Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, Captain Ned
ordskiweicz wrote:Reading the "what is your sound setup" posts, and looking at the TR sample builds, it seems the sound card is fully dead.
This will mean I have some terrific and costly PCI-e junk, but it seems a USB DAC like the Dragonfly or a Schitt is a better deal, more transferable and as good or better sounding.
What do you think?
the wrote:Even at the professional side of the market, dedicated audio cards for input/output are seemingly dead too. Audio technologies that use Ethernet for transport have taken over which can carry upto 128 channels of 192 kHZ, 24 bit audio. There are cards like the Yamah AIC-128 which offers both the Dante NIC and DSP but for the most applications you could just grab the Dante software driver for ~$60 for 16 channel IO. The DAC and mixing is all done externally at that point.
The only downside to these professional setups is they're expected to be used in production environments and thus have various quirks dealing with DRM protected audio (think Dolby/DTS).
whm1974 wrote:Well I learned something new today as I didn't know that Ethernet sound cards even exist. Another good reason to have more then one Ethernet jack on the motherboard.
whm1974 wrote:Well I learned something new today as I didn't know that Ethernet sound cards even exist. Another good reason to have more then one Ethernet jack on the motherboard.
DragonDaddyBear wrote:Pretty much. In ye olde times (XP and earlier) the sound card not only produced "sound", like the chime of Windows booting, but also had a popular dedicated sound API that could be used for 3D processing. Now Direct Sound 3D is dead, as is EAX. Unless OpenAL API's really take off I don't see that changing. Even then, there are CPU's with so many cores available that developers would probably just use the CPU.
ordskiweicz wrote:Great info and ideas!
Perhaps TR could test the USB latency issue in the near future? Jitter maybe too? (or is this already known well?)
There are many of us who enjoy fine sound.
DeadOfKnight wrote:Well it's not something that people talk about much these days. What was the last well-written and well-tested as objectively as possible review of a sound card? We don't even get many new product announcements anymore. It's possible that sound cards are still a big upgrade, but good enough is good enough. Especially when you see everyone using cheap PC speakers and earbuds.
DeadOfKnight wrote:Well it's not something that people talk about much these days. What was the last well-written and well-tested as objectively as possible review of a sound card? We don't even get many new product announcements anymore. It's possible that sound cards are still a big upgrade, but good enough is good enough. Especially when you see everyone using cheap PC speakers and earbuds.
morphine wrote:Wow, that was mega-informative, thanks. I knew that Ethernet audio was a thing in the professional arena, but didn't know exactly how it works.
ordskiweicz wrote:Hi Dancin Jack. This is a great review of yet another sound card. (I use an Asus Essence and like it a lot).
My question was about USB alternatives to sound cards. Are there reviews of latency, jitter, etc on them - and does it matter?
Crayon Shin Chan wrote:I've been using my motherboard since it came out in 2013 - and after all those times of having a cable plugged in the jack doesn't make proper contact. Good thing I have the front panel audio jack.
Have you guys experienced this or is it just my mobo's fault (Asus M5A99x EVO)? It's the only thing that makes me look at a discrete sound card.
ordskiweicz wrote:My question was about USB alternatives to sound cards. Are there reviews of latency, jitter, etc on them - and does it matter?
Yes, final source is important but the whole stream matters once you reach a level of quality with headphones, etc. The Audioquest Jitterbug - which I had my doubts about - to me makes a noticeable difference on my larger component system.)
morphine wrote:I should note that "external soundcard/DAC" does not imply "audiophile." I'm just putting this out here lest people think that the discussion is about going from $50-$100 soundcards to $500-$1000 dedicated DACs.
whm1974 wrote:morphine wrote:I should note that "external soundcard/DAC" does not imply "audiophile." I'm just putting this out here lest people think that the discussion is about going from $50-$100 soundcards to $500-$1000 dedicated DACs.
Actually it does since the average computer user only uses the on board sound their systems come with. In fact it is fairly common enough experience for me to have to explain what a soundcard/DAC is to folks.
DancinJack wrote:Having said that, here is a more recent review I found. I do not, however, advocate for its accuracy or objectivity. I just found it and haven't even read it.
https://overclock3d.net/reviews/audio/a ... e_review/1
just brew it! wrote:whm1974 wrote:morphine wrote:I should note that "external soundcard/DAC" does not imply "audiophile." I'm just putting this out here lest people think that the discussion is about going from $50-$100 soundcards to $500-$1000 dedicated DACs.
Actually it does since the average computer user only uses the on board sound their systems come with. In fact it is fairly common enough experience for me to have to explain what a soundcard/DAC is to folks.
I think he meant in the context of this thread. Everyone here knows what a soundcard is, and most probably have at least some idea of what a DAC is.
DeadOfKnight wrote:OC3D is my go-to when I want to watch an unboxing and drool over something that I have already ordered and is coming in the mail.