External computer sound card to receiver

[imported_UncivilizedAMD]

Looking for an external sound card with spdif/optical output to transmit an unprocessed audio signal to my receiver for home theater duties. Also I need the sound card to process the the audio signal well since I will be occasionally using it with my klipsch promedias (computer speaker set with no processing capabilities). Which current or discontinued sound cards are recommended?


thxx

 

[Emulex]

what audio signal? most soundcards just pass-thru bitstream DD/DTS since thats analog. anything nicer from blu-ray will not pass through an unprotected stream. DRM stream you aren't going to process at all but i've never really seen any digital source get reprocessed to change volume. it's just pure pass thru.

 

[herm0016]

why externel? what are you worried about? if it is noise, you will need a 10k system to even get close to noticing it.

i would recommend M-audio products. I have used them for recording and for output duties and they are great. but, if you have a slot in your pc use a xonar or other good sound card and you will be just fine.

 

[imported_UncivilizedAMD]

why externel? what are you worried about? if it is noise, you will need a 10k system to even get close to noticing it.

i would recommend M-audio products. I have used them for recording and for output duties and they are great. but, if you have a slot in your pc use a xonar or other good sound card and you will be just fine.

I'll be using my laptop as a portable htpc so i need an external sound card.

 

[Matt1970]

Use the headphone out.

 

[herm0016]

http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/sound-cards/audio-advantage-micro-ii.aspx

this would be a good option. i looked at m-audio and their products have changed a bit.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/sound-cards/audio-advantage-micro-ii.aspx

this would be a good option. i looked at m-audio and their products have changed a bit.

Wow, that looks impressive!

 

[DaveSimmons]

I use the Turtle Beach Micro II and its optical digital out with my music server (a Shuttle without optical) for lossless FLAC stereo playback of CDs, it works well with Windows 7.

I don't do any kind of processing to the sound though, just send the PCM stereo to my Onkyo receiver.

 

[kornphlake]

why externel? what are you worried about? if it is noise, you will need a 10k system to even get close to noticing it.

I'd disagree on this point. My personal laptop has considerable noise through the headphone port even with inexpensive headphones, my work laptop has a very clean headphone out put, the onboard sound on my desktop is pretty quiet too. It really depends on the construction of the computer, in some cases the benefit of an external sound card is clearly audible. If we were talking about CD players or some other source I'd agree that you'd need a very high end system to hear much difference, but a computer is an exception.

 

[herm0016]

I'd disagree on this point. My personal laptop has considerable noise through the headphone port even with inexpensive headphones, my work laptop has a very clean headphone out put, the onboard sound on my desktop is pretty quiet too. It really depends on the construction of the computer, in some cases the benefit of an external sound card is clearly audible. If we were talking about CD players or some other source I'd agree that you'd need a very high end system to hear much difference, but a computer is an exception.

we did not know it was a laptop at that point! goodness. on a laptop i would alwasy use an external card for HT duties. on a desktop, a good internal card is the way to go IMHO.

 

[f4phantom2500]

http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/sound-cards/audio-advantage-micro-ii.aspx

this would be a good option. i looked at m-audio and their products have changed a bit.

i have a turtle beach srm and the s/pdif out is great. the micro ii should be a good choice for your needs provided you don't need any of the extra functionality of the srm. but, the srm is out of production now, so that makes the decision pretty easy.