PRO Sound card options??

[Looby]

so this DAC thing is an "audio scrubber" to clean all the fuzz out?... sweet

k i must be dumb or something so... where does this go??? could u like write a flow chart??? i feel stupid but i cant figure where the **** this thing could go. this is the only thing i can think of.

drums->MOTU interface->firewire card->X-Fi card->Lite DAC 60->speakers ...??? correct???

 

[003]

It's not an "audio scrubber", but rather it is the digital to analog converter. Digital can not be perfectly converted to analog, there is a lot of approximation involved. It can be done very well though and the better it is done the better it will sound of course. There are DACs that cost over 30 grand. However I might be inclined to argue that there comes a point where the differences are inaudible. But I can not say for sure because I have never listened to any of those DACs.

Um, just to verify, this stuff you are doing is 2 channel, right? These DACs are stereo only. I don't know of any multichannel ones.

I'm not sure exactly how you would set it up in your case. Can I have a link to your MOTU interface and firewire card? Normally, for playback only it would be X-fi bitperfect digital out > DAC-60 > preamp or volume control of some kind (might be built into the speakers) > speakers.

 

[Looby]

http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/896

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6243898&st=firewire&type=product&id=1069301596482

yeah the output will be just Left and Right

to use a DAC i need bit-perfect which X-Fi has so which card the fatal1ty pro or the elite pro would be better suited to a better playback... keeping in mind i also want a great gaming audio experience?

 

[003]

Those go way over my head. But from what I understand, you will be using that MOTU interface as the recording device and the X-fi as the playback device? I believe all the X-fi cards support bitperfect, and I believe with an external DAC, you can not use the x-ram on the x-fi, so maybe it would be better to get the xtrememusic. All the other gaming features (eax, cmss, etc SHOULD work).

 

[Looby]

but would the XRAM help with the playback latency and processing time?

and would the SNR on the elite make it crisper at higher decibles?

 

[003]

X-ram is only a gaming feature, and hardly any games support it. The few that do, there is hardly any difference with it enabled. SNR, dynamic range, and pretty much anything on the card are meaningless when you use an external DAC. When you use one, your sound card becomes your "digital transport" and your dac becomes your "dedicated source". With bitperfect digital out, the sound card sends the dac an untouched, unmodified in any way digital signal and the dac does the rest of the work. The snr on the dac is what you are looking at, not the sound card.

edit:
also, if you are really serious about this DAC then I really suggest you take a a look at the modified one:
http://pacificvalve.us/LTDAC60M.html

The rolled off treble is pretty much gone in this one. They also sell an even more modified version, but I think that would be to much for you, it costs $700. With this one it is the best value for the money imo.

 

[Looby]

k... i cant seem to find the SNR on the DAC but i think i understand now so the DAC is to make the audio sound cleaner and give the sound coming through the speakers a tube quality? hmm... im not sure thats something i need or even want to mess with b/c i will be monitoring the recordings and need them to be in real time with no latency and if i run through a converter would that not give a latency effect that would have the other tracks off beat?... sound having to travel farther and through more proceses than just card to speakers??

with these cards i can still just run regular speakers correct??

 

[003]

It's not to give them a tube quality. It will sound WORLDS better than ANY sound card. When I talk about things like "rolled off treble", these kinds of things are trivial when compared to how poor (for critical listening) the DACs on sound cards sound. It will not have any extra latency. You can think of the DAC as your sound card. The sound card just passes the digital signal over to the DAC, and the DAC does the job of the sound card, but much, MUCH better.

In fact if you are worried about latency, you can enable ASIO output, which will ensure the lowest latency operation. If you are worried about the speakers sounding "tubey", you can take a look at some of the solid state dacs they sell. Or, this looks nice:
http://www.hifi500.com/product/da100.htm

edit:
im going to bed for the night, its almost 2 in the morning here

 

[Looby]

yeah i went to bed also but it was 3 here in atlanta...

i think i will end up going for the LITE DAC 60 box it seems perfect for my budget and have read reviews on it and it seems like a great box.

so i dont even need a high-end card for the audio playback for recording but is is worth it (even if i get one with the future in mind) to get one of the high-end cards if i have the money in my budget? will more games in the future support the XRAM and other features from the higher-end cards??

i REALLY appreciate all your help and the long night of answering my questions even though they might have been the same one over and over in different forms...

 

[003]

As long as your sound card supports bitperfect digital out for playback then you are set

No keep in mind the DAC will ONLY influence playback quality, not recording quality.

If I understand correctly (I'm not so sure I do), the MOTU interface is your recording device and is not related to the playback devices?

EDIT:
I would suggest not ordering it until you have everything else. That way, if for some reason it dosnt work with your setup, you can just send it back because of the 30day satisfaction guarantee.

Also keep in mind with the tubes, when you turn it on you should let it warm up for 15-20min before using it. And with tubes, turning it off and on a lot of times is not good. Try to do it as little as possible and it will extend the tube life (should be at least 4000-5000 hours if not more). And if and when they burn out those tubes are easily replaced and cheap.