ODAC Stand Alone DAC

M

MrBoat

Audioholic Ninja
I had bought this at some point and totally forgot about it. This, on the premise that desk top PC DACs must not be any, or as good. I have never really had any issue with music playback from PCs, at least not with 2.1 computer speakers. For a long time, this kept me from hooking my PC up to my house stereo, thinking that these 2.1 computer kits must have something in them that compensates for the so-called, crappy DACs included with the motherboard's audio and this noisy environment inside a PC case.

How did I manage to so randomly avoid this poor audio performance from all the PC's I have owned in the last 18 years or so? I've owned computers since around 1992 but never really had more than the little basic built-in, or satellite speakers with the earlier versions, and I think in the beginning we were limited to midi files.

Well, I am happy to report that the ODAC does indeed work well, as does the DAC in my PC. If there is some real performance differences, they are essentially inaudible to me. I reckon this is more of a headphone amp issue but I am glad that I did NOT buy that $200 dragonfly thing. Also, that this has just further added some skepticism to internet opinions of how many must be repeating rumor. That we should ask what PC people have experience with. Most of mine have been more of the multimedia type and of the mid priced variety. I think a lot of people must be buying the bargain box bulk models and then just condemning the brand/performance regardless of the "deal" they got.
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
I had bought this at some point and totally forgot about it. This, on the premise that desk top PC DACs must not be any, or as good. I have never really had any issue with music playback from PCs, at least not with 2.1 computer speakers. For a long time, this kept me from hooking my PC up to my house stereo, thinking that these 2.1 computer kits must have something in them that compensates for the so-called, crappy DACs included with the motherboard's audio and this noisy environment inside a PC case.

How did I manage to so randomly avoid this poor audio performance from all the PC's I have owned in the last 18 years or so? I've owned computers since around 1992 but never really had more than the little basic built-in, or satellite speakers with the earlier versions, and I think in the beginning we were limited to midi files.

Well, I am happy to report that the ODAC does indeed work well, as does the DAC in my PC. If there is some real performance differences, they are essentially inaudible to me. I reckon this is more of a headphone amp issue but I am glad that I did NOT buy that $200 dragonfly thing. Also, that this has just further added some skepticism to internet opinions of how many must be repeating rumor. That we should ask what PC people have experience with. Most of mine have been more of the multimedia type and of the mid priced variety. I think a lot of people must be buying the bargain box bulk models and then just condemning the brand/performance regardless of the "deal" they got.
The on mobo analog audio on my old Dell Inspirion was crap. A simple (i.e. cheap) soundcard with an optical output to my AVR solved that problem.

Currently, my mobo digi audio is jumpered over to my HDMI signal on my video card, then HDMI over to the AVR, and it is great, as good as any other solution out there.

It is cheap enough and easy enough to pass the signal out of the chassis in the digi domain, that it's hardly worth even trying the analog outputs from a mobo.
 
M

MrBoat

Audioholic Ninja
The on mobo analog audio on my old Dell Inspirion was crap. A simple (i.e. cheap) soundcard with an optical output to my AVR solved that problem.

Currently, my mobo digi audio is jumpered over to my HDMI signal on my video card, then HDMI over to the AVR, and it is great, as good as any other solution out there.

It is cheap enough and easy enough to pass the signal out of the chassis in the digi domain, that it's hardly worth even trying the analog outputs from a mobo.
My last Dell, my gfriend bought me when her company upgraded, like they do every year or so. It was a multimedia based version of one of their mid priced offerings. She knew I was into audio and games at the time, and none too much into officeware. Also, she doesn't like getting caught being cheap about anything. I still have it and it still works well and it's from '05'. I have since bought a newer one but that one has been trouble free.

I've not, until the last couple years, used my PC for anything other than desktop systems. When I plugged the analog from that one into my old integrated from the 80's, I was surprised. That is what actually helped spawn all of this new interest in audio, being that I could use my desktop PC as a source.
 

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