Matt, It's a great subject and one I've played with quite a bit. Hopefully I can point you in a direction or two to think about. Unfortunately, I think in your quest to become totally digital in your sound path you have ended up leaving out what is actually the most important component in determining the overall sound - your D/A. Without question the quality of the D/A, and then to some extent it's immediate surroundings, will dominate the sound quality more than any other single item. I make the assumption here that your digital path is at least up to the task, as it probably is, within some limitations. In my experience there is no comparison between my Benchmark DAC1 and the D/A in our home theater. In one case the DAC1 is a $1K converter driven by a spdif cable. In the other case it's a $300 Sony receiver with probably a $20 D/A. No comparison as to which sounds more accurate, open, sweet, clear and any other adjective you want to use. I get far better sound using the DAC1 into analog audio inputs than I do using the internal D/A that Sony put in the receiver. I think until we discuss the quality of the D/A in the unit being driven by the TOS cable we might actually find you're as well off, if not better, with the analog outputs of a *properly* *driven* MAudio 2496. As for the actual digital path it depends on what you're going to send over it and what capabilities the transmitter and receiver have. Some, if not many, of the PC-based TOS and spdif interfaces are locked to 48KHz. This is fine for DVD but not good at all for CD audio. I would first determine if the clock rates can be changed on the PC-based units you are considering. If not stick with a good sound card which has this capability. After you determine what's going to send the digital data you then need to ensure that the receiving TOS/spdif interface can sync to it. Does it automatically switch to the frequency being sent or does it require that you provide a clock. A lot of pro gear makes an assumption that you have a word clock generator which I'm guessing you don't have or don't want to use for this application. If it turns out that any part of this path is locked to 48K then you'll have to resample your pristine lossless audio rips from 44.1K to 48K. That will add lots of coloring to the sound and (in my opinion anyway) make the rest of this discussion almost unimportant. Hope these comments give you some ideas about what to look for. Good luck, Mark On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 12:13 PM, Matt Garman <matthew.garman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > In short, I'm looking for the best stereo sound I can get from my > Linux system---the main use will be listening to my CD collection > (ripped as FLAC). > > A specific question: if using digital output, is there a difference > (sound quality-wise) between optical/toslink and coaxial? Say my > soundcard can output both via optical and coax, and my amp also > supports both inputs: any reason to choose one over the other? > > Also, if I'm looking at pure digital output, is there a quality > difference between sound card models? My understanding is quite > naive (and certainly incomplete!) but it seems like if the software > (flac123, mpd, whatever) converts the FLAC code to a digital audio > signal, the sound card doesn't really have any work to do. > > In other words, my motherboard (Abit IP35 Pro) has an optical SPDIF > output for its Intel HD Audio system. Would this be any > better/worse than, say, a Chaintech AV-710 with optical out (which > I'm using in another PC), or an MAudio Audiophile 2496 coax SPDIF > output? > > My understanding has always been that "digital is digital", but > after doing some reading today, I'm not so sure that's true. > > In general, in addition to answering the above questions, I'm kind > of looking to continue this thread I found, "Best card for > bitperfect SPDIF I/O": > http://www.mail-archive.com/alsa-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/msg21140.html > > Some general comments/open-ended questions: > > - I have an MAudio Audiophile 2496. I was using its analog > (RCA) outputs to an amp, and then on to some speakers. I > noticed a crackling sound in one of the speakers---I've > literally changed everything after the sound card (cable, > amp, speaker wire, speakers) and the crackling persists. So > either I have a bunk card or there's too much RF noise in my > case. > > - I switched back to the onboard Intel HDA chip, and am using > its analog output. I *thought* I heard a little bit of > crackling last night (but I need to do more listening to > verify this). Certainly the analog sound from the integrated > chip isn't as good as the MAudio (crackling aside). > > - It is for the above two reasons that I am looking at going the > digital route---if my case is internally noisy, shouldn't > digital avoid these problems? > > - In general, are there any Linux "audiophiles" out there (i.e. > using your Linux system as your audio source)? How do you get > the signal (analog or digital) out of the computer and into > your amp? > > Thanks, > Matt > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by the 2008 JavaOne(SM) Conference > Don't miss this year's exciting event. There's still time to save $100. > Use priority code J8TL2D2. > http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;198757673;13503038;p?http://java.sun.com/javaone > _______________________________________________ > Alsa-user mailing list > Alsa-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by the 2008 JavaOne(SM) Conference Don't miss this year's exciting event. There's still time to save $100. Use priority code J8TL2D2. http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;198757673;13503038;p?http://java.sun.com/javaone _______________________________________________ Alsa-user mailing list Alsa-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
