need a new sound card for music

[ilikecheese]

hey all

Im after a new sound card for mostly music for about $100 give or take(more if $100 is far to low), iv never had a sound car that is not the onbord one but i have a rather expensive audio set up that i would like to run off my pc now.

Im after clean sound above all.

pre thanks for your help.

Josh

[bp9801]

What type of speakers or headphones will you be running?

[potatochobit]

do you need to record?

that is the most important question in a high end setup

anyway, any card over 90$ will be good

I prefer HTomega but ASUS is more affordable

you also need to decide if you want to plug your headphones into an onboard amp with your computer or run your headphones to your eternal receiver instead

[ilikecheese]

im running a Yamaha avx-700 and Pioneer vsx-d711 amps and Cerwin Vega D8s towers and Sub-Sonic PM-1 MK1 towers, soon to be adding a (next week) Electrovoice ELX115P 15" sub, set up is 1800wRms.

dont care much about the recording side of things. and i dont really care about headphones to much but they run from the Yamaha amp if i do anyway.

[bp9801]

What type of connection do you run between the computer and receiver?

[ilikecheese]

well at the moment there just 3.5 to RCA but i would like strait Rca one of my amps is not optic fibre so thats out

[Stonerboy779]

How are the amps set up?

 

One running one set of towers and the other running the second set? Will a third amp be used for the sub?

 

The sub can use the pre out from the back of one of the amps and only needs a mono input if indeed it is running separately powered.

 

Also I think there is a ht omega with dedicated rca outs and ins however I cannot remember if it is 2 or 4 outs. So a pure quality point of view you are looking at only 2ch set up possibly 4ch athough I am erring on the side of only 2ch.

 

If you run a 4-5.1 surround set up you will definately need 3.5 to rca spliters and I recomend looking at the how to guide to making high quality audio interconnects that hardnrg wrote up.

 

Be sure also to shield and think about how you rout your low line level signal wires as they are susceptible to all the interference in and behind a pc, caused by power wires ect.

[ilikecheese]

i dont need to know how to set up amps subs ect been doing it for a long time. i just need a good card to run it with clean sound its for music so i dont even need 5 channel it all runs from one input at the moment and being for music thats all you need. one input being 2 channels, and yes sub will run from the Yamaha.

Edited December 29, 2011 by ilikecheese

[bp9801]

The HT Omega Claro has RCA outs, but only for 2ch. And it is $200.

 

Most cards with RCA outs typically run over $100, so you would have to resort to splitters if you want to stay under that budget.

[ilikecheese]

hmmmm i must say i do like that card very nice

[Stonerboy779]

i dont need to know how to set up amps subs ect been doing it for a long time. i just need a good card to run it with clean sound its for music so i dont even need 5 channel it all runs from one input at the moment and being for music thats all you need. one input being 2 channels, and yes sub will run from the Yamaha.

That first sentence is sounding pretty aggressive mate chill. I never said you couldnt I just wanted to know how things where set up. All I want to do is help ya.

 

Right now if the pioneer whatever it was (stupid phone) if that was the one with optic input. One of them did have optic in right? But the other didnt, correct?

 

If this is the case optic to first sub with towers. Use the pre outs to give signal to the yamaha amp and you could get away with a decent $50 soundcard and little to no interference.

 

If you can do this you can go 4-5.1 surround as well as your 2.1 music playback.

 

Sorry if I miss anything again on my retarded phone.

 

Edit: found a PC at work whoo haha

 

answered my own question the pioneer has optical in and pre outs so I say use optical in and the pre out to the yamaha.

 

If your moo has optical out try that first and if it's a no go on quality try a sound card with optical out.

Although still kinda need to know what is available to you on your mobo? PCI or PCI-e for the sound card to actually be installed...

Edited December 29, 2011 by Stonerboy779

[ilikecheese]

na its cool mate i was just meaning im happy with how its running/set up i just want a good card, no the mobo is rather crap sound side of things. have both pci and pci-e free so either is cool.

good idea with the optics tho il see into it i guess outputs are not really a prob its more that im after really clean sound no buzz and clicks because its runing high quality/power amps and even higher speakers and i just love good sound quality it runs amazing from my Yamaha CD player sounds great but the same cant be said for the old onbord sound.