External sound card, or the like

Norman_the_Owl · August 27, 2014

Hey guys, i'm thinking of doing a project within which I'll route a bunch of cables and stuff into a box, but that's not important.

The important part is that i wanted to have my audio routed through this box. Can you guys recommend me anything with inputs in the back and outputs in the front? Needs to have at least a single headphone output (obviously) and preferably some sort of volume control, but that's not important.

The headphones i use are ATH-M50's, so not exactly difficult to drive headphones.

If there aren't any sound cards*, would there be any amps or something similar that just goes from 3.5mm to either 1/4 inch to 3.5mm? I suppose that would be called inline but i don't know for sure.

I have no real budget, but the cheaper the better. <$50 would be great, but i don't really care if i have to shell out more.

*I might not even need a sound card, my motherboard has a good one and I'm not really an audiophile, so...any improvement would probably be lost on me.

Hit me with suggestions!

Edit: Turns out i'm actually looking for a DAC. But i'm not sure. Audio's something i don't know a lot about...

lekro · August 28, 2014

- snip -

If your "box" is a computer, the integrated audio should work fine.

What you said - "inputs in the back and outputs in the front" could mean ... anything, really. But you just want to route all your audio through this "box?"

A DAC/amp is integrated into motherboards with integrated sound. It's not necessarily the best, but will suffice if you don't care too much about audio quality. You can input and output audio (microphone and speakers ports) to a motherboard.

Sorry if I oversimplify this, but this is basically the explanation someone should get for a DAC/amp:

A DAC is a Digital-to-Analog Converter. It will take digital information "1s and 0s" from the computer (or rather, the computer will give it information) and convert it into electrical waves that can be outputted to speakers.

An amplifier takes an audio input signal (from a DAC or any other source) and amplifies it (makes it louder). This also has something to do with driving more inefficient headphones with larger impedances (measured in ohms although resistance is also measured in ohms?) but you said that yours aren't difficult to drive.

If you want to make a DAC at home, you should look into Nwavguy's ODAC. If you want to make an amp at home, you should look into Nwavguy's o2 (the ODAC's counterpart). Other than that, there are many other options that I don't know about. Maybe someone else can fill in there.