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February 3, 2007 - 10:43am
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Digital Integrated-Amplifier for Music - Any ideas??
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Since you are happy with the Audigy's analog section why not just feed it straight into a power amp ? I presume that the analog section is a separate bay or outboard module to keep it away from the worst of the RF / EMI that plagues most PC audio cards... Since you are going to get a powered sub it seems you can go with a small Tripath-based such as :
http://www.stereophile.com/budgetcomponents/1006sonic/index.html
I haven't heard the Tripath in that particular model but the built in power amps of Apple computers, which I use daily, implement the same vendor's "digital" amp for the headphone and speaker outputs. The sound is clean and open.
The analogue section is on the back of the card, along with the rest of the ports:
The top port is a phono digital out port that I'd like to utilise, and currently I'm using the phono analogue ports.
I was unsure about that Power Amp... it's not exactly what I've been looking for. What's it actually used for? Does it just take a single input and direct it to a pair of stereo speakers? Would that hold a subwoofer?
I mean, if I was going settle for analogue, I think I'd go for a nice Denon hi-fi stereo amplifier and receiver.
This was one of the home-cinema amplifiers I had noticed with a digital input and lots of other outputs and features (some I probably wouldn't use):
Pioneer VSX916.
I do play a lot of games, and I use a 5.1 headset for that, which utilises my analogue ports on the Audigy... I thought it might be a convinience to simply switch from analogue to digital when I wanted to change my output.
But hey, I'm pretty new to the hi-fi scene.
hmmm it looks like you have a propietary connector that requires an adaptor for hookup to the SPDIF input of a receiver / preamp's DAC. Assuming you do get that piece you can use any receiver with a SPDIF interface but before you go receiver shopping I recommend reading this article, which explains how a USB interface to a DAC is superior:
http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/905listen/index.html
By using a separate outboard DAC and power amp you can keep your investment in one, while updrading the other. These days you can get a nice USB DAC for not much money. for exsample -
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/AudiophileUSB-main.html
using this or a similar product you can still use your audigy, swithching bewteen audio controllers at will.
You should have a electronic pdf manual for the sound card, if not do the the creative website,click on support,then product documentation, choose country then product. This will explain all your connection options.
To connect digitally, you'll need a miniplug-to-DIN cable , but using your analogue outputs for your purposes will be just fine.
The number equiptment choices is so broad it's difficult to point where to begin. All I can say is it takes some trial and error
I agree that the analog section of the PC sound card is "just fine", maybe a bit better than that, and the $159 Sonic Impact power amp should be able to do it justice based on Stereophile's review. hmmm gives me some ideas about what to buy during my net visit to Amazon.com ...