Soundcard or Dac?

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I am looking to upgrade my PCs sound quality. I am using a Creative Xfi sound card right now which I got from a friend for free, this was before I had any plans for using my PC for high quality music playback. Now that ive made the switch, over to PC based playback, I need something better sounding. I tried the Zhaolu 2.5 dac I use in my main system connected to the Xfi spdif output and wasn't happy with the results, I guess the Xfi digital output is not very good. So im thinking that either a usb dac or better sound card is the way to go. Being a poor college student my budget is pretty small at $200 which definitely narrows my options quite a bit. On top of my list right now is the Emu 1212m and Scott Nixon usb dac kit. I have heard the Emu 0404 in my friends setup and liked it very much, I would think the 1212m is at least as good if not a little better. But I haven't heard the Scott Nixon dac so I am leaning towards the EMU. They are pretty close in price, but it seems you get alot more for your money with the Emu. Your getting a good quality DAC and ADC, optical, coax and optional word clock digital I/O....etc. All that stuff is nice to have, but im more interested in the sound quality. So if anyone has heard both please lets hear your feedback. Also is there any potential to mod the EMU. Ive seen some people doing basic cap and opamp upgrades on their 0404 but not on the 1212m. Also if you guys have any other ideas that would be great.
Thanks
 
Yes use one of these.
The AK4396 is a killer Dac.

Here is my post from AA:

"Inspired by Presto, I was tempted to try digital crossover via PC and
searched for a suitable soudcard.
I googeled for reviews and stumbled on a few very encouraging reviews on the fairly new Bluegears b-inspirer.
After reading the specs I was amazed that it used the highly regarded
AKM AK4396 on all 4 channel pairs. I took the plunge and ordered a Club3D Theatron which is identical to the bluegears and is sold here in Germany for 60 Euro.
I did not bother to run the card unmodified for more than a few hours.
I did a first order passive out for the Dac bypassing all the aktive circuitry. I used the passive out mod of the Behringer DCX as described by sendler. Being pin compatible with the AK4394/4395 I cold do this without problems on the AK4396.
Wow, let me tell you this is the best sound from any source I ever had.
My gear so far:
1.Pioneer stable platter highly tweeked and with tube output stage.
2.DDDac with quality parts
3.DIY Usb dac with PCM2707 and TDA1543 (I never got it working again in self powered mode after a German Windows update to SP2)
4. Oppo 971 tweaked with Rubycon ZL all over and a custom active stage with THS4032 opamps.
Out of this buch the Oppo wins by a margin in terms of detail, soudstage, imageing and naturalness.

The soundcard has every positive aspect of the Oppo, plus an even more detailed sound. No matter how many instruments are involved in the cenario they are clearly defined.
What I almost forgot is the very controlled and wheighty bass. That
together with the dynamics was totally surprising to me because this is something that is usually lacking in a passive out configuration.
I can`t wait to finish modding the other 6 channels and hock up my 4 way horn system."

Cheers,
Klaus
 
I used a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz soundcard for a long time. No idea how the Creative Xfi sounds but my TB SC easily bests the Creative Live! card I had previously.

Then I got a M-Audio 'Audiophile 24/96' which was better than the Santa Cruz. Growing up with vinyl I got interested in nos dacs and bought a AW-D3 usb dac from Audioworkshop, This gives a choice of 2 dacs, the Burr Brown built into the PCM2706 and a TDA 1543 nos. The Burr Brown I felt to be slightly better than my M-Audio except there is a little noise when using the usb 5v. The Burr Brown is more detailed than the 1543 but I prefer the nos for most music, my son prefers the Burr Brown. With some rock recordings I also prefer the Burr Brown.

The problem with this dac is it freezing when things like the fridge turn off and on. Very annoying, there's been a few posts here about it. From diyparadise I ordered the Monica2 dac and the usb controller. I really like Yeos Monica2 dac and my son is impressed as well. As a huge bonus the usb controller doesn't freeze even though it uses the PCM2706 chip. I think it's to do with the ferrite Yeo uses on one of the usb lines. I bought a pack of ferrite beads to have a go at the AW-D3, not got round to it yet.

I can strongly recommend the usb controller from diyparadise, only $30 for the kit and gives you the choice of using many dacs including your Zhaolu 2.5.
 
Only the DTS has the AK4396 Dac.
Don`t use the X-Meridian which is the same card, but with a different layout. It has SMD Lytics that are
almost impossible to change to better ones.

The card needs a long break in period before you can judge it`s sound.
One needs to use the b-inspirer driver as the Club3D has no ASIO support yet.
The Scott Endler passive out for the Behringer is fantastic for this dac. It is on his page.
The two lytics right next to the dacs need to be changed to Rubycon Zl or Black Gate.

EC 41 - 44 need to be removed like in the pic.

The signal can be taped on the positive side of EC42 and 43.


The next thing I want to do to the Card is give it a Tent Clock and also feed the dacs with clean power from a 12V Lead Acid Battery followed by a fixed reg,
and change all the remaining caps to Rubycon ZL.

A bonus is that Foobar with the crossover plug-in works wonderfull and Frequency Allocator is even better.


Klaus
 

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Hi Klaus,

very intersting report... but how do you explain the huge diferences in price between Auzentech and Club3D? Of course I don't care about swapable OP and so one... because I'll probably use another output stage, but again :)

I'm curious, how many crystals are on the club3D board, because I think it's very important to be able to reclock the signal...

And do you know if this card can operate under linux?
 
Thank you Klaus, pics are enough for passive out and clock change operations.

Why did not you use Endler's passive out circuit completely? Aren't other parts of circuit ( 174ohm resistor and .01Mf cap) necessary for actual operation?

Pictures shows that you have used 196ohm (or 106 ?) resistor , 4700Nf and 3,3 Mf nonpolar caps.

Last but not least, is it possible to seperate DAC's supply circuit for using 12V battery regulated at 5v?

Maybe we can isolate card's circuit completely from 5v pci power supply pin and try to supply card via battery directly.

all suggestions are welcome.
 
Hello...

Why the Club3D doesn't support 192k and only 96k? It sure looks good for just 60 euro, and I am very intersted in buying one but i'd like full 196/24... The blugear on the other hand has just what I want, except it's 100 euro more expensive...

@terranigma

thanks for the link, I wonder if the drivers have something to do with the sampling rate or this is set on the board...

And thanks for the pics Klaus!
 
Originally posted by terranigma
Originally posted by Radian

One needs to use the b-inspirer driver as the Club3D has no ASIO support yet.

Seems like Klaus already answered why Club3d has 96khz option in their specs .

Can anyone confirm this?
Club3d + b-inspirer driver can do 192KHz/24bit?
And with linux driver and Club3d any experince on the same thing?

ciao
andrea
 
same issue has been discussed here too:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1136229&page=7

And result:
more info: I converted a 96/24 wav file to 192/24 file with r8brain and it plays fine in Winamp (without resampling) and I definitely can hear the track over the analogue output.

I would say that the 192khz output is then ENABLED in the Theatron DTS. I wonder why it's being sold as 96/24 capable only???
 
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