Sound card vs. DAC?

[Zany]

What are the differences between these 2 besides the fact that the DAC is external?

[Dodge]

The actual DAC (digital to analog converter) is a microchip and used on both, soundcards and external DACs.

A sound card offers a lot of driver settings, but can only be used in a PC obviously. An external DAC can also be used with CD-players ect. (provided that they have a digital output). HiFi DACs are usually stereo only.

[m0n5t3r]

Well 1^st sound cards have DAC’s. It’s needed as human cannot pick up digital signals like analogue signals.

2^nd Sound cards come with drivers and some have swappable OPAmps to customise the audio reproduction.

3^rd For 3D positional audio, a sound card can process this through Stereo headsets giving it a realistic 3D Surround effect.

4^th Most external DAC’s do not support standard 5.1 or 7.1 Surround speaker systems. A sound card can offer the flexibility of both Stereo and surround.

[STiTRON]

From an audiophile perspective any audio "reproduction/modification/sound effects" diminish the originally quality of the music/movie/game audio.

If you want surround sound an audio card is the winner no doubt...

If you want a 2 channel Hi-Fi system for your computer, the DAC- is the winner.

If you are looking for the best possible reproduction of audio get a high end DAC. The inside of a computer is a noisy place. (a ton of electrical interference..lots of resistors and capacitors send around charges) Electrical interference is an audiophiles worst nightmare, my current system will hum when my room mate turns on his fluorescent light in his room. When I used an audio card/on board audio my system would have horrible noise at any audible volume level. The sound would fluctuate with cpu load/gpu load.

I have a pretty decent build using a corsair ax860/Maximus v extreme/and a shunyata power conditioner.....Which should be decent enough to not push sound through my system, but it still does. Maybe if you are using a simple logitech/bose speaker system you won't have that. When you step up to high end audio setup with a low noise floor, all that computer noise is clear as day.

The idea behind a DAC is too do all the audio conversion from digital to analog outside of the computer..(and also do the best job of conversion where most audio quality is lost).....get it away from that hell hold of electrical interference.

I use the music fidelity V-DAC II with excellent results.(around $300 at the right place). If you want to spend more get the rega DAC, (around $800 I believe)...it's excellent.

If you buy a DAC you need to invest in a quality amplifier. Grab a 2 channel amp with analog inputs and outputs only, the less features the better. I use the rega brio-r ($900) and it schreds.

Moral of the story...surround sound=sound card.....HiFi setup=DAC

offset

[supraaural]

I think it should be mentioned that soundcards have a DAC and an Amp on them. A DAC, as mentioned, is a Digital to Analogue Converter, which means it takes the data from your music file and turns it into an Analogue signal for your speakers/headphones/IEM's/other audio gear to turn into sound. An external DAC is just a DAC; you will still need to pair an Amp to it. A soundcard is one solution to combine both onto one piece of hardware that conveniently fits inside your computer/laptop.

[STiTRON]

I think it should be mentioned that soundcards have a DAC and an Amp on them. A DAC, as mentioned, is a Digital to Analogue Converter, which means it takes the data from your music file and turns it into an Analogue signal for your speakers/headphones/IEM's/other audio gear to turn into sound. An external DAC is just a DAC; you will still need to pair an Amp to it. A soundcard is one solution to combine both onto one piece of hardware that conveniently fits inside your computer/laptop.

usually a "cheap" combination of a poor dac and a poor amplifier.. It is just always better to have them separate.

It's like buying a hybrid bike. It's a crappy mountain bike and a crappy road bike.

[Zany]

From an audiophile perspective any audio "reproduction/modification/sound effects" diminish the originally quality of the music/movie/game audio.

If you want surround sound an audio card is the winner no doubt...

If you want a 2 channel Hi-Fi system for your computer, the DAC- is the winner.

If you are looking for the best possible reproduction of audio get a high end DAC. The inside of a computer is a noisy place. (a ton of electrical interference..lots of resistors and capacitors send around charges) Electrical interference is an audiophiles worst nightmare, my current system will hum when my room mate turns on his fluorescent light in his room. When I used an audio card/on board audio my system would have horrible noise at any audible volume level. The sound would fluctuate with cpu load/gpu load.

