Quality PC Sound Cards used with Home Stereo

mmazur69 · Post by **mmazur69** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 3:54 pm

I currently have my pc hooked up to my stereo via the CD RCA jack. Currently I have the standard HP/Compac Sound card - RealTek. So line out of the pc goes to a spliter (7ft long) that seperates the two channels. That is plugged into Acoustic Research cables that is 20 ft long.

The sound quality just does seem to be the same as the original CD's. Seems to be missing something. The mp3 files have been burned at 320 bits.

Any suggestion on a better quality (reasonable price) sound card. Is this my problem?

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 6:20 pm

Whats reasonable?

I have a Layla sound card with quarter inch inputs/outputs and a headphone amp and jack. It is about $500. You can get them used for about $300-400.

M-Box also makes a good card for $350. Used is $200.

The best cards are external, and don't pick up noise from fans. They also run at 16 or 24 bit.

tinana · Post by **tinana** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 5:02 pm

Oh, I have the MBox...I'd like to be able to use that to start ripping my lp collection. Any idea how to do that? Do I have to record thru ProTools?

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 10:07 pm

You will need a program to record and recognize that sound card.

Yeah, Pro Tools, or Gold Wave, or Acoustica's Spin It Again, or LP Recorder all work.

Pro-Tools and Gold Wave will allow you to record at 24 bit, but I don't find this necessary.

Post by **Lowlander** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:11 pm

Cable length should be minimized for better quality. Amount of connections should be minimized for better quality.

The type of connection might also improve the quality. Something like s/pdif optical or coax should give better sound than RCA connections. Also the quality of the cable and connectors should be decent.

As for sound cards, the prefered cards seem to be the out of PC soundcards which minimize interference from the PC itself.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 7:58 pm

I have my PC connected to my sound system wirelessly. I think this takes the sound card completely out of play. The digital to analog conversion takes place in my sound system. In any event, it works great and does not have any sort of noise problem.

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 5:25 pm

What brand? What bit rate? Is it two way, e.g., computer to sound system, and sound system to computer? If 2 way, is it 2 way simultaneously? Where in the system is the A to D converter located? Do you have a link?

I will say this, the heart of any sound card is the A to D and D to A converter. Some are better than others, and many of them cost thousands of dollars. The differences are based in the bit rate, quantization error, non-linearity errors, aperture error, bit rate, sampling rate, aliasing, dithering, and signal to noise ratio.

No matter what system you have, whether a stupid soundblaster or a multi-thousand dollar A-D converter, and I suspect the wireless set up, the above factors will determine the quality of sound. There is no way around the specs for the A-D converter.

Bill · Post by **Bill** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 9:09 pm

I have my MM library on a laptop and use a wireless adapter to communicate with a LinkSys WRT54GC wireless router which communicates with a LinkSys WMB54G wireless G sound bridge. The sound bridge is connected to my Audio/Video sound system which is a Yamaha RX-V757 via an optical connection. This is the only physical connection in the setup. I believe the digital sound is sent to my receiver and it is there that the digital to analog conversion takes place.

You can find the specifications on these LinkSys wireless products on the Linksys web site.

I really like the system. The sound is great and I have it wired throughout my house.

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 1:05 am

The advantage of the stand alone sound card or i/o interface over the $100 wireless set up and the $400 Yamaha receiver is obvious.

Stand alone sound cards or i/o interfaces can pick up an anlog signal (mike, record, instrument) send to the computer to be recorded and simultaneously send the same signal back through the outputs to an analog replay system so you can hear the digital sound you are recording.

To my knowledge only a good i/o interface can do that.

And you'll pardon me if I say a $600 i/o (which is cheap by studio standards) probably has better specs than a $400 do it all Yamaha Receiver, Amp, Pre-Amp, with an A-D converter etc. I've seen i/o's costing over $2,000.

That being said, Yamaha is great middle of the road consumer stuff, and even their low end stuff has pretty good specs. They always have a good sound (I've owned a few). Yamaha tends to price stuff lower by not sacrificing sound, but instead sacrificing power and options.

I would not compare it to, nor put it in the same league as a stand alonecard or i/o set up, with component systems, however. I mean M-Box or Layla or Alesis i/os , with McIntosh, Adcom, REL, Krell, Luxman or Crown electronics would smoke that rig.

I don't mean to sound like a stereo snob, and I don't pretend to have the best equipment, but one does have to know where the equipment stands in comparison to the best.

Bottom Line: External sound cards or i/o's are best. Thats what they use in the studio's.

Bill · Post by **Bill** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 9:36 am

I'm sure that you are correct with regards to how much better a real sound system sounds than the system I am using. I was just mentioning another alternative for listening to music. My system works fine for me. I wear hearing aids so it's impossible for me to make any real comparison for fidelity and I hate wires. Also, the Yamaha allows me to connect and control different audio and video devices. The latest addition to my system is MM. I have a lot of music and I love MM. I'm still a novice with MM but I'm learning.
Regards,
Bill

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 12:34 pm

My hearing was also destroyed in the sixties by something called a 105 artillery piece. So I probably couldn't tell the difference between a low bit mp3 and 24 bit PCM file.

Bill · Post by **Bill** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 2:56 pm

My hearing was also damaged in the sixties. It was by the jet engines on the Boeing Vertol CH-46 helicopter. Oh well...
Regards,
Bill

Nebbin · Post by **Nebbin** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 5:01 am

*phew* - the sixties sounds like a bad era for audio lovers... Thankfully I was born in the next decade

I've often wondered what a wireless system was like. If you used decent D/A converters I'm sure it would be great for those who want to extend their systems over distance. Although, I'm not sure how well wireless systems handle streaming music, and if there are any problems with packet loss, interference and traffic congestion etc.

As has been alluded to, the D/A converter is an important element of the sound system. I've seen people with a high quality sound soundcard still use the digital output to connect to a cheap (eg Logitech 5400) amp/speaker system. Madness.

Personally I've stuck with a dedicated pro audio soundcard (with break-out box) - which has none of those fancy DSP features often found on many consumer cards: just simple, honest stereo. The analogue output is then routed to my old Yamaha DSP A3090 amp, making sure no power cables etc are close enough to add noise to the signal. Even though this amp was once Yamaha's top of the line model, I prefer the D/A's in my soundcard and so refuse to run a digital link.

Sadly, my high frequency hearing loss is due solely to listening to loud music... how boring.