Sound Card vs DAC

[skwananbe]

Why would you pick a sound card over a dac?

[MayflowerElectronics]

You shouldn't

 

Audiophile DAC's like the ODAC will always be better than a sound card.

[OddballMV]

If you must have it inside your tower, that's about all i can think of.

[mr moose]

Unless there is some feature you cannot get on an external soundcard, Other than OddballMV's reason I can't think of why you would get an internal either. 

 

My preference is:

 

DAC -> small, high quality, easy to move from pc to pc and no driver issues

External sound device -> more input output options and similar sound quality 

Onboard -> unless you get interference sound quality is acceptable and usually no driver issues.

[skwananbe]

Asus Xonar Essence vs Modi DAC & Magni Headphone AMP from Schiit?

[ShearMe]

Onboard audio used to be pretty shoddy, creating a gap in the market which soundcards filled. Nowadays, the worst onboard isn't much worse than a low-end soundcard, and the most pricey soundcard cost well over what an external device does.

[ShearMe]

Asus Xonar Essence vs Modi DAC & Magni Headphone AMP from Schiit?

 

Gain is too high on the magni, and there's some reasons to boycott schiit, but still better than a soundcard.

 

I'd look at some FiiO products instead, and there's a hifiman tube amp+dac on amazon floating around for less than $200.

 

Edit: check out the deals thread, there's a massdrop sale on a O2 + ODAC assembled by Mr. Mayflower.

[skwananbe]

Why are people boycotting schiit?

[mr moose]

Why are people boycotting schiit?

 

Apparently some of their earlier products had issues, not too sure about their current line up.  Time will tell if they are a novelty item or serious contender in the audio scene.

[Blade of Grass]

Gain is too high on the magni, and there's some reasons to boycott schiit, but still better than a soundcard.

 

I'd look at some FiiO products instead, and there's a hifiman tube amp+dac on amazon floating around for less than $200.

 

Edit: check out the deals thread, there's a massdrop sale on a O2 + ODAC assembled by Mr. Mayflower.

 

 

Why are people boycotting schiit?

 

 

Apparently some of their earlier products had issues, not too sure about their current line up.  Time will tell if they are a novelty item or serious contender in the audio scene.

The gain isn't too high on the Magni, it's high, but not too high. The Magni/Modi stack is actually the best thing to get for around $200.

 

The whole boycott thing was on the Schiit Asgard because it had a higher than acceptable voltage spike when you turned it off. So people were staying away from that Amp. Schiit fixed the issue by adding a relay that cuts off all signal to the output when you hit the power button.

 

Go for the Magni Modi stack, I'll be getting that when I get the funds.

[ShearMe]

The gain isn't too high on the Magni, it's high, but not too high. The Magni/Modi stack is actually the best thing to get for around $200.

 

The whole boycott thing was on the Schiit Asgard because it had a higher than acceptable voltage spike when you turned it off. So people were staying away from that Amp. Schiit fixed the issue by adding a relay that cuts off all signal to the output when you hit the power button.

 

Go for the Magni Modi stack, I'll be getting that when I get the funds.

 

I'm calling BS. 5x gain is too much for just about every headphone that isn't hard to drive (ie just about everything on the market). I've read that people are getting around it by turning the volume down in Windows - that just drives your source into the noise floor which defeats the purpose of an external DAC - or by adding attenuators to the output which is just silly.

 

Furthermore, the whole "We use a discrete amplifier circuit instead of an opamp." truly shows that Schiit is either stupid, or trying to trick you into thinking their solution is better. Opamps were created specifically to do what previous amplifiers did more efficiently, and the hot-running Magni is just ridiculous. At least with tube amps you get a special kind of distortion.

[h264]

Why are people boycotting schiit?

 

http://www.head-fi.org/t/562736/what-causes-this-amp-related

 

*cough* Schitt - It's ironic because our name isn't ironic at all.

 

If it's not just the poor designs, it's the deceptive marketing and the phony measurements that puts me off every time.