SOLVED Need help deciding (sound card purchase)

[Kosay1991]

Hi all ,

I'm kind of new to the audio scene and I need your assistance!

Being in love with music almost all my life and even going a bit into composing a few riffs here and there in my free time , I have decided to jump on the high end audio bandwagon.

Having spent some money on audio hardware I figured the next step is getting a dedicated audio sound card and I found myself in a very strange place. If you ask me about video cards, CPU's, hard drives I am very knowledgeable but when it comes to sound cards my knowledge is extremely limited. I have absolutely no idea what to buy. I found this deal on newegg but I'm not sure if the sound card is any good (I found the convenience of a front panel appealing) or can I get something better with the money? I'm just looking for some advice .

For some background onto how far I've gotten: I have sprung about 300-ish dollars on a decent 2.1 system (sub from polk audio, book shelf speakers from dayton and an amplifier) I still didn't indulge in a crossover though to control clipping in my book shelf speakers (trying to offload all the bass work to polk!)

PS: Please don't get biased or hot headed I'm just looking on some advice that is based on facts and proper explanations.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Best thing for recording is a good set of headphones. Lets you hear better than you ever could with speakers.

 

[Kosay1991]

Forgot to add:
I'm purely using analog cabling which part of the main reason I started wanting to look into a new sound card since my mobo is creating very audible interference on my output

 

[Kosay1991]

Best thing for recording is a good set of headphones. Lets you hear better than you ever could with speakers.

Recording is part of why im going into this (20% maybe?) but I mostly like listening to clean loud audio. Also I'm not looking into headphones.

 

[Knufire]

Just an amp or receiver/amp? Digital out not possible?

Really I'd look around the Computer Audio section on Head-Fi and see what they recommend, audio isn't this forums forte. Most of us go ASUS, but that's mostly due to their implementation (Dolby Headphone) of virtual surround sound being better than CMSS-3D from Creative.

The Schitt Modi seems to be talked about quite a bit there.

 

[NiHaoMike]

There's an Asus card that does 124dB SNR for use with headphones or legacy speaker amplifiers, but you're best off with a digital amplifier for speakers.

 

[Theocnoob]

Like Knufire said we don't do audio properly here because there just aren't any (maybe 1?) audio experts here. Try the other forum suggested.

 

[bamato]

While Creative's drivers and software have had their problems in the past, they seemed to have cleaned that up for the most part.

That being said, Asus Xonars seem to be the favored. Having swap-able op-amps is a very nice feature to have if you're an audiophile. You plan to use this to do any gaming? If so, do you have an encoding preference (DTS, DD)? What's your budget?

 

[Kosay1991]

While Creative's drivers and software have had their problems in the past, they seemed to have cleaned that up for the most part.

That being said, Asus Xonars seem to be the favored. Having swap-able op-amps is a very nice feature to have if you're an audiophile. You plan to use this to do any gaming? If so, do you have an encoding preference (DTS, DD)? What's your budget?

I have a receiver amp that basically powers my 2 bookshelf speakers (the bookshelf speakers are dayton pair 80 dollar ones that are composed off their own bass and tweeters). The receiver amp allows me to kill bass from the signal going to the bookshelf speakers completely so that the bookshelf speakers can take care of the higher notes.

The 2 book shelf speakers go through the amp and come out as a single 3.5mm line out. Then the subwoofer (polk audio psw10) has its own variable crossover and amp built in which is great so i set the sub crossover to 80Hz and below the sub also has 3.5mm out.

I have a male 3.5mm splitter into 2 female 3.5mm. I use that to connect both speakers and subwoofer to the line out on my mobo.

My current upgrade goals is to get a crossover between the speaker amp and the mobo so i can get some control over the signal that goes to the bookshelf speakers.

I also wanted to get the sound card that I listed for you guys (I'm hoping it would make a difference) again I'm not sure how much to spend or what to get but the sound card I linked in the original post seemed like a good deal.

 

[Kosay1991]

Oh also the goal of this setup is to blast music in a relatively small apartment for small house parties also for some nice loud audio while gaming

 

[Darknecron]

Sounds like you just need an ASUS Xonar DS.

