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HTPC sound card

R

redd38

Gawd
Joined
Jan 30, 2001
Messages
517
Which sound card should I get for my HTPC? I won't be playing games on it, just MP3s, DVDs and such so it needs 5.1 out through a receiver. Any suggestions?



p.s. I don't know much about audio stuff.
 
Go for a Chaintech AV-710. It's 25$, has good stereo quality, and can pass DTS/DD through its digital out.
 
Will that card really give me good results? When I think of a $25 sound card I think of a crappy card. Why is this one so cheap?
 
redd: passing a digital signal through to a receiver is not, electronically speaking, all that incredibly hard; there's no particular reason it should cost more than $25. Analog output is trickier...the Chaintech won't be bad for an average HT-in-a-box speaker system, if your receiver / speakers are better than the average bear, you might want to go with at least that AudioTrak card or an M-Audio Revolution for analog 5.1 output. But if you're just going for digital passthrough exclusively, no real reason to spend more than the $25 the Chaintech costs.
 
redd38 said:
Will that card really give me good results? When I think of a $25 sound card I think of a crappy card. Why is this one so cheap?
Click to expand...

For the use you are interested in, just two-channel and SPDIF passthrough, it does everything well. It's so cheap because it only has good DACS on two channels, has no hardware acceleration, and requires some sort of amp for headphone purposes. If you do just want line-level output, it does that just fine.
 
Yeah, I agree with BO(V)BZ. For digital out, you really don't need anything better than the Chaintech AV-710. It's also nice that the 7th and 8th channels of the analog output are handled by a very nice DAC, if you wish to go that route.

Oh, and by the way, MP3s are two-channel sources, so don't expect 5.1 output unless you use a virtual 5.1/6.1/7.1 option on your receiver.
 
Usually, but they also tend to offer 2-channel options as well.
 
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