seamammal 0 Report post Posted September 5, 2009 Hi all, Currently planning to upgrade my PC sound from Sound Blaster 5.1. Mainly listen to music and movies. Infrequent gaming. Speakers: Logitech Z-4i Budget = $150 Options: 1. Asus Xonar DX = $139 2.Creative Xi-Fi Titanium = $138 3. Budget DAC = $?? My question is would a $150 DAC be better than the 2 mentioned sound cards? Is there a worthy DAC at $150 in the local market? What's the Pro and Con of a DAC compared to a sound card? Can suggest some DACs that's inexpensive and work reasonably well? If DAC is way over budget I'll drop the idea and stick to a sound card, cause multimedia speakers wouldn't do justice to a hefty investment in DAC. Thank you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
noinimod 0 Report post Posted September 6, 2009 No offence man, but no point getting a sound card >100 bucks when your speakers cost around that amount. You, or rather your speakers, won't be able to appreciate the improved gains got from an expensive sound card. I would just buy a 2nd hand xfi xtrememusic at 60-70 bucks; it'll still be much better than your sound blaster AND save you a lot money Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
seamammal 0 Report post Posted September 8, 2009 No offence man, but no point getting a sound card >100 bucks when your speakers cost around that amount. You, or rather your speakers, won't be able to appreciate the improved gains got from an expensive sound card. I would just buy a 2nd hand xfi xtrememusic at 60-70 bucks; it'll still be much better than your sound blaster AND save you a lot money Based on your line of logic then there would be no place for those $200-$300 sound cards in a multimedia setup.... i.e. XONAR D2x / Essence STX, Xi-Fi titanium Pro / Champ, Auzen Prelude / Forte / Xplosion... The Z4 actually is not that bad.... with something like a Xonar DX also means got headroom for an upgrade to a better speakers i.e. Gigawork T3.... not forgetting that sound cards are not just for speakers only.. also for my headphones/IEM... which i believe is good enuf to utilize the enhanced sound quality.... I am more interested to know whether it'll be better to go the DAC way at the given budget... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Will_sg 0 Report post Posted September 8, 2009 (edited) What about using Nuforce ICON Mobile as a DAC at about $180? Edited September 8, 2009 by Will_sg Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
noinimod 0 Report post Posted September 9, 2009 (edited) Based on your line of logic then there would be no place for those $200-$300 sound cards in a multimedia setup.... i.e. XONAR D2x / Essence STX, Xi-Fi titanium Pro / Champ, Auzen Prelude / Forte / Xplosion... The Z4 actually is not that bad.... with something like a Xonar DX also means got headroom for an upgrade to a better speakers i.e. Gigawork T3.... not forgetting that sound cards are not just for speakers only.. also for my headphones/IEM... which i believe is good enuf to utilize the enhanced sound quality.... I am more interested to know whether it'll be better to go the DAC way at the given budget... Honestly, there isn't - but we all know that manufacturers will charge a premium for high-end products even though customers won't/can't hear the difference. I know i'm stepping on a few toes here but the truth is the truth. I've done A/B comparisons and that's my findings. If you say, essence stx on audioengine a5s, then yea the difference is quite huge. But on $200+ speakers? The difference, imo, isn't enough to warrant spending $200 bucks for a sound card. lol, depends on which headphones you're talking about. The more high end headphones are not driven well by sound cards - dedicated headphone amp is a must to bring out the full potential. Plus, unless one are using jh13-pros or something equivalent, i don't see why one would use earphones at home when $-for-$, headphones are generally going to give you better sound. If you plan on using active speakers only, then at the same price point, it's much better to get a stand-alone dac. That is assuming you don't need eax and those gaming sound effects Edited September 9, 2009 by noinimod Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shadowmoses 0 Report post Posted September 9, 2009 Honestly, there isn't - but we all know that manufacturers will charge a premium for high-end products even though customers won't/can't hear the difference. I know i'm stepping on a few toes here but the truth is the truth. I've done A/B comparisons and that's my findings. If you say, essence stx on audioengine a5s, then yea the difference is quite huge. But on $200+ speakers? The difference, imo, isn't enough to warrant spending $200 bucks for a sound card. lol, depends on which headphones you're talking about. The more high end headphones are not driven well by sound cards - dedicated headphone amp is a must to bring out the full potential. Plus, unless one are using jh13-pros or something equivalent, i don't see why one would use earphones at home when $-for-$, headphones are generally going to give you better sound. If you plan on using active speakers only, then at the same price point, it's much better to get a stand-alone dac. That is assuming you don't need eax and those gaming sound effects Agreed, on most stereo computer speakers (cheapo - $200+), one should not hear an improvement in sound from a better soundcard, assuming you're just using it for music and not gaming / movies with surround and the shebang. I skipped the soundcard altogether when i built a new com. used my trusty old iBasso D1 DAC out to active M-audio BX5as. At least my source will be decent haha Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
alamakazam 0 Report post Posted September 9, 2009 optical output from onboard or soundcard feed to DAC my experience, usb dac cannot handle heavy multitasking, good enough for dedicated use, watch movie means watch movie, listen music just light surf, not like me multitask open excel,outlook,itunes,mediamonkey,msn,facebook games,headfi few pages Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Will_sg 0 Report post Posted September 9, 2009 (edited) optical output from onboard or soundcard feed to DAC my experience, usb dac cannot handle heavy multitasking, good enough for dedicated use, watch movie means watch movie, listen music just light surf, not like me multitask open excel,outlook,itunes,mediamonkey,msn,facebook games,headfi few pages This can be overcome by a more powerful PC, rite? eg quad cores. Cause in my case, I doing up my system for my HD580 and my DIY speakers + woofer. The onboard audio is just giving too much noise.. I was thinking that getting a USB DAC will save cost. Edited September 9, 2009 by Will_sg Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
noinimod 0 Report post Posted September 10, 2009 optical output from onboard or soundcard feed to DAC my experience, usb dac cannot handle heavy multitasking, good enough for dedicated use, watch movie means watch movie, listen music just light surf, not like me multitask open excel,outlook,itunes,mediamonkey,msn,facebook games,headfi few pages You're using ASIO right? It's a common 'bug' when using ASIO Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
alamakazam 0 Report post Posted September 10, 2009 You're using ASIO right? It's a common 'bug' when using ASIO i use all the plugins possible... no luck qaud core too much for me... core2duo just nice Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
seamammal 0 Report post Posted September 11, 2009 (edited) Ok, here's my take after doing homework... In a desktop environment I feel that sound card is more appropriate... more versatile, suitable for music, movie, and gaming....and less overhead on CPU utilization. DAC now i know only specialized in music... more apt for music appreciation and not much else.... Anyway the bottle neck is the multimedia speakers.... being multimedia speakers, even for the upper range ones, there's only so much they can achieve.... but this is not necessary a down side in itself, since the context we're talking about is PC environment, not audiophile Hi-Fi.... In the end I bought the Asus Xonar DX at $125 today. Now my sound card is fully supported in Win7 and Vista, unlike the old Sound Blaster 5.1, where Creative stopped its driver support for Vista and above( I started using Win7 RC recently). Tks for all the helpful comments and input. Edited September 11, 2009 by seamammal Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
