external sound card

[Dorkenstein]

I'm looking for an external usb sound card that has a good DAC and good sound quality. I thought I could get an internal but my only slot that would work with it is taken up by my firewire card. Any suggestions would be good. I am willing to spend up to $200 if it's really good. Thanks.

 

[moonboy403]

The Zero DAC and an iBasso D2 Boa comes to mind.

 

[PurdueRy]

I really love the versatility of my E-mu 1212m card and it had the test results to back up the sound quality. It is internal but they make external version of these cards that I haven't looked into too much but I would imagine they would test similar.

 

[43st]

Originally posted by: moonboy403
The Zero DAC and an iBasso D2 Boa comes to mind.

The Zero DAC is amazing, but make sure it's the 'upgrade' version sold on Ebay. Should be around $170.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Do I need a good optical cable for the Zero? Not sure what to look for in an optical cable. Thanks, the Zero looks good.

 

[moonboy403]

Originally posted by: Dorkenstein
Do I need a good optical cable for the Zero? Not sure what to look for in an optical cable. Thanks, the Zero looks good.

Pretty much any optical cable would do. Check out monoprice for low price and good quality cables.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Yeah I took a look there, looks like they are back-ordered.

 

[moonboy403]

Originally posted by: Dorkenstein
Yeah I took a look there, looks like they are back-ordered.

What's backorder?

I just took a look at the 6 feet one and they're in stock.

 

[darkswordsman17]

You might try Blue Jeans Cables as well.

How are you doing optical out of your computer? I'd recommend ASIO4All and an ASIO plugin for your software, or maybe look into kernel streaming.

You could also consider the E-MU 0404 USB.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Yeah I have ASIO4ALL installed now. I am going to do optical out of my Realtek HD Audio port.

 

[43st]

I'm not sure you get error correction with optical, coax works really well unless perhaps you have a grounding issue.

Also be aware that a DAC isn't really the best method to use if you're gaming and need any of the Creative features. A straight up headphone amp will better in this case.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Hmm, I'll have to research that.