Looking for ideas for a 192khz/32 bit sound card

johnspack · Jun 13, 2016

I've generated a rather large flac library of 96khz and 192khz vinyl rips to put through my AKGs, but my ancient xfi titanium is not up to the job, especially for 192k, which it can't do at all. I'm looking for close to audiophile quality, don't give a crap about gaming for this. What is suitable for 200 can up here, I'm on a fixed income, I just can't spend more. I need to upgrade my computer in general so bad, but so much money...... should I just get a usb dac instead?

Mussels · Jun 13, 2016

USB DAC or a HDMI receiver. Digital signals be nice and clean yo.

TheGuruStud · Jun 13, 2016

Titanium HD/Xonar D2 Both are old, so they better have good prices. Never used a usb DAC. I would assume a good one would be expensive or it will just have a crappy op amp.

johnspack · Jun 13, 2016

Dam, so I'm prob looking for a DAC..... hope I can keep this under 200....

Ferrum Master · Jun 13, 2016

USB DAC. Shoot for ES9018 with USB xmos module.

I just put my x-fi hd in shelf due to nvidia drivers, they generate too much latency thus the x-fi just falls off the bus and no sound. You have to reboot. That's on win10 redstone release candidate build.

Put in my xonar dx. The driver itself is a latency maker. POP ins during playback, mode switches. I really dont like the card sound wise too. I have replaced as many things I can, without the I/V section the DAC underperforms and sounds muddy.

R-T-B · Jun 13, 2016

I'd recomend the Schiit Modi 2 / Magni 2 stuff, which is very good for the money in USB DACs and AMP stacks, but they only do 24-bit.

TheGuruStud · Jun 13, 2016

Ferrum Master said:
USB DAC. Shoot for ES9018 with USB xmos module.

I just put my x-fi hd in shelf due to nvidia drivers, they generate too much latency thus the x-fi just falls off the bus and no sound. You have to reboot. That's on win10 redstone release candidate build.

Put in my xonar dx. The driver itself is a latency maker. POP ins during playback, mode switches. I really dont like the card sound wise too. I have replaced as many things I can, without the I/V section the DAC underperforms and sounds muddy.

You have to use modded drivers for both. I own both.

Ferrum Master · Jun 13, 2016

TheGuruStud said:
You have to use modded drivers for both. I own both.

I really know about what I say in audio department. Daniel K cannot fix a broken legacy architecture as such nor a inefficent binary. No one can without a source.

R-T-B · Jun 13, 2016

Ferrum Master said:
I really know about what I say in audio department. Daniel K cannot fix a broken legacy architecture as such nor a inefficent binary. No one can without a source.

For the Xonar, I believe he uses more up to date C-Media binaries than ASUS, which probably does help. Not sure about Daniel K and the creative side though...

Ferrum Master · Jun 13, 2016

R-T-B said:
For the Xonar, I believe he uses more up to date C-Media binaries than ASUS, which probably does help. Not sure about Daniel K and the creative side though...

Daniel also packs xonars btw. X-Fi RISC can withstand only a certain latency to be stable, if the OS or other drivers are crap it will go haywire. Well... I like my Ti HD, I have hardmodded as good I can.

With xonar... There is only one beta binary. The unixonar uses the asus beta btw. While using foobar, shared mode, so youtube vid and chromium picks up the audio binary. A pop in occurs often. There are more problems too... but hey... shit happens

R-T-B · Jun 13, 2016

Ferrum Master said:
Daniel also packs xonars btw. X-Fi RISC can withstand only a certain latency to be stable, if the OS or other drivers are crap it will go haywire. Well... I like my Ti HD, I have hardmodded as good I can.

With xonat... There is only one beta binary. The unixonar uses the asus beta btw. While using foobar, shared mode, so youtube vid and chromium picks up the audio binary. A pop in occurs often. There are more problems too... but hey... shit happens

I'll defer to your judgement on this. I just use a bitstream where possible from my SPDIF out and let the DAC and AMP I have do the majority of the work anyhow.

Beastie · Jun 13, 2016

Why 32 bit? 24 bit is plenty good enough.

Ferrum Master · Jun 13, 2016

R-T-B said:
I'll defer to your judgement on this. I just use a bitstream where possible from my SPDIF out and let the DAC and AMP I have do the majority of the work anyhow.

I use a analog route only with my handcrafted head. It is not just a plain simple thing unfortunately, DSP + various bit depths and different discretization frequencies at top horrid windows audio stack that is bug driven since year 2006... there can and are many errors... Xonar handles these things poorly versus X-Fi, they have their own flaws each. My own DAC is in the pipes, I am slowly designing it... btw the same Sabre32.

@Beastie 32 or 24 doesn't matter really, the age and class of the DAC actually matters and most importantly, how the thing is implemented on the board.

Beastie · Jun 13, 2016

Ferrum Master said:
the age and class of the DAC actually matters and most importantly, how the thing is implemented on the board.

I absolutely agree with you there.

hojnikb · Jun 13, 2016

Fiio E10k maybe ?

R-T-B · Jun 13, 2016

hojnikb said:
Fiio E10k maybe ?

24-bit.

If you really want to downgrade to 24-bit though (there really isn't much difference), I can highly recommend Schiit stuff, or even cheaper, this combo amp/dac unit from China:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A2QLPJM/?tag=tec06d-20

The SMSL/China one has a decent headphone amp (it's underrated on it's spec sheet in my experience) and will run right off your toslink/spdif connector happily. I drove my AKG k7XX's with it for a while and it did fine, before I decided to buy a Schiit amp that is.

