Sound card vs. USB DAC

Quiz

Quiz

Gawd
Joined
Aug 25, 2010
Messages
659
What's the difference between a sound card and a USB DAC? Would both be the same when it comes to gaming or would a sound card be preferred in this case?
 
Depends on how critical/picky/discerning you are about your sound....

Built-in sound chips/systems (on the mobo) have come a long way in the past few years, but so have sound cards & DAC's....

To some folks, sound cards tend to offer somewhat better sound overall compared to built-in chips, with some additional fine-tuning options not available from internal chips...

DAC's otoh, are mostly held in high regard by those who value audio quality over all else, and also tend to have more sound/level/balance controls & fine-tuning methods, as well more choices for input/output devices...and are usually the preferred choice for those who will be using separate but ANALOG amplifiers, equalizers, recorders, and other devices to cater the sound precisely to their liking...

However, your budget may be a factor in which one you chose, since mobo sound is included in the price of the mobo, making it the least expensive of the bunch, a sound card is extra $$ but not by an extreme amount, and finally a good DAC will cost you a fair amount of coin, as will the other components that will make up your sound system :)
 
Last edited:
You're in a field of snake oil. In most cases, the differences between DAC's might as well be a philosophical question.

But to shed some light, if you're looking for the best sound quality, you're looking at a system of separates. This means a system with a separate DAC and amp (at minimum). Then some pricey hi-fi speakers.

If you're looking for the best sound quality without completely breaking the bank (in the ballpark of $1000), I'd definitely invest in an A/V receiver (www.accessories4less.com) and HiFi speakers. For speakers, definitely hit up Philharmonic Audio (www.philharmonicaudio.com) and grab one or two pairs of the mini's (if you need surround sound). Then you can upgrade with a sub down the line.

If you're not looking to spend anywhere near that amount of money, then you're pretty much stuck on the bottom rung and you'll be fine with your mobo's built in sound. But you really shouldn't be spending much time or thought on DAC's unless you have an expensive setup or decent headphones ($200+), in which case, you'll be basing your DAC decision around which specific headphones you plan to use with, because at that point you'll be taking your headphones power requirements into question.

But to be clear, you're better off spending all of your money on the speakers or headphones, and the bare minimum of whatever else you might need, than getting hung up on a DAC. Especially if you're not spending a ton of money.
 
Quiz said:
What's the difference between a sound card and a USB DAC? Would both be the same when it comes to gaming or would a sound card be preferred in this case?
Click to expand...
For me, once one gets to non-manure quality in the rest of audio equipment, I greatly prefer a usb DAC. The reason is that I've yet to encounter an internal sound card where all those electromagnetic wave thingies inside the computer don't cause some audible hiss.

I'm currently using a fairly heftily priced fostex hp-a3, but when I am honest I can't really say I hear the difference between it and an elcheapo pc100usb by the same brand. To my ears, connecting to a higher powered amp delivers a far more cost effective improvement to the sound quality.
 
Last edited:
A little background on my situation:

I had a desktop PC with a Sound Blaster AE-9 connected to 2 x JBL LSR305 monitors + 1 x JBL LSR310S subwoofer. I sold the desktop PC but still have the AE-9 and JBL speakers/subwoofer. I now have a MacBook and want to get a USB DAC (probably the Chord Qutest) to use with the JBL speakers and subwoofer.

I just want to know that if I get another desktop PC in the future, should I put the AE-9 back in or use the Qutest instead?
 
Quiz said:
A little background on my situation:

I had a desktop PC with a Sound Blaster AE-9 connected to 2 x JBL LSR305 monitors + 1 x JBL LSR310S subwoofer. I sold the desktop PC but still have the AE-9 and JBL speakers/subwoofer. I now have a MacBook and want to get a USB DAC (probably the Chord Qutest) to use with the JBL speakers and subwoofer.

I just want to know that if I get another desktop PC in the future, should I put the AE-9 back in or use the Qutest instead?
Click to expand...


WAIT WUT... you wanna buy a $1600~ Dac for $200~ powered studio speakers???? ummmm.... no you would be much better served to spend the money on speaker upgrades.. I mean the LSR305 are supposedly "pretty good" I haven't really listened to them... but getting a $1600 DAC for them is actual lunacy.

