Best Audio Card

[partypanda64]

What is the best audio card for high end audio listening around the $500 price range.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

None of them. External DAC is the way to go.

[partypanda64]

1 minute ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

None of them. External DAC is the way to go.

What external DAC would you recommend?

[Majestic]

25 minutes ago, partypanda64 said:

What external DAC would you recommend?

Nothing without a good reason to do so.

[Prysin]

36 minutes ago, partypanda64 said:

What is the best audio card for high end audio listening around the $500 price range.

What motherboard do you have?

Most motherboards today have pretty decent onboard, and investing in a soundcard may not even improve the experience if you have a high end mobo.

That being said, at 500 USD, the only type of DAC/AMPs i can think of is tube AMPs with inbuilt DACs.... which is expensive, fancy looking and completely useless as you need a equally or more expensive pair of headphones to enjoy said DAC/AMP.

 

Contact @Dackzy if you need more help. He is pretty knowledgeable about audio.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

As the others have said it depends on the rest of your equipment. What is your setup?

[Dackzy]

OP you do know that if you get a DAC you will need a AMP. Why do you need a DAC? What is your setup?

[GlassBomb]

First off, what do you want from it?

 

Do you just need something that does Digital to Analog (DAC)? Or do you need something to Amplify the signal (AMP)?

 

There are several DAC's that you can get for under $100 that will do an excellent job. And there are similarly priced AMP's that will power pretty much anything you want to throw at them.

 

And then there are also DAC+AMP units, that will both does the work of converting the signal to analog, as well as powering the headphones.

[partypanda64]

On 6/5/2016 at 10:53 AM, Hans Christian | Teri said:

As the others have said it depends on the rest of your equipment. What is your setup?

I'm converting one of my old shuttle computers into a media center, It has some sort of cheap custom motherboard, it is neither ITX or ATX, I have no idea what it is, but the on board audio is crap, there's always a static noise whenever using my cans (HD 598), I've tried grounding it and even buying one of those anti static wall plug devices but none of them have worked, I'm fairly certain that it might just electrical interference from other parts of the system but I'm not sure, I would preferably want an Audio card instead of an external AMP/DAC because it will be in a small space.

[Hammer]

First off, as people already have mentioned, theres no need to buy a soundcard unless your onboard sound is dead or something.

As for something external I dare say it makes a huge difference if you have the headphones to follow up.

 

So my tips is as following: First get headphones that are good enough, after that look into an external DAC, then look for a amp. Great headphones + decent DAC is waaaay better than decent headphones + great DAC imo.

 

Personally I have great experience with both "cheap" and more expensive DACs and AMPs. It depends a lot on the rest of the setup.

 

For a suggestion in your price range I have to say the CambridgeAudio DACmagic Plus is excellent, and in combination with a AMP (like DENON PMA-720AE) you will have some of the best audio delivered to your headphones  (Just remember that the difference between a lossless file and some 128kb downloaded from youtube will be massively different, so prepare to spend money on music )

 

Source: Own limited experience, currently using Dacmagic Plus and PMA-720AE together with DENON AH-D7100 headphones

[partypanda64]

3 minutes ago, Hammer said:

First off, as people already have mentioned, theres no need to buy a soundcard unless your onboard sound is dead or something.

As for something external I dare say it makes a huge difference if you have the headphones to follow up.

 

So my tips is as following: First get headphones that are good enough, after that look into an external DAC, then look for a amp. Great headphones + decent DAC is waaaay better than decent headphones + great DAC imo.

 

Personally I have great experience with both "cheap" and more expensive DACs and AMPs. It depends a lot on the rest of the setup.

 

For a suggestion in your price range I have to say the CambridgeAudio DACmagic Plus is excellent, and in combination with a AMP (like DENON PMA-720AE) you will have some of the best audio delivered to your headphones  (Just remember that the difference between a lossless file and some 128kb downloaded from youtube will be massively different, so prepare to spend money on music )

 

Source: Own limited experience, currently using Dacmagic Plus and PMA-720AE together with DENON AH-D7100 headphones

I have a pair of HD 598s and the onboard audio from my mobo is pure crap, its incredibly staticeye (if that's a word :P)  and picking up interference from all over the system, also, I am not strict on the $500 price range, but it does need to be internal because of space limitations.

 

[Hammer]

1 minute ago, partypanda64 said:

I have a pair of HD 598s and the onboard audio from my mobo is pure crap, its incredibly and picking up interference from all over the system, also, I am not strict on the $500 price range, but it does need to be internal because of space limitations.

 

I see! 

The Asus Xonar range of pci-cards is a safe shot imo. Just find one that suits your needs. They exist in virtually all price ranges, so there will probably be some that will fulfil your needs  

[The Flying Sloth]

7 minutes ago, partypanda64 said:

I have a pair of HD 598s and the onboard audio from my mobo is pure crap, its incredibly staticeye (if that's a word :P)  and picking up interference from all over the system, also, I am not strict on the $500 price range, but it does need to be internal because of space limitations.

 

What I am hearing is that you just need your audio fixed, if so, an asus xonar essence or creative soundblaster internal card will suit your needs, you don't need an expensive DAC if all you want is fixed audio

[SSL]

The static is probably fixable (see interference guide in my sigline), but if you aren't game for that adventure a $30 soundcard will do the job.

[spwath]

If you have 500$, spend 20$ on a sound card, or follow ssls troubleshooting, then spend rest on New headphones.