I assume that you are running the Dayton B652s. You'd notice more of an improvement via a speaker upgrade than with a dedicated sound card...I suggest Pioneer SP-BS41-LR, or Fluance SX6. The prior will have louder output.

What wattage is your receiver supplying?

 

[Kosay1991]

For sound card I already bought the creative mostly for the convenience of the front panel (plus it fits my color theme I'm a sucker for red and black)

I'm also looking to upgrade my speakers the speakers you provided in the link do they come build in with an amp or do they need an amp? My amp is kinda weak its only 25 watts @ 4ohm even less with higher resistances.

If I get the pioneers what amp do you recommend with it?

 

[Darknecron]

I recommend the AudioSource AMP-100.

Also, how far do you sit from your speakers?

EDIT: What is your budget?

 

[NiHaoMike]

I recommend the AudioSource AMP-100.

Also, how far do you sit from your speakers?

EDIT: What is your budget?

I wouldn't recommend one of those "legacy" analog amplifiers. With a digital source like a PC, a digital amplifier is the way to go. There are also "hybrid" digital amplifiers that offer some of the digital amplifier benefits with an analog source.

You can probably find a digital amplifier for cheap at places like Goodwill, especially those that don't have HDMI. If you're buying new, go for Panasonic or Samsung since those use HVICs.

 

[Darknecron]

I recommended it because it is cheap. Not sure what the OP's budget is...and he's getting better BS speakers and upgrading the amp.

However, I will keep that in mind..I wasn't aware that amplifier type mattered that much. YLSED.

 

[Kosay1991]

Okay I might have done something very bad.. alot of impulse buying (A).
I bought those 2:

http://www.frys.com/product/7016191 @$150

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...p=&AID=10440897&PID=404255&SID=321906_desktop @$100

The deals were just too good to pass up. Instead of getting an amp and a crossover which wouldve both went to about 150 I just got a proper receiver that has an internal crossover (also would be part of any 5.1 upgrades in the future). Those 2 are going to go with my polk audio psw10 and with the sound card I believe I'm in a good place right now.

Just the right amount of upgrade i was looking for !

 

[Darknecron]

Not a bad choice...I had my eyes on those polks a while back (before getting my Cambridge S30s).

HOWEVER, if you read this in time, cancel your order of the Polks, and grab these Pioneers instead. They just went on sale today. The Pioneer SP-BS41-LR has more accurate and detailed sound than the polk 35b.

 

[NiHaoMike]

Onkyo is not at all bad but they still use IPMs instead of the newer HVICs. That basically means lower efficiency (though not by much if it's designed properly) and a lower carrier frequency, which means a lower resolution. Also, the DSP part (in the back near the HDMI connectors) of some Onkyos tends to run hot, which could cause reliability issues. If yours is that way, I suggest putting a fan (just any decent quality fan will do) on top of it to keep it cool.

 

[Kosay1991]

Sorry Dark! I just saw your message :/.

Its a tad too late :/. Honestly I mainly bought the polk because I love their tweeter they just have a really crisp nice sound to them. I do appreciate the advice though.

As for the amp/receiver fry's contacted me informing me they were out of stock .

Instead I went a step up and got this for $170: https://www.accessories4less.com/in...3345592a403b2f4a37a59384e7ab28f02be1";i:1;N;}

Which tbh is way more than what I currently need. But I know I will be gradually upgrading to a much better 5.1 system in the near future and this will be there for that.

 

[NiHaoMike]

That one advertises "discrete circuitry", which I presume means individual MOSFETs for the outputs. Which basically means the performance could be anywhere depending on the exact design. Through hole MOSFETs would perform about as well as IPMs and surface mount MOSFETs would perform about as well as HVICs. But it does have a big plus over both IPMs and HVICs in that if an output MOSFET blows, repair is much easier. (It's unusual for that to happen unless the output is grossly overloaded. But a fault in the gate drive circuit or even a bad PWM signal can cause that to happen.)