Why my HTPC sounds worse than the CD Player even though both are connected over SPDIF (2 Viewers)

[Henry Mac]

There are probably a few more pro soundcards that do not resample the audio signal.

In fact some very cheap c-media based soundcards (like the Z-Cyber Nightingale Pro6 for 35 EUR) do not resample, too ;-)

http://au-ja.de/review-zcyberngp6-1.phtml <-- old german review

This one gives you headaches if you want (ac3) DD and DTS out. Forget it.

 

[Spragleknas]

If someone knows of other soundcards that do not resample the S/PDIF out signal please add them here in this thread.

Every motherboard using a nForce 2/3 audio chipset stamped 'soundstorm' (e.g. the ALC658).
Everything based on the old Cirrus Logic DSP chip (CS4630), i.e. Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.

I belive the "SoundStorm"-series was only available on nForce2 (so nForce3 was a audio-stepback).

 

[Henry Mac]

Hi BugsBunny,

I saw you have an ESI juli@. Does it work ok for you?
I have a revolution 5.1 and I cannot suppend without lossing the spdif connection.. So I was wondering if the Juli@ is all ok?

Sleep, hibernate.
Passthrough of DD and DTS
Passthrough of pcm with different sample rates.
Other problems?

The M-audio I now have is shitty with suspend and hibernate.
The Z-Cyber Nightingale Pro6 gives problems with passthrough of DD and DTS (actually it just does not) The Juli@ would be my third card so I want to make sure.


Thanks in advance.

Henry

 

[rtv]

Z-Cyber Nightingale Pro6 gives problems with passthrough of DD and DTS

Install other (or older) drivers.. The hardware isn't to blame at all...

 

[Henry Mac]

Really? Well I tried all kind of drivers but couldn't get it to work. It only worked directly after install but when I re-booted the ac3 pass through wasn't possible anymore. Now I do not have room in the case anymore to put the card with the digital module in there anymore. So I have to go for a single seat/slot card.

 

[Flerbizky]

I just noticed this... I haven't really given CD playing a lot of thoughts nor listen on my box.. But being a (cheapskate) purist, just knowing that my soundcard upsamples my 44.1Khz CDs to 48Khz annoys me... (ALC850) And since I can't be arsed to install a new mobo before I upgrade to a Dual Core solution, I've been tempted to try this Trust card : http://www.trust.com/products/product.aspx?artnr=12950

It's about as expensive as dirt, kilo pr. kilo, and even comes with a Toslink cable :-|

And according to specs found here : http://drivers.trust.nl/manuals/getmanual.asp?file=12/12950-uk-pm-3.pdf it'll output 44.1Khz..

Has anyone else tried this card ?...

Only thing that annoys me is I have to use the PCI slot where I was going to drop in an extra PVR500 :-(

 

[BugsBunny]

Hi Henry Mac,

the ESI juli@ works very well for me, had a lot of problems with a RME Digi 96Pad and with a M-Audio Audiophile 192 before.

*Hibernation I do not use because suspend to disk only saves very little time compared to a full boot.
S3 suspend to ram works fine with the ESI juli@ in my case.
*I only have a 2 channel AD/DA converter at the moment, so I can say nothing about DD DTS pass through.
On the ESI Homepage it says:
-Built in digital optical output - 5.1 Dolby digital support
-Digital coaxial I/O (with support for up to 192kHz) - 5.1 Dolby digital support
* Passthrough of pcm with different sample rates works perfectly - the card automatically puts out the signal with the correct sample rate (CD/MP3 44,1kHz; DVD/Video/DVB 48 kHz)
* For me the card works perfectly with MediaPortal.

Google for 'esi julia review' and you can find quite some info about the card.

If you decide on the ESI juli@ or another solution, maybe you can report back here about how it works for you. It is good to know for others who are searching for an audiophile solution for their HTPC, that certain soundcards work and others not as good or are causing problems.

 

[Henry Mac]

I just noticed this... I haven't really given CD playing a lot of thoughts nor listen on my box.. But being a (cheapskate) purist, just knowing that my soundcard upsamples my 44.1Khz CDs to 48Khz annoys me... (ALC850) And since I can't be arsed to install a new mobo before I upgrade to a Dual Core solution, I've been tempted to try this Trust card : http://www.trust.com/products/product.aspx?artnr=12950

It's about as expensive as dirt, kilo pr. kilo, and even comes with a Toslink cable :-|

And according to specs found here : http://drivers.trust.nl/manuals/getmanual.asp?file=12/12950-uk-pm-3.pdf it'll output 44.1Khz..

Has anyone else tried this card ?...

Only thing that annoys me is I have to use the PCI slot where I was going to drop in an extra PVR500 :-(

I think this is also a c-media card like the Z-Cyber Nightingale Pro6. It didn't work for me with the ac3 passthrough but apparantly RTV does have it working. The c-media based Z-Cyber Nightingale Pro6 does work for bit perfect audio passthrough though.

 

[Henry Mac]

Hi Henry Mac,

the ESI juli@ works very well for me, had a lot of problems with a RME Digi 96Pad and with a M-Audio Audiophile 192 before.

*Hibernation I do not use because suspend to disk only saves very little time compared to a full boot.
S3 suspend to ram works fine with the ESI juli@ in my case.
*I only have a 2 channel AD/DA converter at the moment, so I can say nothing about DD DTS pass through.
On the ESI Homepage it says:
-Built in digital optical output - 5.1 Dolby digital support
-Digital coaxial I/O (with support for up to 192kHz) - 5.1 Dolby digital support
* Passthrough of pcm with different sample rates works perfectly - the card automatically puts out the signal with the correct sample rate (CD/MP3 44,1kHz; DVD/Video/DVB 48 kHz)
* For me the card works perfectly with MediaPortal.

Google for 'esi julia review' and you can find quite some info about the card.

If you decide on the ESI juli@ or another solution, maybe you can report back here about how it works for you. It is good to know for others who are searching for an audiophile solution for their HTPC, that certain soundcards work and others not as good or are causing problems.

Will do. I will check out the reviews and see if it works good with DD and DTS. Third time lucky I hope Cheers and

 

[rtv]

I think this is also a c-media card like the Z-Cyber Nightingale Pro6.

Correct - they are almost identical. This card even works flawlessly with Linux - you won't get anything better for almost no money...

There are great difference between the drivers you can find. Some need AC3-Filter and Wave-Out to do proper AC3/DTS passthrough!