If it was my money and I was intent on spending it, I would personally buy $1500~ speakers and a $80 SMSL SU-1 DAC (I have this DAC) hooked up to a vintage Sony TA-E77ESD/TA-N77ES (200WPC stereo amp) with vintage Yamaha NS-344 10" 3-way speakers... it is a good dac in my case due to being stupidly lucky buying vintage gear the Sony ES stack (also tape / CD /tuner/a 2nd N110 Amp and a digital surround processor) cost $75 and the speakers $50 in fact the god **** SMSL dac is the most expensive part of this set up coming in at $80~
 
atarione said:
WAIT WUT... you wanna buy a $1600~ Dac for $200~ powered studio speakers???? ummmm.... no you would be much better served to spend the money on speaker upgrades.. I mean the LSR305 are supposedly "pretty good" I haven't really listened to them... but getting a $1600 DAC for them is actual lunacy.

If it was my money and I was intent on spending it, I would personally buy $1500~ speakers and a $80 SMSL SU-1 DAC (I have this DAC) hooked up to a vintage Sony TA-E77ESD/TA-N77ES (200WPC stereo amp) with vintage Yamaha NS-344 10" 3-way speakers... it is a good dac in my case due to being stupidly lucky buying vintage gear the Sony ES stack (also tape / CD /tuner/a 2nd N110 Amp and a digital surround processor) cost $75 and the speakers $50 in fact the god **** SMSL dac is the most expensive part of this set up coming in at $80~
Click to expand...
What if I replace the LSR305 with the JBL 705P?
 
Agree with the above. I've got speakers that cost much more and don't have a single dac that I paid or ever retailed above $1000, even adjusted for inflation.

Spend money this way - Speakers, Amp, Source, DAC, Cables
 
Quiz said:
What if I replace the LSR305 with the JBL 705P?
Click to expand...
So it is absolutely your money and do what makes you happy but if you are spending this much for a dac then you amp and speakers should be in the many thousands of dollars... it just isn't going to be worth it (imho) for powered monitors like these.
However my advice remains the same as before if you really wanna improve your audio experience / spend money.. you're better off getting higher end speakers / amps..
higher end amps / speakers / or powered speakers are going to make more difference then a new dac unless you old dac is just broken?
 
atarione said:
So it is absolutely your money and do what makes you happy but if you are spending this much for a dac then you amp and speakers should be in the many thousands of dollars... it just isn't going to be worth it (imho) for powered monitors like these.
However my advice remains the same as before if you really wanna improve your audio experience / spend money.. you're better off getting higher end speakers / amps..
higher end amps / speakers / or powered speakers are going to make more difference then a new dac unless you old dac is just broken?
Click to expand...
Thanks.

When I had my desktop PC, I originally had a Titanium HD sound card in there with the same JBL speakers. When I got the AE-9 I noticed a noticeable upgrade in sound quality even with these cheap JBL speakers. That is why I am assuming that an even higher end DAC could bring out the best of what these speakers have to offer. And if I end up upgrading my speakers down the line, I can stay with (or I'll already have) the higher end DAC.
 
Here's an alternative you might consider: KEF LSX II

It's an outstanding compact active speaker system with a built-in dac, lots of connection options, wired/wireless, and currently on sale for $1000. Add a small subwoofer and you've got a helluva 2.1 computer audio system.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Thanks for the recommendation.

What do you guys think of Genelec speakers?
 
Quiz said:
What do you guys think of Genelec speakers?
Click to expand...

Seem to be the speakers to have, but be warned that they are passive. So they are even more expensive than they seem since you have to add amps.
 
uOpt said:
Seem to be the speakers to have, but be warned that they are passive. So they are even more expensive than they seem since you have to add amps.
Click to expand...
Genelec speakers are active/powered. All of them.
 
I was dedicated to sound cards for a VERY long time. Up until this current build I always had a sound blaster of some form in all my gaming rigs. This rig I decided to go SB X3 DAC. Found a refurb sale through Creative's website. I'm happy with it. It has all the bells and whistles of the modern internal cards, but on paper should sound better as it's isolated from all the noise inside your case.

I'm going to be rocking the X3 DAC for a very long time.
 
CyberJunk said:
I have a Bifrost 2/64 and it's really good.Very realistic - life like sound. It's really good for the price. USB output is probably the best around.
Click to expand...
I just learned that the Bifrost clicks between tracks/songs. Is this true? If so, is it annoying?
 
