Sound Card, On-Board Sound Card and DAC

[Md. Shiblee Sadique]

Hi, I am not an expert on this. And this is my second post in audioholics. So Purdon my mistakes if I did any…

I have Yamaha A-S500 Connected to my PC through Pioneer GR-777 EQ. That A-S500 is driving a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 (Bi-Wired). Most of my music is FLAC and I have a few SACD.ISO. I am running MSI Z97 chips Gaming 3 Motherboard. (https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z97-GAMING-3.html#hero-overview). It has optical out. It’s analog out also support 24bit/192Khz. I have also installed my old CREATIVE 5.1 VX sound card. But it only supports 24Bit/96Khz. But somehow to me it sounds better than on-board analog out.

Will it be better if I use a DAC to get the audio out through USB or Optics? I cannot afford a high-end DAC and these are not available in my area. I was planning to buy one of these…

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/FX-Audio-DAC-X6-HiFi-Optical-Coaxial-USB-Digital-Audio-Amplifier-DAC-Decoder/32694093838.html?

will it reduce my audio quality?

What will be the benefit of Xonar Essence STX in my system?

 

[panteragstk]

Hi, I am not an expert on this. And this is my second post in audioholics. So Purdon my mistakes if I did any…

I have Yamaha A-S500 Connected to my PC through Pioneer GR-777 EQ. That A-S500 is driving a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 (Bi-Wired). Most of my music is FLAC and I have a few SACD.ISO. I am running MSI Z97 chips Gaming 3 Motherboard. (https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z97-GAMING-3.html#hero-overview). It has optical out. It’s analog out also support 24bit/192Khz. I have also installed my old CREATIVE 5.1 VX sound card. But it only supports 24Bit/96Khz. But somehow to me it sounds better than on-board analog out.

Will it be better if I use a DAC to get the audio out through USB or Optics? I cannot afford a high-end DAC and these are not available in my area. I was planning to buy one of these…

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/FX-Audio-DAC-X6-HiFi-Optical-Coaxial-USB-Digital-Audio-Amplifier-DAC-Decoder/32694093838.html?

will it reduce my audio quality?

What will be the benefit of Xonar Essence STX in my system?

Honestly the easiest thing for you to do would be to upgrade the Yamaha to one of the models that accepts a digital input of some sort. Then you don't have to worry about an external DAC or the quality of analog out from your PC.

If you are going to stick with the Yamaha then the DAC you posted could do quite well. As long as it doesn't have a lot of distortion then it will sound fine. That is why the onboard analog out doesn't sound that great. PCs are not good environments for analog audio. That's why you sees shielded soundcards being sold. How much of that is audible? No idea. I've never had an issue. I always try to keep my audio output of my PC digital and let my receiver handle decoding.

 

[Md. Shiblee Sadique]

Honestly the easiest thing for you to do would be to upgrade the Yamaha to one of the models that accepts a digital input of some sort. Then you don't have to worry about an external DAC or the quality of analog out from your PC.

If you are going to stick with the Yamaha then the DAC you posted could do quite well. As long as it doesn't have a lot of distortion then it will sound fine. That is why the onboard analog out doesn't sound that great. PCs are not good environments for analog audio. That's why you sees shielded soundcards being sold. How much of that is audible? No idea. I've never had an issue. I always try to keep my audio output of my PC digital and let my receiver handle decoding.

Thanks for your quick reply. I don't have any plan to change my Amp. I also have Yamaha RX-V467. But A-S500 sounds great. So Digital out from Motherboard will be better than Xonar analog out?

 

[panteragstk]

Thanks for your quick reply. I don't have any plan to change my Amp. I also have Yamaha RX-V467. But A-S500 sounds great. So Digital out from Motherboard will be better than Xonar analog out?

Possibly. I wouldn't buy a soundcard from creative to improve computer audio. I have an old x-fi that I retired and am using a DAC/Amp that i really like, but I also have HDMI out from my PC to my large receiver for real music listening.

If you want to go the analog soundcard route, you're better off getting an audio interface meant for recording. They tend to be higher quality. That or a DAC like you posted in the OP.

 

[Md. Shiblee Sadique]

Thanks a lot, I will go for the DAC then...

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Never heard about FX audio.
panteragstk is right. Going with external dac (or using component with dac outside of pc) is better way to go. It's very hard to design properly RF shielded audio pc card. I also had terrible results from Creative PCI cards analog out.
Here's a guy who does lots of objective dac reviews:
http://archimago.blogspot.com/search?q=dac

 

[Md. Shiblee Sadique]

Never heard about FX audio.
panteragstk is right. Going with external dac (or using component with dac outside of pc) is better way to go. It's very hard to design properly RF shielded audio pc card. I also had terrible results from Creative PCI cards analog out.
Here's a guy who does lots of objective dac reviews:
http://archimago.blogspot.com/search?q=dac

Thanks, FX-Audio is a Chinese company. I have seen their products in amazon uk too. review is good. and they are a lot cheaper compared to other DAC from prominent manufacturer. also these are not available in my country...