Need soundcard recommendation

M

m1 grant

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 1, 2005
Messages
152
I will be using my system to game on headphones about 40% of the time and listening to music on my headphones 60% of the time. 3d sound on the headphones seems like a really cool idea that I'd like to get into, in which case the x-fi comes to mind. However I hear that music can sound like pure ass, in terms of fidelity, and detail. I also detest the cost 130 for basic model! I was wondering it there was any 1 single card that can handle both hi-fi stereo music, and 3d positional audio. That or a cheap yet good 3d positional soundcard for headphones, that i can line-in with an E-mu 0404.
 
What that guy is doing is routing his motherboard's digital outputs to the Juli@ card. The Juli@'s DACs then convert the signal. It doesn't have anything to do with Foobar, although Foobar will let you pick which sound card you want to play your music through.

Edit: Damn, beaten again.
 
My setup is using two cards. I have onboard integrated soundcard(asus p4p800 mobo, with soundmax) that has digital out(spdif). I have this integrated still as the main soundcard in the
windows settings because this way every "normal" program(games , videos etc) will use it without any hassle as normal. The important thing is that i only use this integrated digital out. This digital out is connected to the Juli@ digital IN.
I have set my integrated to output all the sound only using the digital out(PCM / AC3).

I have my juli's mixer settings so, that it will "monitor" that digital in so everything played using the integred will be passed and outputted using the Juli to my amp. Only program that i use with juli currently as native is foobar (using it for music). Anyhow its very easy thing to setup as long as you have a integrated or other soundcard using digital out. This way everything sounds good because its using julis dac and final output to the amp.

I can post some screenshots if you need. Please ask more specific guestion so its easier to answer. Btw, Juli@ is very nice card indeed.
 
i'm understanding this now. my mb has an optical s/pdif out port. i can connect an optical s/pdif cable to the juli@ digital in.

it has to be an optical cable(i'll figure out what this is)? and the juli supports this optical cable. o.k i got it now. thank you. i'm liking this. :D
 
soundmax_volume1.jpg


soundmax_volume2.jpg


juli_mixer.jpg


p4p800_digout.jpg


foobar1.jpg


foobar2.jpg


foobar3.jpg


foobar4.jpg


Hope it helps to get the idea :D
 
zoinks said:
i'm understanding this now. my mb has an optical s/pdif out port. i can connect an optical s/pdif cable to the juli@ digital in.

it has to be an optical cable(i'll figure out what this is)? and the juli supports this optical cable. o.k i got it now. thank you. i'm liking this. :D
Click to expand...

Spdif uses electricy to transfer the bits, so any single rca will do ;)
 
yep, got 2 digital outputs - one optical and coax(which looks very rca to me). thanks for all the info and screen shots. . :D if i can't do this there is no hope for me.
 
Hehe of course you can, its so damn easy. Just keep your integrated drivers installed and as primary, then install julis driver normally. Then you only need to make those changes to the stuff i showed ;)
 
Ok well thats all well and good but 3d positioning, with headphones?

All this audio is on my headphones %80 of the time so I need something that will not only play greeat stero but game with good sound positioning on headphones (which is why the X-fi's 3d thingy looks so cool). Again though I feel that going back to creative will give me nothing but headache's so I need some good suggestions here
 
"surround sound" using headphones + two channels are always been just a "marketing stuff". You have two ears and headphones have two audio channels. Its all done using sofware and how the two channels are mixed with crossfeed and delays etc. Check more about "binaural"
sound recording and you will find some nice "surround" listening using your headphones.
juli@ and other "pro music" cards are really quality and not just normal consumer level stuff.
When you get creative card, its more about the "features" than the sound quality.
 
johto said:
When you get creative card, its more about the "features" than the sound quality.
Click to expand...

the "features" that most need to turn off to make the card sound good. i just had a bad experience with the x-fi card - won't buy from creative again.
 
preciseley virtual surround is determined by software cooperation, and that's why I somewhat want the X-fi, because there aren't many other cards that can control these things as well inside of a game (ie the EAX stuff)
 
zoinks said:
the "features" that most need to turn off to make the card sound good. i just had a bad experience with the x-fi card - won't buy from creative again.
Click to expand...

So true. I always have all my effects and EQ's off. I like my sound natural :)
 
Mister X said:
Any cable that is 75ohms. ;)
Click to expand...

