Do I need a sound card?

exlvit

Currently I'm using on-board sound card from my pc to connect to my HK3490 via digital coax. Since I'm using digital, I'm bypassing the on-board dac/realtek whatever, and using the dac on the HK3490 (right?).

If this is the case, do I even need to bother with a sound card?

rooftop59

How else do you plan to extract sound from your computer? If you get rid of the soundcard you will need a usb to digital coax converter. Now a good one might sound better then your soundcard, but you will need one or the other to get sound form your computer to that HK. Unless I am missing something??

heiney9

exlvit wrote: »

Currently I'm using on-board sound card from my pc to connect to my HK3490 via digital coax. Since I'm using digital, I'm bypassing the on-board dac/realtek whatever, and using the dac on the HK3490 (right?).

If this is the case, do I even need to bother with a sound card?

Ummm,,,,,,you have a sound card, or else you wouldn't be able to output anything.

Maybe you meant to ask a more specific question. Or we need more details about what you want to do. The way it is now, is fine. What else are you wanting to do?

H9

exlvit

Yeah, definitely could have worded my question better.

From my understanding, using digital out bypasses the sound card's dac, and lets my receiver process the digital signal with it's dac. Other than a potentially better dac than my receiver, are there any other benifets to upgrading my sound card?

falconcry72

exlvit wrote: »

Yeah, definitely could have worded my question better.

From my understanding, using digital out bypasses the sound card's dac, and lets my receiver process the digital signal with it's dac. Other than a potentially better dac than my receiver, are there any other benifets to upgrading my sound card?

In my experience, using either an asynchronous USB > SPDIF converter or a wireless Squeezebox Touch are the best ways to get audio out of a computer. Using a digital output from your PC's sound card is not too far behind though. I'm not familiar with the quality of the digital output of your PC or with the quality of the DAC in your HK, but I'd imagine that a better external DAC would make more of a difference in overall sound than a better digital output method.

In any case, you should use a media player with a bit-perfect playback mode like ASIO or WASAPI.

You should also be playing accurately-ripped lossless files. (i.e., EAC > FLAC).


PC-based audio can be excellent when done right.

heiney9

exlvit wrote: »

Yeah, definitely could have worded my question better.

From my understanding, using digital out bypasses the sound card's dac, and lets my receiver process the digital signal with it's dac. Other than a potentially better dac than my receiver, are there any other benifets to upgrading my sound card?

It doesn't bypass the soundcard, it bypasses the digital to analog portion of the soundcard. It's still using a soundcard to generate the digital output. USB doesn't use a soundcard at all. The way you are doing it by toslink adds an extra conversion to the process and it also goes thru all the Windows mixer protocols as well as the onboard soundcard. Not the best way to do it.

H9

heiney9

falconcry72 wrote: »

In my experience, using either an asynchronous USB > SPDIF converter or a wireless Squeezebox Touch are the best ways to get audio out of a computer. Using a digital output from your PC's sound card is not too far behind though. I'm not familiar with the quality of the digital output of your PC or with the quality of the DAC in your HK, but I'd imagine that a better external DAC would make more of a difference in overall sound than a better digital output method.

In any case, you should use a media player with a bit-perfect playback mode like ASIO or WASAPI.

You should also be playing accurately-ripped lossless files. (i.e., EAC > FLAC).


PC-based audio can be excellent when done right.

While 100% correct, I believe your answer is way over the OP's head and not really what he asked. Best to start back at square one rather than jump right to all the technical stuff.

H9

falconcry72

heiney9 wrote: »

While 100% correct, I believe your answer is way over the OP's head and not really what he asked. Best to start back at square one rather than jump right to all the technical stuff.

H9

yea yea yea... I just figured exlvit needed some homework tonight.:biggrin:

heiney9

exlvit wrote: »

Yeah, definitely could have worded my question better.

From my understanding, using digital out bypasses the sound card's dac, and lets my receiver process the digital signal with it's dac. Other than a potentially better dac than my receiver, are there any other benifets to upgrading my sound card?