I have a pretty decent build using a corsair ax860/Maximus v extreme/and a shunyata power conditioner.....Which should be decent enough to not push sound through my system, but it still does. Maybe if you are using a simple logitech/bose speaker system you won't have that. When you step up to high end audio setup with a low noise floor, all that computer noise is clear as day.

The idea behind a DAC is too do all the audio conversion from digital to analog outside of the computer..(and also do the best job of conversion where most audio quality is lost).....get it away from that hell hold of electrical interference.

I use the music fidelity V-DAC II with excellent results.(around $300 at the right place). If you want to spend more get the rega DAC, (around $800 I believe)...it's excellent.

If you buy a DAC you need to invest in a quality amplifier. Grab a 2 channel amp with analog inputs and outputs only, the less features the better. I use the rega brio-r ($900) and it schreds.

Moral of the story...surround sound=sound card.....HiFi setup=DAC

offset

Would a FiiO E10 be good enough for music and casual gaming?

[STiTRON]

From an audiophile perspective any audio "reproduction/modification/sound effects" diminish the originally quality of the music/movie/game audio.

If you want surround sound an audio card is the winner no doubt...

If you want a 2 channel Hi-Fi system for your computer, the DAC- is the winner.

If you are looking for the best possible reproduction of audio get a high end DAC. The inside of a computer is a noisy place. (a ton of electrical interference..lots of resistors and capacitors send around charges) Electrical interference is an audiophiles worst nightmare, my current system will hum when my room mate turns on his fluorescent light in his room. When I used an audio card/on board audio my system would have horrible noise at any audible volume level. The sound would fluctuate with cpu load/gpu load.

I have a pretty decent build using a corsair ax860/Maximus v extreme/and a shunyata power conditioner.....Which should be decent enough to not push sound through my system, but it still does. Maybe if you are using a simple logitech/bose speaker system you won't have that. When you step up to high end audio setup with a low noise floor, all that computer noise is clear as day.

The idea behind a DAC is too do all the audio conversion from digital to analog outside of the computer..(and also do the best job of conversion where most audio quality is lost).....get it away from that hell hold of electrical interference.

I use the music fidelity V-DAC II with excellent results.(around $300 at the right place). If you want to spend more get the rega DAC, (around $800 I believe)...it's excellent.

If you buy a DAC you need to invest in a quality amplifier. Grab a 2 channel amp with analog inputs and outputs only, the less features the better. I use the rega brio-r ($900) and it schreds.

Moral of the story...surround sound=sound card.....HiFi setup=DAC

offset

It's decent....Or you could grab a headphone amp and seperate dac... I need to research for ya!!!

[Dark_Nemesis]

I think it should be mentioned that soundcards have a DAC and an Amp on them. A DAC, as mentioned, is a Digital to Analogue Converter, which means it takes the data from your music file and turns it into an Analogue signal for your speakers/headphones/IEM's/other audio gear to turn into sound. An external DAC is just a DAC; you will still need to pair an Amp to it. A soundcard is one solution to combine both onto one piece of hardware that conveniently fits inside your computer/laptop.

Another comment on that is, that as soon as you get a decent pair of headphones, they have higher impedance that your average gamer headset. That pretty waek amp on your sound card doesn't have the oomph to power the headphones, which completely ruins the sound quality.

[STiTRON]

I think it should be mentioned that soundcards have a DAC and an Amp on them. A DAC, as mentioned, is a Digital to Analogue Converter, which means it takes the data from your music file and turns it into an Analogue signal for your speakers/headphones/IEM's/other audio gear to turn into sound. An external DAC is just a DAC; you will still need to pair an Amp to it. A soundcard is one solution to combine both onto one piece of hardware that conveniently fits inside your computer/laptop.

amen to dark_nemesis

[STiTRON]

DAC DAC DAC DAC DAC

[Dodge]

My advice would be: Don't overdo it with stuff like DACs. Even the bad DAC-chips are pretty good now and people in a blinded experiment are usually not able to tell amps or dacs apart. As long as you don't have problems with audible distortions, choose the more practical device.

[STiTRON]

Thing I've notice with more expensive dac's is you get this clarity and warmness of bass unheard of with computer audio before... and also the highs (rides, symbols, hi hat) sound super crispy...