I think the NE5532 are there for a reason: low noise. The Audiotrak and the Onkyos use them very much for this reason I think.

Should we keep this thread about PCI sound cards and their analogue outs?

Ok so which ones do we have that are interesting for us:

Onkyo Wavio SE-90 PCI:


Chipset: VIA Envy24MT
DAC: Wolfson WM8716
Singal-Noise Ratio 110dB (Line Out)
Frequency Response 0.3Hz - 44kHz (line Out +0/-0.5dB)
Digital OUT Sampling Frequency 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192kHz
Connection Line Out x1 (RCA / Stereo) Digital Out x1 (Toslink)


Onkyo Wavio SE-200 and SE-200 Ltd:



Chipset: VIA Envy24HT
DAC: Wolfson WM8740
Singal-Noise Ratio: 115dB (2Ch Analog Out)
Frequency Response: 0.3Hz - 88kHz (2Ch Analog Out Out +0/-3dB)
Digital IN Sampling Frequency: 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96kHz
Digital OUT sampling frequency: 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192kHz
Input terminal: Analog IN X 2 (stereo RCA, internal connection)
Digital IN X 1 (Toslink)
MIC X 1 (φ 3.5mm monaural)
Output terminal: 2ch Analog OUT X 1 (stereo RCA)
Digital OUT X 1 (Toslink)
7.1ch Analog OUT X 1

Audiotrak Prodigy HD2:


PCI audio interface based on VIA VT1721 (Envy24HT-S)
PCI card supplied with standard and low profile metal bracket
24 bit / 192kHz playback (analog & digital)
24 bit / 96kHz recording
high quality AKM AK4396 120dB(a) S/N ratio DA converter for extremly high quality 2 channel audio playback via RCA output connectors (5Hz - 40kHz frequency response)
triple OpAmp design for audio output with three high quality Fairchild NE5532 OpAmps on separate sockets (can be exchanged for tuning & customization)
headphone output with 1/8" connector routed via JRC4580 dual OpAmp
analog line input with 1/8" connector via AKM AK5353/7 102dB(a) S/N ratio AD converter (20Hz - 40kHz frequency response)
optical S/PDIF digital output following IEC-958C standard, can be used for stereo audio playback (PCM) and multichannel streams from such sources (AC-3 or DTS data)

Asus Xonar Essence ST:


This card will not do 88.2Khz and 176.4Khz sample rates, and does not have auto sample rate switching.

Audio Processor: ASUS AV100 High-Definition Sound Processor (Max. 192KHz/24bit)
24-bit D-A Converter of Digital Sources: Texas Instruments PCM1792A*1 (127dB SNR, Max.192kHz/24bit)
24-bit A-D Converter for Analog Inputs: Cirrus-Logic CS5381* 1 (120dB SNR, Max. 192kHz/24bit)
High Fidelity Headphone Amplifier: Texas Instruments 6120A2*1 (120dB SNR, 100dB THD+N @ Vcc±12V
Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted): 124dB for Front-out
Analog Playback Sample Rate and Resolution: 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16/24bit

M-Audio Audiophile 192:


Sample rates: 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4 and 192 kHz from internal clock.
Analogue I/O: two inputs and two outputs, balanced/unbalanced quarter-inch jack sockets
Digital I/O: S/PDIF in and out on phono coaxial
Converters: AKM 5385A dual-bit delta-sigma 24-bit/192kHz (A-D), AKM 4358 multi-bit 24-bit/192kHz (D-A).
Dynamic range: 113dBA (A-D), 109dBA (D-A).
Frequency response: ±0.5dB, 20Hz to 80kHz at 192kHz sample rate.
THD + noise: 0.0006 percent (inputs), 0.0023 percent (outputs).

Any more that should be good?

But the PC PSU would in this case still be switch-mode, only with a more stable 230V going into it.

For pure battery power, you would have to have multiple battery pack, one for each PSU rail you need. That would mean 3.3V, 5V and 12V in various configurations. However, even the most expensive Li-Ion or NiCad batteries are not linear regarding voltage, so the mainboard should have onboard power regulation similar to that on laptops, built especially for being powered from batteries. I think powering a desktop PC from batteries is too much of a hassle. If one is very adept at electronics, one could of course build a non-switch mode PSU, but that is another question.