Even crazier, I cracked open my SMSL once in a fit of curiousity, and it had Japanese Nichicon caps inside.

Never thought China would bother to do that, honestly, lol. But it does prove they are both cheap and reasonable quality.

Ferrum Master · Jun 13, 2016

R-T-B said:
Japanese Nichicon caps inside

Probably fakes... and you have to see what series actually. The general purpose ones are cheap and everywhere thou.

R-T-B · Jun 13, 2016

Ferrum Master said:
Probably fakes... and you have to see what series actually. The general purpose ones are cheap and everywhere thou.

Quite possible. Still impressed they even bothered to fake 'em to be dead honest. It's still a decent dac/amp for the money... which isn't much money, granted.

TheGuruStud · Jun 13, 2016

Ferrum Master said:
I really know about what I say in audio department. Daniel K cannot fix a broken legacy architecture as such nor a inefficent binary. No one can without a source.

I never had any issues, though, I don't recall which modded drivers I used for the xonar. It did eat a lot of CPU cycles, but sound quality was good.

X-fi Ti HD has been rock stable since I bought it years ago. My PC is on 24/7. I game a lot, watch tons of vids, and listen to music. I have no complaints with modded drivers. I am currently running PAX, but have used daniel Ks before. No issue with either.

If win10 causes a problem, then don't use it. It's shit, anyway.

Ferrum Master · Jun 13, 2016

TheGuruStud said:
If win10 causes a problem, then don't use it. It's shit, anyway.

I would suggest you to not go offtopic. PAX drivers are snake oil btw, those are the ones that should be condemned actually, the ini tweaks the author does are highly questionable.

TheGuruStud · Jun 13, 2016

Ferrum Master said:
I would suggest you to not go offtopic. PAX drivers are snake oil btw, those are the ones that should be condemned actually, the ini tweaks the author does are highly questionable.

I've read that, but they do work well. *shrugs*

I can't argue with results lol

Eliomiller · Jun 18, 2016

I'd recommend to go wit creative zxr sound blaster or asus xonar essence stx they are at 250$ the first and the second 220$.

System Name	System2 Blacknet , System1 Blacknet2
Processor	System2 Threadripper 1920x, System1 2699 v3
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Display(s)	2x 24" 1080 displays
Case	System2 Some Nzxt case with soundproofing...
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar U7 MKII
Power Supply	System2 EVGA 750 Watt, System1 XFX XTR 750 Watt
Mouse	Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum
Keyboard	Ducky
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Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
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Case	Freebie glass idk
Audio Device(s)	Sennheiser
Power Supply	Don't even remember

System Name	System2 Blacknet , System1 Blacknet2
Processor	System2 Threadripper 1920x, System1 2699 v3
Motherboard	System2 Asrock Fatality x399 Professional Gaming, System1 Asus X99-A
Cooling	System2 Noctua NH-U14 TR4-SP3 Dual 140mm fans, System1 AIO
Memory	System2 64GBS DDR4 3000, System1 32gbs DDR4 2400
Video Card(s)	System2 GTX 980Ti System1 GTX 970
Storage	System2 4x SSDs + NVme= 2.250TB 2xStorage Drives=8TB System1 3x SSDs=2TB
Display(s)	2x 24" 1080 displays
Case	System2 Some Nzxt case with soundproofing...
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar U7 MKII
Power Supply	System2 EVGA 750 Watt, System1 XFX XTR 750 Watt
Mouse	Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum
Keyboard	Ducky
Software	Manjaro, Windows 10, Kubuntu 23.10
Benchmark Scores	It's linux baby!

System Name	HELLSTAR
Processor	AMD RYZEN 9 5950X
Motherboard	ASUS Strix X570-E
Cooling	2x 360 + 280 rads. 3x Gentle Typhoons, 3x Phanteks T30, 2x TT T140 . EK-Quantum Momentum Monoblock.
Memory	4x8GB G.SKILL Trident Z RGB F4-4133C19D-16GTZR 14-16-12-30-44
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse RX 7900XTX + under waterblock.
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Display(s)	Philips PHL BDM3270 + Acer XV242Y
Case	Lian Li O11 Dynamic EVO
Audio Device(s)	Sound Blaster ZxR
Power Supply	Fractal Design Newton R3 1000W
Mouse	Razer Basilisk
Keyboard	Razer BlackWidow V3 - Yellow Switch
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Looking for ideas for a 192khz/32 bit sound card

johnspack

Here For Good!

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

TheGuruStud

johnspack

Here For Good!

Ferrum Master

R-T-B

TheGuruStud

Ferrum Master

R-T-B

Ferrum Master

R-T-B

Beastie

Ferrum Master

Beastie

hojnikb

R-T-B

Ferrum Master

R-T-B

TheGuruStud

Ferrum Master

TheGuruStud

Eliomiller

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Storage	Sandisk X110 256GB SSD, Sandisk Ultra II 960GB SSD, 640GB WD Blue, 12TB Ultrastar
Display(s)	Acer XB270HU
Case	Lian Li PC 7H
Audio Device(s)	Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 USB interface
Power Supply	Seasonic P660
Mouse	cheapo logitech wireless
Keyboard	some keyboard from the 90's
Software	Win10pro 64bit

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Storage	Samsung evo 850 500gb ssd/western digital blue 1tb 7200rpm
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