SNR: 100dB vs 114dB sound card

[zeketheplumber]

Hi. Newbie here.

Trying to decide between a couple of external USB sound cards to make my Altec Lansing ADA885 speakers and Sennheiser HD595 headphones sound best.

I am wondering if going all-out and buying the Sound Blaster X-Fi HD USB for my laptop will yield much greater benefits than using my SPDIF output on my laptop's onboard sound. Or should I go with another USB sound card or expresscard slot sound card (most of which seem to have 100dB SNR)? Is the 114dB SNR of the X-Fi HD Pro really that much better? If it is, that's the card I probably will buy.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[jinjuku]

Buy better speakers. Sorry but those are easily your weakest link. The Headphones are nice though.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Last time I checked HD595 cans don't connect to spdif directly ...
I assume you're using $40 Altec speakers system to connect $150 headphones to ?
I'm not huge fan of external DAC's but I think something is very wrong in the picture above...
I never used this product, but seems it comes highly recommended:
http://www.amazon.com/NuForce-uDAC2-HP-Black-Headphone-24bit/dp/B00442KO0Q

and yea, Jin is 100% right, unless you exclusively use headphones to listed to any audio your should invest money to replace your speakers.

 

[digicidal]

Unlike BSA I absolutely love my USB DAC's - even the ones with older chips that only allow 16/44 via USB... maybe it's psycho acoustics, but I just feel like the sound is cleaner and less 'processed' even though the 'direct' on my receivers should be just as clean a signal path.

My biggest deal is that although I use AVRs in 2 of my setups (because they were 'free') I hate having a huge chunk of non-PC related gear on or next to my desk - having big bookshelves on either side of the monitors is bad enough.

I guess the biggest question is what are you running your headphones with now?? I didn't see a headphone output on the speakers you're using in the limited press I searched. However, I did find in one review of them that the speakers themselves have a SNR of ">70db" for both the satellites and the subwoofer - so the short answer I would have is NO - it won't make any difference at all adding a better sound card (or external USB DAC for that matter). What you might consider is one of the many headphone amps with USB input that doubles as a DAC. So you could stay small and get great sound (even when travelling) - and have good analog output when you wanted to upgrade to real speakers and a real amp.

The next model up from the one that BSA recommended is a good choice for this and only $30 more. Alternatively, you could spend a little more and get something a little more exotic like one of the firestone products (although it should be noted that the DAC in the particular model I linked is far from optimal - however, it's still good enough to be 100% of the quality a CD is capable of). They even have cute little mini-monoblocks if you wanted to create a mini-rack on your desk - which I wouldn't actually recommend unless you don't mind spending way too much for something more unique than functional... I think I might have to try them though if I can slip a pair in on an expense statement when I move offices.

They have a much higher-end version of the one linked... just found it browsing the new stuff. It is pretty over priced IMO - but it has just about everything in the way of HP amp/Upsampling DAC capabilities. And it's only really expensive until you compare it to something like a Benchmark. My buddy uses one of those as his headphone amp and PC soundcard - maybe someday...

 

[zeketheplumber]

Thanks for the responses.

No, I don't connect my hd595s via the headphone jack on the speakers. I plug them directly into my laptop. And sorry if I somehow implied that the hd595s use SPDIF when I meant the ADA885 speakers. I'm new but not that new.

Also, what makes these speakers so bad? I bought them because they are the clearest sounding desktop speakers I have ever heard, personally. And they're not "$40 speakers" either... Retail $350 if you were wondering. Sure, they aren't loud enough to make the dishes in my kitchen fall off the shelves, but I enjoy listening at low to medium volumes.

I will check out those usb dacs when I get to my computer. Will they really make my hd595s sound noticeably better than an external Sound Blaster card?

Again, thanks.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Thanks for the responses.

No, I don't connect my hd595s via the headphone jack on the speakers. I plug them directly into my laptop. And sorry if I somehow implied that the hd595s use SPDIF when I meant the ADA885 speakers. I'm new but not that new.

Also, what makes these speakers so bad? I bought them because they are the clearest sounding desktop speakers I have ever heard, personally. And they're not "$40 speakers" either... Retail $350 if you were wondering. Sure, they aren't loud enough to make the dishes in my kitchen fall off the shelves, but I enjoy listening at low to medium volumes.

I will check out those usb dacs when I get to my computer. Will they really make my hd595s sound noticeably better than an external Sound Blaster card?

Sorry Mate, I quoted $40 based on the search I ran a week ago, don't remember the source, but one of such sources for this price could be here:
http://www.directron.com/ada885.html

I'm glad you like these speakers but just in case you might want to have to take your favorite music and listen to it on other speakers - not pc multimedia ones, but more home bookshelf and judge the difference for yourself.

Regarding SQ improvements with external dac - I think you'll notice the difference, but how big it'll be - it'll be up to you to judge that
The biggest gain will be imo from better headphone amp than one in your external sb.

 

[digicidal]

Regarding SQ improvements with external dac - I think you'll notice the difference, but how big it'll be - it'll be up to you to judge that
The biggest gain will be imo from better headphone amp than one in your external sb.

Yep to all... the built in amp will definitely be the weak link there.

To the OP it's not that they're bad speakers - but there definitely are much, much better ones. Kind of like an Internet connection - you can view 90-95% of all web content over dial-up... at least until you get a broadband connection. Then it doesn't seem like it anymore.

I've had several mid to high-end (for computer speakers) setups over the past 20 years - the best being an Advent 2.1 setup. And until I heard PC sound on a real amp, through real speakers... I was pleased with the sound from most of them.

Just stop by your local music pro store (Musician's Friend, Guitar Center, etc..) and listen to some of the powered nearfield monitors there. If you have an iPod - at home plug it in to the analog input on the ADA885's and listen to a selection... then play the same thing through the others at the store.

As an aside - you're not the only one that gives these speakers a glowing recommendation. Found this high up on the hits in a search.

Potentially they are everything you could want as far as the sound is concerned... neither of us (BSA & myself) can hear what your ears are hearing. However, bear in mind that much of the subjective analysis of sound comes from experience. I still feel that I would need to audition about 1000 more pairs of speakers before I would feel confident in attempting a relatively objective analysis of a speaker based solely on an audition of it. And even then I would defer to measured results under almost every circumstance - other than that of the subjective... "personal preferrence".

However, the great thing is that you only need to hear one set of speakers to know if it sounds good to you or not. The problem comes when you are not necessarily 100% contented with that sound... which assumedly you are not since you are asking what can be done to improve the sound.

The bottom line is that all the expensive electronics in the world - will not appreciably change the sound you are hearing through the same set of speakers (assuming that you are supplying them with a reasonably clean signal in the first place... which you most definitely are if you are using the SPDIF input).

If you love the way they sound completely... then just listen and enjoy the fact that you've already found audio-nirvana... on the other hand, if you're only moderately satisfied with the sound - then the speakers themselves are the first place to make a change. IMHO at least.