Help me build a fine PC sound system

Hi Blindjim,
I am attaching a thread from Headfi.org This soundcard/dac had a thread there that ran about 2 years. It is the Musiland Monitor 02US. It is a pain to set up because of all it takes to get it right, but when you get there, I have found it to be an incredible value... If you need a USB DAC, I believe you would have to break $500. to beat this. Its about $130. You will read through all the pains & struggles with drivers and firmware updates, operating systems, cables and the whole gammet, but in the end, after some improvements and 2 years of updates and figuring it out, its a great little soundcard/DAC. It is Asyncronous and will accept inputs from 16/44 all the way through 24/192 through all inputs, spdif, toslink and USB, yes, it does 24/192 USB and shows which format is playing.
Needs a windows computer, really needs to be running Windows 7, needs a good server program, Foobar 2000(free) and JRivers paid versions are both very good. You'll need to set either for wasapi output and you'll need to download the latest drivers. Yes, I've heard better and plan to upgrade, but I've heard alot, Others may have, but I've never heard anything touch this when used as laid out above touch it for its price range.
You will read several on the HeadFi site say this is the best buy they have ever made in audio... it is certainly one of my best also and you will read some comparisons with some very well known DAC's. I hope this helps,
Tim
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/443786/musiland-monitor-02-us

Tim,
Thanks for posting a lead on the Musiland. It's good to see yet another bit of gear that might again disprove the notion by some that major bucks are always needed for good quality computer audio.

Although already owning a couple of great DACs, I'll likely give this one a go on another system.

Jim,

"According to what I saw the other day on the DVD Extractor web site… a Blu Ray version is upcoming."

Were you ever able to check out DVD Extractor?

Cerrot,
"I had predicted about about 5 years ago that within 10 years, ethernet would be the standard. I do believe we will see it."

Guess you can always hope, but not likely. Instead, it will soon be USB 3.0 (& subseq.) and Thunderbolt, i.e. Light Peak.

Always intereesting to listen to people talk about how to throw their money around. Ignoring all that, heres my recipe for beating down the PC audio issues at lowest price for best results.

1) build your PC right to start... GIGO.
a) use a stable motherboard thats "green PC" ie energy efficient which equals lower noise
b) choose an energy efficient multi processor... the hotter it runs the more cooling noise and other woes you fight
c)use a speedy,quiet SSD for your main drive for programs only and a quiet hard disk drive to handle the space needed to store your music files
d) run a 64bit OS for best hardware performance
e) use at least 4 gig of RAM to minimize disk read activity
f) use a decent video card to offload cycles from your CPU
g) eliminate all unnecessary fans and use the quietest running after market CPU cooler you can.

once you have your system up and running, turn off indexing and if its a dedicated music server disable swap file... background disk processes are your enemy for jitter. So far your total PC cost should be around $600-$700.

The whole point of this path is to eradicate as much as possible the issues that cause noise and jitter before audio signal even leaves your PC. I'm not a big fan of trying to engineer around a design thats broken, that just leads to the fix creating new problems.

Now that you have done the analog equivalent of creating a good turntable to spin your disc, you have to make some choices that center around dollars for sound transfer... You have to get the music out of the PC to your preamp.

Cheapest option: ASUS sound card, supports up to 192Khz sample rate at 24bit, kernel streaming. Price anywhere from $50 for a DS to $200 for a Xonar Essence STX. I've been using the DS for a while about to switch to the Essence to get a better analog section + RCA out vs minijack.

Better option: use an external DAC and the SPDIF of the ASUS. Plan on spending $500 + for this.

I can't comment on the value of the asynch USB to SPDIF and reclocker options since I haven't tried them... and I have never seen a review trial where one of these went up against an optimized PC to show that it could improve output even on a dedicated music server design. They probably have value for off the shelf machines which are already design compromised.

"Any other pc sound system users out there owning a special configuration that yields a really nice sound? Please… let me know."

I use Steve N's Empirical Audio Off-Ramp 4, having upgraded from the 3, and before that, the original. Player is Foobar/wasapi. The Off-Ramp feeds a Perfect Wave DAC, which I also use as a preamp, via spdif. The rest of the system is Theta Citadels and Legacy Whispers with Revel subs. I'm the kind of guy who is always looking for a way to improve, but honestly, things are sounding pretty spectacular at the moment. Not sure what I would do to improve, unless it would be to try the next version of the Off-Ramp when there is one. My opinion - the Empirical Audio stuff is stellar. Not the cheapest, but I'm not after the cheapest. (By the way, something many people may not realize - Foobar can be controlled with the Apple Remote app on an iTouch or iPad.)