I'm seeking to transition some of my listening to PC-based Audio. I have listened sometimes to the PC but it was very casual, background. I've spend some time silencing my PC's and now I'm ready to install and use a premium soundcard.


There are a couple of notes regarding my proposed use of the card:
+ I will only be listening to 2-channel audio on this 'rig' for the immediately foreseeable future. I have no need for recording facilities. 2-channel playback via digital and/or analog is all I am after.
+ The vast majority of my listening is headphone-based. I have a range of premium headphones to use in this respect. The phones will be paired with a correspondingly high quality headphone amplifier.
+ I REALLY like iTunes, the way the real-time search works, the browse and column formatting, etc and the Party Mix. I would definitely want to use iTunes as my 'front end' for playback. As such, Apple Lossless is very likely to be my choice of codec.
+ The point of the change in my gear is to have a sound that rivals or potentially exceeds my midrange ($2-4K) CD spinners. I need rock-solid, high-quality outputs (balaned and unbalanced) to feed an amp. To this end, I'm willing to invest in a $2~$3K upsampling DAC (e.g. Chord DAC64... the choice of DAC is yet another discussion) in order to make this happen, isolating the PC's role to a digital transport. If on the other hand a wonder-card will accomplish the above feat and feed straight to the amp with the same quality as a $3K DAC / $4K one-box CDP, then that will work for me too.


My questions:
+ Which soundcard would perform the role of the 'perfect' digital transport for a premium DAC as detailed above, given my other criteria, best?
+ To what level does using iTunes and Apple Lossless cripple my options / need for quality, if any? If quality is affected, is there a less limiting (in terms of playback quality) software which offers the same versatility and ease of use? (Foobar is out of the question as far as I'm concerned)
+ Does a wonder-card as mentioned above exist?


Budget:
'transport only' card - $500
'wonder-card' - $4,000


Thanks in advance for any replies. I'll answer any questions you may have for me for you to be able to answer the above.

Welcome to Hydrogenaudio, Bhangraman

In order to be perfect, a digital output must pass the digital data unchanged to the DAC. This alone is quite difficult to achieve in a PC.
You can read here the issues with lossless digital playback : http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=11725 (this link comes from the FAQ, where you can find many informations).

Q1: Which soundcard would perform the role of the 'perfect' digital transport for a premium DAC as detailed above, given my other criteria, best?
A: RME 9632 Hammerfall. Bit-perfect digital output. Very low jitter on the digital output. Also balanced and non-balanced analog outputs, if you want.

Q2: To what level does using iTunes and Apple Lossless cripple my options / need for quality, if any?
A: They do not cripple your options for quality. As long as you use a bit-perfect low-jitter output with a high jitter attenuation capable dac (your Chord Dac64 is one decent example when using the ram buffer option in it).

Q3: Does a wonder-card as mentioned above exist?
A: That is for you to find out. Really. Most people don't even believe in audible differences between CD players. My humble opinion is that finding a <$1000 sound card that satisfies your subjective sound quality requirements against a $2000-$4000 CD is going to be a tough call. Why? Because it's subjective.

regards,
halcyon

PS I urge you to also ask this question at Audio Asylum and see the kind of answers you get there

Hi bhangraman

A friend of mine has an RME card (http://www.rme-audio.com) and uses its isolated digital output to feed a pre/power amp. The reason he went for it over other cards was the isolation.

I don't have any facts and figures, so can't comment on how good it acutally is, but I'd suggest looking at it if you are after a good card.

I personally use an M-Audio card and it meets my needs, but I don't have a high quality/expensive setup so the source is probably better than the rest of my set up. My friend has a $2000+ power amp, so fairly sure he would notice the difference more than I would.

- Audio Spyder

Thanks guys for the response. RME Hammerfall is the recommendation I'm consistently getting. Just to double-check, this is what I should be looking at, yes?

http://www.turnkey.co.uk/tkweb/stockdetail...632&context=WEB

I suppose also before buying the DAC it wouldn't hurt to plug in the amp and compare with my decks.

here is the Chaintech AV710 that I bought for $23.00 from New Egg. It uses the ENVy chip and can pass Bit PErfect. I am using it with the latest VIA drivers and can pass a bit perfect signal to my HK Receiver. There is a thread over at AVS forums on setup.