Quiz said:
I just learned that the Bifrost clicks between tracks/songs. Is this true? If so, is it annoying?
Click to expand...
yeah it does have click sound when it changes bitrate/sampling rates. It's barely noticeable. I find it helpful when listening in exclusive mode in Windows. I know it's playing the correct bit-rate and sample rate of the song I'm listening too. If you have headphones on you may not notice it. The other thing about Bifrost 2/64 is that it's a R2R style DAC and you never want to turn it off. R2R multi-bit DACs need warm up time to get most performance out of it.
 
CyberJunk said:
yeah it does have click sound when it changes bitrate/sampling rates. It's barely noticeable. I find it helpful when listening in exclusive mode in Windows. I know it's playing the correct bit-rate and sample rate of the song I'm listening too. If you have headphones on you may not notice it. The other thing about Bifrost 2/64 is that it's a R2R style DAC and you never want to turn it off. R2R multi-bit DACs need warm up time to get most performance out of it.
Click to expand...
I'll be using it with a MacBook. Is there anything I need to know that might be specifically true when using it with a Mac vs. a PC?
 
Quiz said:
I'll be using it with a MacBook. Is there anything I need to know that might be specifically true when using it with a Mac vs. a PC?
Click to expand...

You really want something that is USB Audio Class compliant. That means you don't need software drivers other than what Apple has built in already. A safe sign is if the USB device claims to be compatible with iOS (iOS doesn't allow drivers at all).
 
emphy said:
For me, once one gets to non-manure quality in the rest of audio equipment, I greatly prefer a usb DAC. The reason is that I've yet to encounter an internal sound card where all those electromagnetic wave thingies inside the computer don't cause some audible hiss.

I'm currently using a fairly heftily priced fostex hp-a3, but when I am honest I can't really say I hear the difference between it and an elcheapo pc100usb by the same brand. To my ears, connecting to a higher powered amp delivers a far more cost effective improvement to the sound quality.
Click to expand...
The EM shielding on my AE-5 is good enough that I have never noticed any hissing or other artifacts. I think Creative have done well with the EM shielding since the Z-series. Prior to that it seemed like it was more for looks than actually shielding the components from EM radiation.
 
How is the latency with the Bifrost 2/64? CyberJunk, do you game with it? If yes, is the latency acceptable?
 
Quiz said:
How is the latency with the Bifrost 2/64? CyberJunk, do you game with it? If yes, is the latency acceptable?
Click to expand...
Yes, I game with it. There are no latency issues. The Bifrost 2/64 uses schiit's own usb controller unison and it has like little to no jitter. The Bifrost 2/64 has isolation setup on it's usb port. I was using a $5 walmart usb cable and it sounded pretty good. I switched to a monolith cable. In the manual says not to use a cable longer than 2m. I have not had any USB issues.
 
Long usb cables won't cause degraded sound. It's digital.

If there is interference, you may notice drop outs, pauses or such while sync is being dropped and re-established. I use a 5m USB extension for my UPS for that reason - if it drops out and takes a second for it to re-establish it's not the end of the world.
 
Last edited:
Keljian said:
Long usb cables won't cause degraded sound. It's digital.

If there is interference, you may notice drop outs, pauses or such while sync is being dropped and re-established. I use a 5m USB extension for my UPS for that reason - if it drops out and takes a second for it to re-establish it's not the end of the world.
Click to expand...
I have not experienced anything like that with Bifrost 2/64 or the Modius I had before that.
 
CyberJunk said:
I have not experienced anything like that with Bifrost 2/64 or the Modius I had before that.
Click to expand...
My point is you don’t need a fancy cable. If you don’t have those issues, then the cable you are using is fine.
 
tommyrick said:
Trying to get a feel on how to up my computer audio. I've usually used low/medium end sound cards with fair success. It seems medium end computer speakers are more limited by the sound card than anything most often, but i need to completely redo my setup, including some legit headphones with a microphone attached. I'm inclined to lean towards the USB dac route but was looking to see if anyone had experience.
Click to expand...
My base recommendation is a topping d10s, they have very high quality components, and the sound out of them is very good, if not excellent. They need an amp or amped speakers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top