A Seasonic, cannot remember the model name, I will have to open the PC case. Will check next time I open it.

The SE-200 Ltd. is about 30k Yen, soooo about 225 EUR.

I have tried the Audiotrak vs my Onkyo, and the Onkyo eats it for breakfast.

I have been contemplating upgrading to the SE-200 Ltd, looks absolutely spiffing, uses better quality parts and a better DAC than my SE-90 (Wolfson 8716 vs 8740). Opamps are the same on both cards. If it sounds better than the 90, I may have found my dream source.

The coolest thing about these are the analogue volume control (and proper mute circuits) and its absolute quietness. I have run the card directly into power amps (totally doable due to what turns out to be analogue volume attenuation), and it is dead quiet, adds no noise over the amplifiers' noise floor.

The sound card is in my sig, an Onkyo Wavio SE-90 PCI. Great, great, proper card with 2 channel only, RCA outs.

With XXHE, it whoops £2000 cd players.

I had an Abit AX78 before the Gigabyte, and an MSI Neo4 before that, and a ECS nForce3 939 before that. Now I have a Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3.

Perhaps I forgot to mention; I use an internal sound card, and this is consequently very sensitive to the power supplied to it by the motherboard. I had a very nice experience with the new Gigabyte model, that's why I mentioned it.

The FLAC in the name was the problem! Thanks a bunch!

A real IQ test that, making the connection between FLAC in the file name and no coverart.

I have quite a few albums with long folder names, and the music files have long file names (classical music). XXHE won't display the covers for these in the browser area, and I can't add them to playing by clicking on them. I have to right click, choose load individual files, then I get a standard browser window pointed to the last album I was playing, and I have to manually fint the album with the long name and then add it.

Does XXHE have a problem with long names?

Example:

D:\XXHighEnd Musikk\Vivaldi, Antonio\Antonio Vivaldi -  New Discoveries - Modo Antiquo - F.M. Sardelli (FLAC)\10 - Mottetto 'Vos invito, barbarae faces' RV 811 for Contrallto and Strings, I. Allegro assai.flac

You should hear the Onkyo card then...propped full of Black Gates by the way

Its toslink output sounds great as well, but obviously the whole point of the card is ist analogue part.

I think it is cheaper to invest in a motherboard that supplies really good power to the PCI slots. The new Gigabytes are brilliant in this respect by the way.

Thank you for starting an interesting thread. Using an internal card as my source, I relate very much to this issue.

Personally, I have not experimented with internal isolation, nor with PSU mods, but I have discovered big differences in sound with different mainboards. I suspect this is mainly due to quality differences of the power delivered to the card. I think mainboard power quality is more important than PSU quality; I cannot hear big differences between PSUs.

Thanks again Peter;

I was just saying that running 44.1 when card is set to 96 does not work as part of the troubleshooting process, this is of no importance. I run it at Auto.

Yes, I am sure that it is the Windows volume that is working and not the VIA volume, although if I attenuate the volume in the VIA control panel, the Windows volume changes along with it; they are identical.

By the way, I went back to the Onkyo card's analogue outputs; they are sooo much more  than the DAC. Windows volume still works though, but with the card's analogue out I supposed this was because the card attenuates its analogue volume by voltage and not digitally.

Oh, if I set "DAC is" in XXHE to 24/96, doubling works fine. But that's not the problem.


If I choose 96 in the VIA control panel, I cannot play 44.1 material with XXHE. I need to either a) set the sample rate in the VIA panel to whatever the file I am playing is, or b) set the sample rate to "auto" in the VIA panel, in which case the rate will change automatically with the file playing. Thus, I cannot play 44.1 material with XXHE when the sample rate is set to 96 in the VIA and the Win control panels.

Thanks for your help Peter

My soundcard is an Onkyo Wavio SE-90 PCI, running 5.40b Via Envy24 drivers optically into a 16/96 NOS DAC (TDA1543).

Sound card sample rate is set to "auto", and if I use doubling, the sample rate is correctly specified in the VIA control panel as 88.2. I have to choose bit depth in Win control panel though, here it is set to 16bit. Everything seems to work fine, except the Windows volume control does work.