Audiophiles: Need advice!

[dave510]

I've got a Blood Rage on order. It comes with the Sonar X-Fi sound card. My question is:

I will be using this machine for all types of media, including gaming, listening to music, and watching blu-ray movies. Is there any reason this card should be replaced by, oh, say, the Auzentech HTHD? My sound will be running through my nice Denon receiver with a pair of Klipsch floorstanding speakers.

Am I correct in saying that the DVI -> HDMI will allow me to run my audio via HDMI from my video card to my receiver? If this is true, will the sound still be processed by the dedicated sound card?

Any advice is much appreciated! :up:

[zanzabar]

that card isnt an xfi its a realtec with xfi codecs, so i would suggest a sound card

[Bradan]

WOAH.

dont spend money on a sound card if you have a good receiver.

just use the SPDIF(optical/composite) out to your receiver and have your receiver do the digital to analog conversion.

If the card doesn't have a digital spdif out, buy a cheap HT card or something that has optical out.

[Serpentarius]

I've got a Blood Rage on order. It comes with the Sonar X-Fi sound card. My question is:

I will be using this machine for all types of media, including gaming, listening to music, and watching blu-ray movies. Is there any reason this card should be replaced by, oh, say, the Auzentech HTHD? My sound will be running through my nice Denon receiver with a pair of Klipsch floorstanding speakers.

Am I correct in saying that the DVI -> HDMI will allow me to run my audio via HDMI from my video card to my receiver? If this is true, will the sound still be processed by the dedicated sound card?

Any advice is much appreciated! :up:

you'll have to adjust the bios to disable the built-in soundcard to avoid IRQ conflict, after adjusting, proceed to operating system and install driver




WOAH.

dont spend money on a sound card if you have a good receiver.

just use the SPDIF(optical/composite) out to your receiver and have your receiver do the digital to analog conversion.

If the card doesn't have a digital spdif out, buy a cheap HT card or something that has optical out.


actually it's quite important to have a good output of signals before the signal enters the receiver ...

[dave510]

you'll have to adjust the bios to disable the built-in soundcard to avoid IRQ conflict, after adjusting, proceed to operating system and install driver

Is this in order to run sound through the video card? Or is this to use a separate sound card than the one that comes with the motherboard?




actually it's quite important to have a good output of signals before the signal enters the receiver ...

Would it be worth going with the Home Theater HD?

[Bradan]

you'll have to adjust the bios to disable the built-in soundcard to avoid IRQ conflict, after adjusting, proceed to operating system and install driver






actually it's quite important to have a good output of signals before the signal enters the receiver ...

well, you dont know what you're talking about.

SPDIF out is digital, it hasn't been touched by the sound card.

It is processed by the receiver.

[lowfat]

WOAH.

dont spend money on a sound card if you have a good receiver.

just use the SPDIF(optical/composite) out to your receiver and have your receiver do the digital to analog conversion.

If the card doesn't have a digital spdif out, buy a cheap HT card or something that has optical out.

But he will be using it for Bluray. He isn't going to get HD audio with using the onboard optical. If he wants to use HDMI he will be limited to either the Xonar HDAV1.3 or the Auzen Home Theatre HD.

[Bradan]

But he will be using it for Bluray. He isn't going to get HD audio with using the onboard optical. If he wants to use HDMI he will be limited to either the Xonar HDAV1.3 or the Auzen Home Theatre HD.

optical out is a passthrough.
it allows you to bypass the soundcard. its seriously the last time im saying it. I'm out of this thread.

[Xel'Naga]

well, you dont know what you're talking about.

SPDIF out is digital, it hasn't been touched by the sound card.

It is processed by the receiver.
If the receiver DAC is not self-clocking, you may have high jitter. And the onboard SPDIF implementation is quite poor. Otherwise you are right. I wouldn't spend money on a sound card in this case.

[Bradan]

If the receiver DAC is not self-clocking, you may have high jitter. And the onboard SPDIF implementation is quite poor. Otherwise you are right. I wouldn't spend money on a sound card in this case.

That's possible, but nothing I've seen first hand. I think any newer onboard car that suppourts optical out wouldn't suffer from it, maybe some older ones.

Have you noticed any jitter in a situation like this?

[Gilhooley]

That's possible, but nothing I've seen first hand. I think any newer onboard car that suppourts optical out wouldn't suffer from it, maybe some older ones.

Have you noticed any jitter in a situation like this?

Most onboard soundcards are crap as you know - or at least was, some are good today. But you newer really know before and distortions due to shielding is very easy to hear - not to speak of the absense of "bit perfect" streams. I've tested a lot of MBs and usally it only takes a few seconds with headphones to hear for the telltale "buzzing".

Digital is only "digital" if its error free :p:

[S_G]

actually it's quite important to have a good output of signals before the signal enters the receiver ...Not when you're trying to pass a digital signal. A good sound card generally means it has a good DAC.

If you're going digital, you should be aiming for a sound card that can output bitperfect over S/PDIF or HDMI, whatever you're going to use. I'd also look into DTS Interactive / DTS Connect, for real-time encoding of surround sound audio (ie. with games, where it isn't already encoded) -- unless your receiver can support uncompressed 5.1/7.1 over HDMI, in which case make sure your sound card can do that. The actual quality of the sound card is irrelevant here.

[dave510]

I suppose I'll start by using the card that comes with the Blood Rage and seeing if it works for me.