Use case: "PC DSP Box" at a budget (made from my older computer to avoid buying the expensive miniDSP Flex to process all my audio sources). Processes main channels of a stereo/surround setup from line input, creating a subwoofer signal to a third channel and then outputting to stereo amp and the subwoofer. This of course requires a multichannel output device.
I was hoping to find a multichannel soundcard that'd also have good input quality to enable both input and output from the same device, but not having much luck. As is the DSP loop goes via a Realtek ALC892 and the noise levels are no joke - very audible from listening position. It's more from the input than output, but realistically both suck. My main computer's AS1220A chip is better, even if not great - but it's not practical. There's too much signal level loss so it's a mess changing between the computer being in active use or just as the DSP because the volume balance with the AVR-driven rear channels is way out of whack. If I had a spare amp I could use one for the rears to keep the balance better and lower the noise somewhat, but I don't at this time.
The sound card could be either USB or PCI-e. USB would be nice in that it could be used with any computer in the future, and PCI-e can sometimes get interference via the PCI-e bus.
I looked at the popular Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 given its nice quality ADC, but it's darn expensive for just the input (170+€ with postage and RCA-6.35mm mono adapters) when I'd then still need a separate output device. I also looked at all the soundcard reviews Amir had done, but not much there.
Beyond those, from what's available domestically the PCI-e Asus Strix Soar 7.1 has reasonable claimed specs and costs 94€:
Output SNR (A-weighted) (line out): 116 dB
Output SNR (A-weighted) (headphone out): 110 dB
Input SNR (A-weighted): 110 dB
THD+N 1 kHz (line out): 0.001 % (-100 dB)
THD+N 1 kHz (headphone out): 0.003 % (-90 dB)
THD+N 1 kHz input: 0.000316 % (-110 dB)
Unbalanced output: 2 Vrms (5.65 Vp-p)
Audio processor: C-Media USB2.0 6632AX High-Definition Sound Processor (Max. 384KHz / 24bit)
DAC: ESS SABRE9006A Premier 8 Channel Audio DAC
If I used the calculator right, the input SNR and THD would seem to work out to 107 dB SINAD (for sake of comparison to Amir's reviews... but then that's A-weighted), while line output is 100 dB. Somehow it seems unlikely the input SINAD would be better than the output, but that aside both are quite decent numbers. Of course that's just the usual 1 kHz, and who knows how well the real performance even lives up to the claims. There's a bunch of measurements from the "RAID PRO" (basically the same card, just comes with an external volume control) here - but since it talks about "as headphone amplifier" I assume it's using the headphone out which has worse claimed specs. There's also no line input measurements. And I don't really have the expertise to even properly evaluate all of those headphone amp measurements.
Opinions on that? Suggestions for other alternatives?
I was hoping to find a multichannel soundcard that'd also have good input quality to enable both input and output from the same device, but not having much luck. As is the DSP loop goes via a Realtek ALC892 and the noise levels are no joke - very audible from listening position. It's more from the input than output, but realistically both suck. My main computer's AS1220A chip is better, even if not great - but it's not practical. There's too much signal level loss so it's a mess changing between the computer being in active use or just as the DSP because the volume balance with the AVR-driven rear channels is way out of whack. If I had a spare amp I could use one for the rears to keep the balance better and lower the noise somewhat, but I don't at this time.
The sound card could be either USB or PCI-e. USB would be nice in that it could be used with any computer in the future, and PCI-e can sometimes get interference via the PCI-e bus.
I looked at the popular Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 given its nice quality ADC, but it's darn expensive for just the input (170+€ with postage and RCA-6.35mm mono adapters) when I'd then still need a separate output device. I also looked at all the soundcard reviews Amir had done, but not much there.
Beyond those, from what's available domestically the PCI-e Asus Strix Soar 7.1 has reasonable claimed specs and costs 94€:
Output SNR (A-weighted) (line out): 116 dB
Output SNR (A-weighted) (headphone out): 110 dB
Input SNR (A-weighted): 110 dB
THD+N 1 kHz (line out): 0.001 % (-100 dB)
THD+N 1 kHz (headphone out): 0.003 % (-90 dB)
THD+N 1 kHz input: 0.000316 % (-110 dB)
Unbalanced output: 2 Vrms (5.65 Vp-p)
Audio processor: C-Media USB2.0 6632AX High-Definition Sound Processor (Max. 384KHz / 24bit)
DAC: ESS SABRE9006A Premier 8 Channel Audio DAC
If I used the calculator right, the input SNR and THD would seem to work out to 107 dB SINAD (for sake of comparison to Amir's reviews... but then that's A-weighted), while line output is 100 dB. Somehow it seems unlikely the input SINAD would be better than the output, but that aside both are quite decent numbers. Of course that's just the usual 1 kHz, and who knows how well the real performance even lives up to the claims. There's a bunch of measurements from the "RAID PRO" (basically the same card, just comes with an external volume control) here - but since it talks about "as headphone amplifier" I assume it's using the headphone out which has worse claimed specs. There's also no line input measurements. And I don't really have the expertise to even properly evaluate all of those headphone amp measurements.
Opinions on that? Suggestions for other alternatives?
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