Question for Audiophiles

[doodab]

Right now its via SPDIF from pc to receiver

Hmm, so you are already bypassing the converters in the computer, a new soundcard won't make any difference* unless you use it to do the digital-analogue conversion and feed analogue signals to the amp.

If you want to use it for home cinema you'll need a multichannel one e.g. RME 9632 which is about £300, and you'll need to make sure your playback software decodes surround sound.

If you just want it for stereo listening in conjunction with the stereo valve amp you might be better off with an external DAC like this.

Of course both of these options are only worthwhile if they are much better than the converters in your receiver. You might also end up with a lot of cable fannying about going on if you want to have both systems available.

Budget is debateable
GF chef has actually suggested better speakers as a combined Bday xmas present as she was so impressed with the sound and thought the speakers would make the biggest difference.

Otherwise 200notes or thereabouts on a soundcard and/or the bespoke made valve amp if its circa 500/600 for a new contract signing present from me to me whenever that happens.

I would take the speakers if she's offering...

*unless your receiver is particularly sensitive to jitter and the PC output is abnormally tulipe.

[chef]

well the speakers option is a good one I agree, but I am also thinking of "investing" in one of the following:

Asus Xonar Essence STX soundcard
Asus Site
AvForums thread with mulitple review links

it seems to be the industry leader in the sub £200 soundcard bracket with it's main selling points being:
- 124dB SNR
- excellent onboard Headphones amp (not my main requirement)
- superior Analogue output

it cons being although the stereo analogue output is excellent and fit the bill for the majority of my audio needs (i.e music listening) and it has a digital SPDIF output which my current receiver can easily decode/process the Dolby Live signal, the digital output is said in some reviews to be average and not it's main selling point.

alternatively there is the

Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe
Home Site
Review

pro
excellent for both digital and analogue output

cons
the Xonar Essence gets better stereo ananolgue reviews for sound quality


and a review here seems to give the Xonar Essence the better review.. hmmm

[doodab]

The Essence one sounds like they have paid a lot of attention to sound quality. There has definitely been a gap in the market for really high quality cards for HTPC, a lot of people seem to be looking at pro audio devices but there is a lot of paying for things you don't really need involved in that, especially if you need multi channel outs as you are likely to end up with multitrack recording capability and microphone preamps that you have no use for.

I guess the main thing to worry about with the digital output would be AC3 passthrough. Aside from that I would have thought all digital outputs should be more or less the same but it seems that there is plenty of potential for the drivers to mangle things on the way out, especially if using "standard" windows drivers and having a mismatch between the sample rate set on the card and the source sample rate in which case windows will perform sample rate conversion. ASIO should avoid that but isn't going to work with media centre and friends.

You have got me looking at things I don't need again now. What I really need is a massive house in the middle of nowhere. And a suitcase full of cash.

[chef]

HTH