I need some help with soundcard to DAC and AMP combined

[Mrbitcoin]

Hello guys,

I recently bought a new dell pc (the only way i could get my hands on the new rtx cards) and it has no optical in.

Now I do have a topping e30/l30 stack. I would like to run the external amp and dac with optical out from the soundcard. I was wondering if i bought an external soundcard like the Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus for example. If that would work as that soundcard as optical in to my e30. I use headphones 95% of the time and rarely my speakers.

I got a few questions:
1) Will it work?
2) Will the sound improve, stay the same or get worse?
3) Any suggested soundcards (pci-e)?
4) Will the 5.1 work on the external DAC and AMP?

I don't think usb sound is that bad but call me a maximalist i love to get the most out of my stuff.

Thanks for reading this!

 

[sailor2005]

Hello guys,

I recently bought a new dell pc (the only way i could get my hands on the new rtx cards) and it has no optical in.

Now I do have a topping e30/l30 stack. I would like to run the external amp and dac with optical in from the soundcard. I was wondering if i bought an external soundcard like the Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus for example. If that would work as that soundcard as optical in to my e30. I use headphones 95% of the time and rarely my speakers.

I got a few questions:
1) Will it work?
2) Will the sound improve, stay the same or get worse?
3) Any suggested soundcards (pci-e)?
4) Will the 5.1 work on the external DAC and AMP?

I don't think usb sound is that bad but call me a maximalist i love to get the most out of my stuff.

Thanks for reading this!

1) It will work... but why?!? If you just need optical, get an HDMI audio extractor with Toslink output (aprox $40-50), connect to RTX HDMI then..enjoy
2)Likely to stay the same.
3)Not really
4) In a word, no. At least not as 5.1, downmixed to 2.0, yes.

And I would not call you a maximalist if you prefer optical over USB. Don't know what kind of resolution level files you listen to but optical caps at 24/192 (DSD64 if DoP capable), USB would be DSD512 and 32/768 for PCM, in the case of the E30.

 

[twsecrest]

To me, in general, USB is preferred over S/PDIF optical/coaxial. for external audio devices.
SPDIF optical/coaxial would be preferred, like if you need to use any headphone surround sound features of the Dell's built in sound card.
If I was using a Creative Labs AE-5 Plus, I would just plug the headphones directly into the AE-5 Plus.

 

[Mrbitcoin]

To me, in general, USB is preferred over S/PDIF optical/coaxial. for external audio devices.
SPDIF optical/coaxial would be preferred, like if you need to use any headphone surround sound features of the Dell's built in sound card.
If I was using a Creative Labs AE-5 Plus, I would just plug the headphones directly into the AE-5 Plus.

Thing is i am in love with the sound signature the topping provides. So clean in combination with my dt 1990 pro and 1770 pro. I like the convenience usb provides but prefer the optical option.

 

[Mrbitcoin]

1) It will work... but why?!? If you just need optical, get an HDMI audio extractor with Toslink output (aprox $40-50), connect to RTX HDMI then..enjoy
2)Likely to stay the same.
3)Not really
4) In a word, no. At least not as 5.1, downmixed to 2.0, yes.

And I would not call you a maximalist if you prefer optical over USB. Don't know what kind of resolution level files you listen to but optical caps at 24/192 (DSD64 if DoP capable), USB would be DSD512 and 32/768 for PCM, in the case of the E30.

I listen to tidal hifi master quality in exclusive mode and leaked songs from mp3, flac to wmv and more.

TIDAL HiFi provides uncompressed lossless sound quality, streaming at 1411kbps or 16-Bit / 44.1 kHz. Master Quality audio reflects the original source and can stream up to 9216 kbps or 24-Bit / 192 kHz (typically 96 kHz / 24 bit)

So basically what you are saying is to use usb with tidal master if i am not mistaken?

Thanks for the answers!

 

[sailor2005]

I listen to tidal hifi master quality in exclusive mode and leaked songs from mp3, flac to wmv and more.

TIDAL HiFi provides uncompressed lossless sound quality, streaming at 1411kbps or 16-Bit / 44.1 kHz. Master Quality audio reflects the original source and can stream up to 9216 kbps or 24-Bit / 192 kHz (typically 96 kHz / 24 bit)

So basically what you are saying is to use usb with tidal master if i am not mistaken?

Thanks for the answers!

Well, in your case, optical is good enough for your needs. But you have to buy either a sound card or hdmi audio extractor to be able to use it. With USB you don't need to buy anything else.

 

[twsecrest]

I listen to tidal hifi master quality in exclusive mode and leaked songs from mp3, flac to wmv and more.
TIDAL HiFi provides uncompressed lossless sound quality, streaming at 1411kbps or 16-Bit / 44.1 kHz. Master Quality audio reflects the original source and can stream up to 9216 kbps or 24-Bit / 192 kHz (typically 96 kHz / 24 bit)
So basically what you are saying is to use usb with tidal master if i am not mistaken?
Thanks for the answers!

Unless you have good reason (which most do not) for using S/PDIF optical/coaxial, stick to USB.
USB offers better over all communication, like it goes both ways.

 

[Mrbitcoin]

Unless you have good reason (which most do not) for using S/PDIF optical/coaxial, stick to USB.
USB offers better over all communication, like it goes both ways.

For some reason i found the optical connection cleaner than usb on my old pc. Thanks for the tip appreciate it.

Well i had a problem with sound on my new pc. I was using a MSI z590 a-pro with the realtek 897 codec. Every few seconds i would hear a random pop or crack whilst playing music. I also heard pops and cracks when i changed the volume slider to any direction. It was super annoying even the e30/l30 couldn't handle it.

So i got a MSI z590 mag tomahawk wifi. With the new realtek ALC4080 this came out a few months ago and i hope this wil fix that issue. As i found this statement about it:

"The ALC4080 breaks with the long tradition of direct connection to the SoC via a bi-lingual interface (HD-A or I2S / I2C) and uses USB instead. Yes, you read that right, the chip moves with the connector from the CPU to the chipset."

source (i used translate): https://www.igorslab.de/en/the-old-...ied-and-the-differences-from-alc1220-insider/

Basicly from what i hear and read the codec is really made for usb!