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I ordered a External usb soundcard to use with my laptop that has both rca and optical outputs. Will using the optical give me better sound quality or can I just use the rca jacks?
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My guess is that the DAC's in whatever receiver/pre-pro you ahve are better than in the external soudcard, so I'd vote for the digital output. but, I suppose that depends what soundcard you have. -
It does seem to sound better running optical. It's a turtle beach sound card. I just wanted to try something on the cheap side to see if it improved the sound. It does sound a lot better than just using the sound card in my laptop.
Thanks for the reply:thumbsup:Comment
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I just go from my laptop to an external dac. Love it. Don't even have a cd player hooked up anymore.Never Argue With An idiot. They'll Lower You To Their Level And Then Beat You With Experience!Comment
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What are you using for a dac?Originally posted by Jason
Yep I just ripped all my cd's to my laptop and use that for music.Comment
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I'm using a Tube Audio Design TADAC. My laptop has an optical output, but I just added an Apple AirPort Express, which also has an optical out. So any computer with iTunes can stream to the AirPort express and then through the dac.Originally posted by tooskinnyNever Argue With An idiot. They'll Lower You To Their Level And Then Beat You With Experience!Comment
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I am using an external soundcard (E-MU 0404USB) for home theater and everyday music
listening also. For the 2 channel tube system I use a Paradisea+ DAC. Both these externals
are 'sourced' from the PC, although they are never used together.
I have tried both the RCA & TOS link S/PDIF connections on those (and on other equipment
I have owned in the past) into the preamp/prosessor and have come to realize that experimentation
is neccessary. You should honestly listen to both connections for at least several days before trying,
or switching back to the other.
One thing that really helps the sound quality of most 2 channel music is to use the analogue L/R RCA
connectors from your external sound card into the preamp/prosessor & set the preamp/prosessor to
'by-pass' mode. This is assuming your external soundcard or DAC has better quality ADC/DAC chips
than your preamp/prosessor. Give it a try...Comment
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