freemeat

Hi Eloise, Thanks for that. Still looking into other solutions re PC -> DAC. May go for pro gear on the recording side, TBD. Funnily enough there is still controversy (on other forums) over mobo S/PDIF vs USB vs soundcard. Looks like the technology is still catching up to us discerning listeners... Thanks for all your help, the journey continues.

Thanks Steve, that should come in very handy. However, I still have the problem of the clocks on my Realtek. If anyone could please take a look at the data sheet (posted above - the info is there, but I am no hardware engineer) and tell me whether they are completely buggering the sound or not that would be great. Otherwise I am considering the Firewire option. Is there any reason motherboard firewire can't send a WASAPI signal to a PCM adaptor through I2S into, say, something like a Buffalo DAC? As you may be able to tell, I'm trying to avoid having to buy a soundcard(!) Cheers EDIT: There seems to be some discussion in the forum about this issue but it is all OLD! I guess I have to wait until someone gives us a good Firewire to I2S solution... More info anywhere please?

Hi Eloise, You seem to be very knowledgeable about the ESI products. If I am just going to use the soundcard for optical is there any difference that you know of between the MAYA44, 44e and the Juli@ (other than price)? Cheers.

Yes, clock line purity is still very important. Situation is easier since there's no need for clock recovery, but there are various aspects with the clock lines to be taken care of. Is there anywhere I can get more info on this? I can post a .pdf of the ALC889a datasheet here if that helps. It has a lot of info on how it handles clocks and sample rates that I don't understand EDIT: Found this post by John S: The PCI card can also be used just as a digital interface, but then you need some method for getting the data to the DAC box. If you use I2S, S/PDIF etc you still have the problem of the PCI card generating the timing not the DAC. To do it right you would need to have some method for getting timing data from the DAC to the PCI card. This method works great and is not that hard to implement, but for some reason has hardly ever been implemented commercially. (I have done this myself and it DOES work great) I want to use a Buffalo II DAC (if I can get one!) which has S/PDIF and I2S connectors. The 889 is not a PCI card but a mobo card, so I guess this must be bad but I'm looking into this option over buying another sound card. What do I need to get signal from the 889 to the Buffalo? I guess either I2S or S/PDIF would do, but I didn't see much about I2S in the datasheet, so I may be mistaken about that capability. I'm going to post the datasheet here anyway, in case anyone wants to take a look. I also know I'm getting into some muddy waters here... Cheers!

I'm thinking of using the sound card on my motherboard, Realtek ALC889a which I believe has an I2S connector for HD Audio. I'm also thinking of getting a kit DAC with an I2S in and RCA outs. Do you know if the 'true clock'/jitter factor comes into the equation when the mobo card is sending PCM straight to I2S (if that is even what it does)? Thanks, and I'm looking into the engineering side...

Has anyone confirmed that the asus AI Audio card has a 'true clock'? If it does not can anyone suggest why I shoudn't run S/PDIF optical out of my mobo card (Realtek ACL889a decoding through HD Audio) to a V-DAC or somesuch? Fyper, your motherboard has the same soundcard as mine, so I'm thinking that if there REALLY is no difference then why should I go the new soundcard route? What's your jitter like?

Sorry for being a hardware noob, but I'd really like to know how the I2S connectors work on a sound card. If I were to connect it direct to a diy DAC would I be bypassing anything except the card's final output DAC? Is this a really stupid thing to do? I have no idea whether or not all of the above is utter garbage. I don't know a single thing about electrons and their behaviour so please excuse my utter ignorance. I'm not trying to troll. Thanks

Thanks for the info on that Eloise, you have been extra helpful and extra prompt. It's a great ride However, now I have a little dilemma (or two): Seeing as one of these cards would cost me upward of $300AU, and the V-DAC around $450, altogether that's more than I wanted to spend (but hey...), so should I aim higher? I also notice the V-DAC isn't such a favourite around here. I instinctively don't like USB and I still want to play 24/192 stuff, so is the only other option firewire? and if so then is the ONLY option the Weiss DAC202? Stereophile.com don't seem to care about firewire much... On a side note, firewire off the mobo is totally acceptable, right? So I think a nice firewire DAC would be great, eliminating lots of digital signal chain complexities (read: bs) and running directly into the amp. Thoughts? EDIT: to come back to the recording side, I was wondering if I could do away with all of this and have an all-in-one solution with some of the Avid stuff (Mbox 2, 003, etc) or the Mackie Onyx? Has anyone tried this? Do people still run these with DACs? Don't want M-Audio though, read up on some stuff about it right here. Also, as good as their record capabilities may be, are they up to the out? EDIT 2: Just found the pro-audio topic... argh!! Can we create a 'budget pro-audio' topic?

Wow thanks for the speedy reply Eloise! Aaah yes the True Audio Clock... my best friend Will definitely look into this. I have heard about the V-DAC USB and its various failings. I wonder if the Live! has one of these 'real clocks'? but anyway even if it did the bl**per upsamples all my nice 44.1 to 48 anyway so nuts to that... does optical though, huzzah! Thanks for the recording suggestions, I notice you mention the Juli@ last, any reasons? Also I take it the DAC itself on it is not even worth a mention? Oh and as far as interconnects and speaker wires go, I have a good source who claims he can rig up $1k equivalent shorties for the price of a few gold plated connectors Anything else I've missed? Jaques Loussier still sounds awesome through the rear Live! DAC... hehe.

Specifically, I want to use WASAPI with Winamp, and I think there's one or two plugins in the works (want to wait for a non-beta). Otherwise I'll use foobar or JRiver. I also want to output via firewire since I can. However the V-DAC doesn't seem to sport a firewire connection and since it's the only DAC I like in my price range I'm thinking of going optical. Since this is the case I'd like to know whether the ALC889a is capable of doing this. I know it does 24/192, I know I can give whichever player exclusive control and I also know optical cables nowadays are capable of 125mbit/s but how does this compare to firewire? Also, would a better sound card REALLY make a difference in this department? I have built a quiet PC and decoupled the HDDs (using suspension), so no noise here! NAD amp is integrated. Looking to test it with this digital setup. Your FAQ doesn't seem to touch the soundcard vs. firewire issue. I'm still reading through the forum... Cheers.

Hi, I've looked around this forum and noticed you guys were helpful with this kind of stuff. I currently have a PC with Realtek ALC889a with optical out and I want to get that into a V-DAC (upsampling to 32/192), connect out to NAD3130 Amp (oldie but goodie) which outputs to Musical Fidelity MC-2 Retro speakers (for classical and jazz.. oh yeah) and I also want to switch to my Alesis M1 Active nearfields directly from the DAC (manually). I also have an old Sound Blaster Live! card, which I've heard good things about recording wise and I've had decent results in my experiments. So, I'm mixing in software and using the Alesis', then testing on the MC-2s (as well as playing favourite FLACs and WAVs from Winamp). Source for pleasurable listening is usually 16/41.1 but I also have some 24/96 and even 24/192 stuff that would be great to test out. The weak link in the recording chain is obviously the Live!, but I'm focusing on playback right now so that can wait. Suggestions about the DAC? Other weaknesses? Comments/criticisms most welcome, obviously I'll be upgrading stuff as time goes by, but for now I want to get maximum enjoyment from what I have Thanks!