snowyweston
Standard Member
Good evening all! Firstly, allow me if you will to introduce myself; my name's Kieren and I'm no stranger to these pages; for some years I've been lurking and reading threads here whilst staying over (mainly at) PCPro and Talk Audio.... of late I've been finding the threads here far more insightful when trying to get a grasp of technology, and so decided tonight I should give signing up a go.
I'm a simple man, with simple pleasures (who tends to yap on so tell me when I do) first off I'm no SQ connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination - nor am I the most financially endowed of types; but I do like what I like - and that includes harbouring a deep love of gear that'll let me rip my head off with bass, boasts detail enough to send shivers through me and more importantly have fun with it all.
And so I post today to seek advice on something that's been plaguing me - soundcards. For sometime I have been wanting to relegate my DVD player, PS2 and laptop being used as sources for my basic AV/Music lounge setup - and with a need for a home media server looming (I want my bedroom machine back) I've been thinking of building an all singing and dancing HTPC.
I had thought to start basic (build & upgrade as time goes on) but as I've read more & more into the non-benefits of even the most capable of onboard-audio mobos (no sub-management, noise-floors etc) I'm thinking something like an MSI 7411 isn't where I should be thinking - and instead, build my HTPC around a soundcard.
But even after reading seemingly endless threads & articles on the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1, Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 HiFi, Terratec Aureon 5.1, X-FI Elite Pro and today the Onkyo se-200 I'm still lost.
Whilst waiting to sell my Rotel I've thought more and more that I shouldn't - and instead do away with my Sony; and get a soundcard that could do my processing and outputting.... I've a fair amount of listening material and although I don't fully grasp the idea of full bitrate DTS, PCM, ASIO, - know that such decoding features will be needed....
I think my main annoyance when looking at all these cards has been that they all seem to still be employing 3.5mm stereo jack outputs - and after seeing the Alienware HDMS with it's 8 RCA outs - I've been wanting THAT card - although a million google searches later I'm still no closer to finding a card with such? Okay so RCA may not be the be all & end all, and if I do sell the Rotel optical/coaxial would still be nice enough for the Sony (which does take multichannel analog but my understandings/feelings are the 3.5mm connections would lose to the digital means for signal purity - no?)
So I guess after this rather wordy/fluffy ramble - the real question is:
What soundcards are people going for these days to use as pre/pro-to-AV -power-amps?
NB: If this is the wrong section for AV/HTPC I'm sorry.
I'm a simple man, with simple pleasures (who tends to yap on so tell me when I do) first off I'm no SQ connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination - nor am I the most financially endowed of types; but I do like what I like - and that includes harbouring a deep love of gear that'll let me rip my head off with bass, boasts detail enough to send shivers through me and more importantly have fun with it all.
And so I post today to seek advice on something that's been plaguing me - soundcards. For sometime I have been wanting to relegate my DVD player, PS2 and laptop being used as sources for my basic AV/Music lounge setup - and with a need for a home media server looming (I want my bedroom machine back) I've been thinking of building an all singing and dancing HTPC.
I had thought to start basic (build & upgrade as time goes on) but as I've read more & more into the non-benefits of even the most capable of onboard-audio mobos (no sub-management, noise-floors etc) I'm thinking something like an MSI 7411 isn't where I should be thinking - and instead, build my HTPC around a soundcard.
But even after reading seemingly endless threads & articles on the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1, Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 HiFi, Terratec Aureon 5.1, X-FI Elite Pro and today the Onkyo se-200 I'm still lost.
Whilst waiting to sell my Rotel I've thought more and more that I shouldn't - and instead do away with my Sony; and get a soundcard that could do my processing and outputting.... I've a fair amount of listening material and although I don't fully grasp the idea of full bitrate DTS, PCM, ASIO, - know that such decoding features will be needed....
I think my main annoyance when looking at all these cards has been that they all seem to still be employing 3.5mm stereo jack outputs - and after seeing the Alienware HDMS with it's 8 RCA outs - I've been wanting THAT card - although a million google searches later I'm still no closer to finding a card with such? Okay so RCA may not be the be all & end all, and if I do sell the Rotel optical/coaxial would still be nice enough for the Sony (which does take multichannel analog but my understandings/feelings are the 3.5mm connections would lose to the digital means for signal purity - no?)
So I guess after this rather wordy/fluffy ramble - the real question is:
What soundcards are people going for these days to use as pre/pro-to-AV -power-amps?
NB: If this is the wrong section for AV/HTPC I'm sorry.