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Which DAC or Sound Card


I have a very simple computer based system and I am not at all computer savvy. Windows XP utilizing Windows Media Player hooked up to Audioengine A5's ( self powered ) It occurs to me that a decent DAC or perhaps something other than the OEM sound card could give me considerable improvement in sound quality. Problem is I don't know where to start and I wouldn't want to spend over a couple hundred dollars for either one.
Any suggestions ? Thanks much.
kbamhi
2002ss335
84 posts
 
This might help you get started.
Regards,
Todd
Sound card reviews
kbamhi OP
39 posts
 
Thanks Todd, but after a lot of research and going back to old threads here on AG, it appears the best route may be hooking up a dac via usb. I am going to try that out.
istanbulu
291 posts
 
.

Hi Kbamhi,

One place to begin your research for the perfect (perfect for you) USB DAC might be to talk to Larry Moore of Ultra Fi audio. I have one of his iRoc USB DACs hooked up to a MacMini and the rest of my gear and like it very much.

Happy listening,

Ed

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cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
You may want to look into a firewire to spdif converter so that you aren't limited to dacs which only have usb input. I just picked up an M Audio Firewire Solo, which I have connected to a Musical Fidelity XDAC V3 and it sounds pretty sweet.

I have a Benchmark DAC hooked upto a squeezebox in my main rig and the Benchmark sounds pretty good also.

If you have USB 2.0, a USB DAC may be okay. If your PC has USB 1.1, I'd go with firewire (if your PC doesn't have firewire, you can get a PCI firewire card (go with the texas instrument chip). USB was never designed to transfer high multimedia loads-it was designed to replace parrallel and serial ports. Also, firewire (6 pin) uses PC power and no need for an outboard power source - and doesn't bottleneck like a USB port may.
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