weibchen Posted March 28, 2007 Posted March 28, 2007 Which connection would be advisable? Through a sound card to AVR via SPDIF or Via Onboard via SPDIF? Does it make a difference with or without sound card?
Quest88 Posted March 28, 2007 Posted March 28, 2007 SPDIF is easier, though some people use analog out from so-called 'audiophile' cards like the x-meridien with swapped op amps. soundcard or onboard is subjective. guess u can live with onboard unles moving to higher end cards.
louco73 Posted March 28, 2007 Posted March 28, 2007 Just don't buy whatever internal sound card Quest has, it's awful ;D We did some comparison at Quest's place with his external sound card and internal sound card. The difference was huge. Whereas, when he came to my place, the difference was not really noticeable between my sound card (Xplosion) and Quest's external sound card.
weibchen Posted March 28, 2007 Author Posted March 28, 2007 What i want to know is that, if the sound card will help in the process and not color it. I know its subjective but if i think it works like this, e.g Source => onboard sound card - SPDIF => AVR processing => speakers or Source => Sound card processed => AVR re processing => Speakers Don't have friends who has such high end toys, very hard to test it out.
louco73 Posted March 28, 2007 Posted March 28, 2007 You are welcome to come and listen to my setup weibchen. I have onboard sound (never tested it) Xploision that does DTS and Dolby encoding Analogue out from sound card direct to power amps (no need for AVR) Benchmark DAC
weibchen Posted March 28, 2007 Author Posted March 28, 2007 Okay, which mobo, power amp and speakers are you using? Have you tried onboard yet, using software decoding? I've tried decoding DTS files with Video lan + AC3 filter, it works but there is occasional hangs. Maybe you might wanna try this to see if theres a difference. I would gladly take up your offer to listen to your setup, but i have to find time off from work to see if i could. =)
Quest88 Posted March 28, 2007 Posted March 28, 2007 yeah, tell me about it. the crap internal soundcard i have is a creative audigy 2zs. so your choice of soundcard really matters. theoretically even a audigy 2zs should have decent processing capabilities, but it sounds bad via analog out also. have tested software decoding and it generally always sounds worse than hardware, but it does allow you to put nifty effects in. same as louco, never tested onboard sound.
Quest88 Posted March 29, 2007 Posted March 29, 2007 actually, after testing my soundcard at louco's place, i am in half a mind to buy a new internal soundcard. but really, with the hdmi days coming, how long will it last me/us? :(
weibchen Posted March 29, 2007 Author Posted March 29, 2007 I do not think HDMI will be the end all connection for many. Many prefer analog for musical quality iirc, and that will stay until maybe they've made a processor so good that it can emulate analog traits, which i doubt it. The only use for HDMI would be for HD streaming. But from what i know some ppl actually are using onboard spdif out, my board(p5n32-E SLI) has it but i don't have an AVR to try. =( X-meridians swapable amps are for better analog sounds.
weibchen Posted March 29, 2007 Author Posted March 29, 2007 Anyway the new ATI 690 chipsets are going to be release soon, it'll be interesting hardware for HTPC. Onboard HDMI and HD audio.
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