75 ohms from Spdif to juli@ card.
do i also use 75 ohm cables from the juli@ outputs to the amp?

this has been one of the most helpful threads to me. thanks again johto for all your efforts. just ordered the juli today. i think i'm gonna be one happy dude.
 
zoinks said:
75 ohms from Spdif to juli@ card.
do i also use 75 ohm cables from the juli@ outputs to the amp?
Click to expand...

Nope, JUST the S/PDIF cable has to have a steady impedance of 75ohms.
 
It doesnt matter ! Any normal RCA will do. Get the cheapest, because its not important at all. Its just a cord that transfers bits(electricity) :rolleyes:
 
johto said:
It doesnt matter ! Any normal RCA will do. Get the cheapest, because its not important at all. Its just a cord that transfers bits(electricity) :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I hate to be the one to tell you that it does matter.
But it does.
 
johto said:
It doesnt matter ! Any normal RCA will do. Get the cheapest, because its not important at all. Its just a cord that transfers bits(electricity) :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

ummm... you would be incorrect... good cables make a difference...

caveat: ridiculously expensive cables, imo, are "voodoo audio"... but well constructed good quality cables are worth paying for...
 
ccotenj said:
ummm... you would be incorrect... good cables make a difference...

caveat: ridiculously expensive cables, imo, are "voodoo audio"... but well constructed good quality cables are worth paying for...
Click to expand...

Hah, we were talking about the DIGITAL bits. In that it doesnt matter what cable transfers the 0 and 1 numbers...only thing matters is that they transfer...when transferring digital bits to the dac, it either transfers or not. Its like on/off. There cant be any "jitter" or anything else degrading it. And we are talking about short loopback usage here, from integrated spdif out to spdif in on another card.

Cable quality is of course more important when you are transferring the analog part of the sound(after the DAC)
 
:rolleyes: did you read the link that mister x posted? if so, i think you should read it again...

for example, "jitter" is ONLY a function of degradation of a "bitstream"... :rolleyes:

believe what you like... but at least understand the facts behind your beliefs....
 
"While the signal will always degrade to some degree in the cable, if the receiving circuit can actually reconstitute the original bitstream, reception of the signal will be, in the end analysis, perfect. No matter how much jitter, how much rounding of the shoulders of the square wave, or how much noise, if the bitstream is accurately reconstituted at the receiving end, the result is as though there'd been no degradation of signal at all."

Thats my point :rolleyes:
 
Question: why not use cat5 for audio signals? One can get 100 mHz over it (by the spec - I've gotten gigabit speeds over old, old cat5) on a single pair (at 100mbit, anyways). Since audio only needs to go in one direction per cable, wouldn't it be more than adequate bandwidth? Cat5 allows ethernet signals up to 100 meters. According to this page:
For each sample, two 32-bit words are transmitted, which results in a bit-rate of:
2.8224 Mbit/s (44.1 kHz sampling rate, CD, DAT)
3.072 Mbit/s (48 kHz sampling rate, DAT, DVD)
2.048 Mbit/s (32 kHz sampling rate, for satellite purposes)
Click to expand...
So you could send 30 copies of each packet, and just take a consensus as to what the actual packet was. And finally, you could output 6 channels at 96 kHz in 18 mbits, so you could fit five copies of that into the cat5. Say goodbye to DDL.

Or am I missing a step?

 
johto said:
"While the signal will always degrade to some degree in the cable, if the receiving circuit can actually reconstitute the original bitstream, reception of the signal will be, in the end analysis, perfect. No matter how much jitter, how much rounding of the shoulders of the square wave, or how much noise, if the bitstream is accurately reconstituted at the receiving end, the result is as though there'd been no degradation of signal at all."

Thats my point :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

what part of "if" didn't you understand in that quote? :rolleyes:
 
ccotenj said:
what part of "if" didn't you understand in that quote? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

johto said:
only thing matters is that they transfer...when transferring digital bits to the dac, it either transfers or not. Its like on/off. There cant be any "jitter" or anything else degrading it. And we are talking about short loopback usage here, from integrated spdif out to spdif in on another card.
Click to expand...

That short loopback cable can't be improved by throwing away money in expensive cables=P It would be hard to loose bits being transferred over a cable that short. You either get the bits, or you don't=P

Donnie27
 
it matters. now whether or not it makes a big enough difference in SQ is up to you.
 
yhamez said:
it matters. now whether or not it makes a big enough difference in SQ is up to you.
Click to expand...

It doesn't in this case and in this case is what Johto was talking about, I think, hehehe.

Donnie27
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top