What operating system are you running? (I could assume Windows 7) It makes a difference how the digital signal is processed. If you are using an optical out then there are several semi-complicated settings you need to be aware of, but those all depend on what operating system you are using.

To answer your question, no, just getting a better sound card won't do much until you achieve a bit perfect stream out of the computer to the HK's dac's.

A simpler way is as falcon suggested a USB --> SPDIF converter, but those have inherent issues as well, as the extra conversion isn't optimal even if it is asynchronous. But, depending on the converter used, it still is probably better than the optical output of an internal soundcard.

H9

exlvit

Looks like I do have some homework to do tonight.

Right now stereo rca cables and spdif cables are what I have, so I think I chose the best route based on my current gear.

Any suggestions on a USB to SPDIF converter? :cheesygrin:

heiney9

What are the stereo rca cables used for? They come out of your soundcard?

exlvit

They're in the cable box! The only cable running between the pc and receiver is the spdif.

And yes, I'm running windows 7. Not sure about the settings you were talking about, though.

falconcry72

heiney9 wrote: »

...A simpler way is as falcon suggested a USB --> SPDIF converter, but those have inherent issues as well, as the extra conversion isn't optimal even if it is asynchronous. But, depending on the converter used, it still is probably better than the optical output of an internal soundcard.

H9

FYI, I found the $100 Musical Fidelity V-Link to sound better than a $200 Asus Sonar Essence ST internal sound card, which has about the best SPDIF out as you're gonna ever get with an internal sound card. The Audio Gd Digital Interface is better still, and I'd say it comes in at a dead tie with the SQBT.

Syndil

heiney9 wrote: »

Ummm,,,,,,you have a sound card, or else you wouldn't be able to output anything.

If he is using the onboard sound processor he is not using a sound card.

heiney9

Syndil wrote: »

If he is using the onboard sound processor he is not using a sound card.

My reply was based on what he posted.

"Currently I'm using on-board sound card from my pc"

H9

FTGV

Syndil wrote: »

If he is using the onboard sound processor he is not using a sound card.

Well the SPDIF transmitter is likely integral to the sound card.

pyrocyborg

Using any kind of streaming platform (Playstation3/Squeezebox and such) is a great way to achieve great playback without any issue inherant to the use of a poor transport mechanism (like in cheapos CD players/or even the PS3 CD playing) and to computer noise/synchronous USB jitters.

As you can see, a computer case is a noisy environment and there is some risks that analog sound quality could be affected, and some people even pointed out that the onboard optical output isn't perfect either, even if it's 0 and 1. You must do a lot of things to actually achieve a bit-perfect stream, and it goes the same if you use an external DAC with USB output (i.e. installing either WASAPI or ASIO drivers and using a good media player, not something like itunes).

By replacing your onboard sound "chip" with a new card, it would be of way better quality, but still an external DAC might be better (or not) than this sound card... it depends on a few factors like the price of the DAC itself and your ports quality on your motherboard (installing a good quality soundcard on a crappy motherboard doesn't make sense).

Another option, as falcon said, would be to buy a Squeezebox or to use a PS3 in the process if you have one (using a program called PS3 Media Server). When properly set, it can be both conveniant and sound better than using the optical output from your computer as it either uses wi-fi or wired connection from your router to "grab" the music from your PC. That way, you won't have any of the jitters/noise caused by the PC itself, have a conveniant way to pick-up your music and an integrated external DAC. However, there is no way to tell if the Squeezebox DAC is better or not than your receiver one... For your information, my Musical Fidelity V-DAC (250$) is only a small step up from my 2 years old entry-level Yamaha receiver's DAC (i.e. this is a welcomed difference, but nothing like "nigth and day"), and if I didn't swap my receiver in the process for an integrated amp (which doesn't have a DAC), I would have considered this money somewhat wasted...

Either way, you need to have at least FLAC files, which are lossless "compressed" music files, similar to .zip files.