Good quality A-to-D and D-to-A external (USB) converter for the PC?

[Kwad Guy]

I was visiting a friend recently, and he showed me an external
D<->A converter box he'd bought for his Mac. I think Onkyo made
it and it connected via USB. He said it cost him around $100.

I've been waiting for someone to make a reasonably priced good
quality external D<->A converter box for the PC. I am particularly
interested in the A->D capabilities, since I would want to use it
to digitize analogue music sources. The D<->A converters in typical
soundcards are kinda lousy, although fine for PC speakers. I want
something a bit better. But I don't want to spend a thousand bucks
for a Nakamichi coupler...

So my question is: Is there a GOOD quality, INEXPENSIVE external
D<->A converter for the PC (connecting, I assume, through the USB
port).

Kwad

 

[Workin']

Good and INEXPENSIVE. No. Nothing like that out there. Onkyo quit making their device, Yamaha makes one but it includes a 5.1 channel decoder and power amplifiers and it is certainly not inexpensive. Haven't seen or heard of anything else similar.

Maybe a Creative Labs' Sound Blaster Extigy? Not sure if we'd call that high quality or not.

 

[Kwad Guy]

Are/were there Windows/PC drivers for the Onkyo? Is that one
worth seeking out on the used/surplus market? It seems cheap enough,
though I don't know either whether it's any good, nor whether
it worked with modern PC OSes, such as Win2K, etc.

Kwad

 

[Workin']

<< Are/were there Windows/PC drivers for the Onkyo? Is that one worth seeking out on the used/surplus market? It seems cheap enough, though I don't know either whether it's any good, nor whether it worked with modern PC OSes, such as Win2K, etc. >>

I know there at least were Windows drivers for it. Don't know if you can still find them, Onkyo's web site makes no mention of the unit. If you could find a used one for cheap, I dunno, maybe it would be worthwhile.

This might be another solution, although I have never seen it for sale anywhere and I think it's on the expensive side of things. It's not USB but it has external A/D and D/A converters and RCA connections.

 

[RC7]

Stereolink is for Digital to Analogue. Harmon-Kardon also makes a usb->coax digital audio link that i see ads for in hifi mags. Neither has input, though :\

 

[Kwad Guy]

Well, I did some more research, using some of the info above
as a starting point. Turns out there are a few devices that do
essentially the same thing, are PC compatible, and are in what
I would consider the affordable price range.

Onkyo: SE-U55 ($99)
Yamaha: DP-U50 ($199.95)
Roland / Edirol: UA-30, UA-3, UA-100 ($150-250)

One more possibility: The Griffin Technologies iMic:
link.
This is a very interesting USB device that lists for only $35.
It does 24 bit processing, which is better than at least some
of the devices above. The downsides are that it is a very
plain interface that only has RCA input/outputs (no digital
interfaces, no line level controls), and that since it
was originally designed as a Mac device, you need to use
3rd party software to recognize/use it under Windows (e.g.
Sound Forge, Cakewalk, Cubase, Cool Edit Pro, etc.. But at $35 list, hmmm...


Anyone with experience with any of these care to comment
positive or negative?

Kwad

 

[Kwad Guy]

For anyone actually following this thread, I just got an email
response from Onkyo about their USB D-A converter...It uses
16 bit processing. A bit of a dissapointment, as I was leaning
towards that one...

Kwad