Buying B&Ws- soundcard up to task?

C

computergeek22

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 2, 2005
Messages
136
Okay I'm going to be buying two B&Ws (dm602) for stereo listening. I have a sub if the necessary bass can't be produced by the B&Ws. I was wondering if my X-Fi xtrememusic would be up to the task. If not what other sound card would be recommended? Also I'm planning on getting a DAC. What is a recommended DAC for around $200?
 
I was also wondering if there's a way of having a two soundcard setup: the xtrememusic for gaming and an m-audio audiophile external soundcard for my music listening needs.
 
I assume there is a "better" alternative to the xtrememusic. What would that be? And would I be able to use it along with another soundcard. I hear that for music listening and for audio purposes, an external sound card is best. I also hear that the best external soundcard is the m-audio audiophile. How can I utilize both soundcards?
 
what about an xmusic and a dac? ignore the maudio. if u use a seperate dac, how much better will the maudio be?
 
What reciever are you using with the B&Ws?

If it has a high quality DAC you could always connect it via coax from the X-Fi.
 
If you're not going to play games and just do HI-FI stereo listening, then I suggest you the following:

1)DMX6 Fire soundcard
2)ESI JULI@

I once had Tannoy Eyris DC1 /w JULI@ and it was the best thing at the time.
The card used to cost over $200 in market, but you could fine one for <$100 these days.
 
The receiver and the B&Ws will be the limiters here, noise from the PC maybe even more. The speakers are excellent for the price, but they're still in B&Ws "low-end", and I doubt they'll have the clarity to challenge the X-Fi bitstream. It's much more difficult to make an acoustic reproduction than an electronic one.
 
I drive my B&W 601's with an M-Audio Revolution 7.1. Really, the main way to improve the sound quality and truly utilize the power of a high end speaker (such as ours) is to make sure the source material is as high quality as can be. When I got my 601's a few years ago, I had to delete all my MP3's as I could hear how crappy they sounded. Now, all I listen to are lossless files because anything less will be exposed by the B&W's.

(Just for information, I run my M-Audio Revo out to a Rotel RA-972 amp)
 
Alright guys. My receiver is a Denon AVR-485 which came with as a 5.1 setup for my pc. The receiver isn't one of the better Denons so relying on my receiver, I believe, won't be sufficient. All of my audio files are WAVs.

Anyway, on audioreview they were persistent on external soundcards over internals because of interference to the audio signal caused by the other components of the computer.
I'm a bit of novice so bear with me and if possible help me with the following 5 questions.

1.what is a good quality external DAC? Also with an external DAC will there be interference in the audio signal from the other components of the computer?
2. What output on the back of my soundcard do I use?
3. I have a 5.1 system in addition to the 2 new B&Ws. Currently with the 5.1 setup, I'm using the 3 analog outputs on the X-FI and the 6 analog EXT. IN on my receiver. I was planning before I decided to buy a DAC to simply put the B&Ws on SPEAKER SET B in addition to SPEAKER SET A with the 5.1 system currently on my comp. (Receiver has SPEAKER SET A and B - both share the same center and surround however thru x-fi control panel i can disable cmssurround and thus output is only 2.1). Now considering there are only 6 EXT. IN on my receiver, is it possible for me to use the two red-white RCA IN (something like aux or CD IN) on the back of my receiver for the DAC. In other words, using the DIGITAL connection from the soundcard into the DAC, and then from the DAC to the AUX IN on my receiver, thus allowing me to conveniently switch between the 5.1s for gaming and the 2.1 for music listening. However the only problem with this setup would be that it would be 2.0 and not 2.1. I wouldn't be able to use the DENON sub for extra bass if needed. How can I use the sub then?
4. Should I just buy an external maudio and screw the DAC and thus eliminate interference from my computer and let go of 5.1 for gaming which isn't so important as I hardly game anymore.
5. Is there a way to have two soundcards without hassle.

DAMN! Sometimes this hobby seems so frustrating - esspecially when you don't understand everything yet! Anyway, thanks for all the help guys.
 
I have the NC 203.2 and the AV710, while its still budget I think its sound great. Get a Yamaha reciever, I highly recommend them.
 
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