it has both coaxial and optical sound outputs, so grab yourself an optical cable long enough and use that. Digital audio connections give you the best options when it comes to audio.

I dunno man, every o/b sound I've used has had some form of electrical interference (pops, clicks, buzzing when you move the mouse etc). It's definitely got a lot better recently, and you can't notice it on a pair of cheap speakers. However, if you're using a good amp and speakers, you should have a nice sound card, because a good amp and speakers will pick exactly this kind of stuff up.

Expensive cables are a big lie. I record and produce music for a living. My interconnects are the cheapest ones I could find at the time. Moving cables around a lot is what breaks them. Interconnects don't move and the only time you'll need higher conductivity is if you're using really long cables.

kylew · 6 Oct 2011 at 21:22

joebingo said:
I dunno man, every o/b sound I've used has had some form of electrical interference (pops, clicks, buzzing when you move the mouse etc). It's definitely got a lot better recently, and you can't notice it on a pair of cheap speakers. However, if you're using a good amp and speakers, you should have a nice sound card, because a good amp and speakers will pick exactly this kind of stuff up.

Expensive cables are a big lie. I record and produce music for a living. My interconnects are the cheapest ones I could find at the time. Moving cables around a lot is what breaks them. Interconnects don't move and the only time you'll need higher conductivity is if you're using really long cables.

Of course, it was when I was talking about the digital connection but since he doesn't have one it doesn't matter now. If you've only got an analogue amp or whatever else a good soundcard can make a difference. I use a good one myself for analogue audio to headphones and speakers for my guitar setup.

joebingo · 6 Oct 2011 at 22:43

kylew said:
Of course, it was when I was talking about the digital connection but since he doesn't have one it doesn't matter now. If you've only got an analogue amp or whatever else a good soundcard can make a difference. I use a good one myself for analogue audio to headphones and speakers for my guitar setup.

Ahh, sorry, was being a bit special and skimmed over the digital bit... :rolleyes:

joeyjojo · 7 Oct 2011 at 04:00

In my experience: onboard is really poor (agree with joebingo), my xonar dx was fine (nothing special but did a good job for several years), but I recently got a Cambridge Audio DacMagic, and it's SO much better. How much of this is due to the unit being external to the PC tower and thus free from interference I don't know.

I'm using some Atlas Equator interconnects, which were about £25 SH from ebay, and they're doing the job. I personally wouldn't spend much more than that, but equally I wouldn't spend less.

joeyjojo · 7 Oct 2011 at 04:04

tabletf5 said:
Thanks for the info guys!

I'm gonna order a Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card.

Will Techlink Wires CR Premium 5m Twin RCA Leads be suitable? Would I connect all 4 leads to say number 2 ports on the back of the amp pictured above? or is there no difference than connecting just 2 wires?

thanks again

As you're only using stereo the DX is probably the one for you here (it uses the same chips as the D2X for the stereo channels, it just cuts corners on the surround channels which you aren't using anyway).

An excellently good value jack to RCA cable is this one, less than half price.

tabletf5 · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:37

Thanks for info lads, Nicely priced that cable is thanks joey I will order 1.

I am contemplating ordering the Asus Xonar DX and think for £50 its a bargain if the sound quality improves, Even if only slightly.

Cheers

mrk · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:41

That cable is only 1.5m so make sure it is long enough!

I had qunex before, nice quality cables but I needed longer without sacrificing cost and build quality...hence wirescr

joebingo · 7 Oct 2011 at 15:46

joeyjojo said:
In my experience: onboard is really poor (agree with joebingo), my xonar dx was fine (nothing special but did a good job for several years), but I recently got a Cambridge Audio DacMagic, and it's SO much better. How much of this is due to the unit being external to the PC tower and thus free from interference I don't know.

I'm using some Atlas Equator interconnects, which were about £25 SH from ebay, and they're doing the job. I personally wouldn't spend much more than that, but equally I wouldn't spend less.

If you're taking the DAC off the motherboard, then the computer is playing zero role in decoding sounds. I remember reading elsewhere that the reason for interference with onboard sound is down to the motherboard being used for everything (SATA, IDE, USB, RAM, Processing,VGA in some cases, Sound, Expansion etc etc). Because of this, the circuits are so close together and interlinked that they introduce a lot of crosstalk --> the converters in the sound circuit also decode the electrical signals introduced by input on the USB circuit.

Using a usb/pci sound card eliminates this but limits you to using whichever converters the makers of the sound card have opted for. Going for an external converter is the best option as you can spend as little or as much as you like giving you a wide range of quality (all a vast improvement over onboard). I've been toying with the idea of an external DAC for a while now, but have held off since my audio set up is quite convoluted enough at the moment

Sorry about the spiel, got away from myself a little there!