Hey all,

I have a little problem I'd like to solve. I am thinking of getting some new speakers, the Logitech Z-2200s, and am wondering if a new soundcard is worth it? I am currently using Guillemot Fortissimo (the original) sound card. Was thinking of bumping up to the Chaintech AV-710. I am also a complete newbie to the audio world.

What I'd like to know is if there any noticable benefit to upgrading my soundcard? I have heard that the 710's 24/192 is only available using digital out and that using analog is barely decent. But using 2.1, there is a "high quality" mode? Really confused with this issue.

Any help/opinions are definately welcome. These choices in components are based solely on my budget.

Thank you!

Chaintech AV-710 has one good quality stereo DAC and one mediocre quality 6 channel DAC. You can playback 24/96 with the better DAC and it is also supposedly very very good for the price.

I've got one coming in the mail to replace my Gadget Labs 424 (they went out of business before making a WinXP driver, it was my favorite card ever ), and here's what I found:

(what you really need to know):
http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=75655

(other stuff that might help)
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....highlight=AV710
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....67&hl=chaintech
http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread....8255#post848255
http://www.htpcnews.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1930

Basically, like the previous poster said, it has 3 decent analog stereo outputs and then one really good analog stereo output.

If you use foobar, you'll be outputting 24-bit (padded to 32) resampled to 96khz.

The question is what you're using the card for. If you're just using it for stereo analog output, then, yes, it's supposed to be the cheapest way to get a really good stereo analog output. If you want surround sound, you might want to look elsewhere, depending on budget.

I don't know much about the Fortissimo so I can't directly compare but, yes, usually moving from consumer grade soundcards to semi-pro level equipment does make a noticeable difference on all but the crappiest of speakers. I'd assume the AV-710 on the Z-2200s would probably hit a sweetspot in terms of bang for the buck.

My understanding is that unless resampling is absolutely necessary--as is the situation with some Creative cards--it is never really a good thing.

Why wouldn't you use the high quality Wolfson DAC without resampling?

People at head-fi do claim audible differences between 96KHz and straight 44.1KHz and in almost all cases for the better. Whether there really is a difference is another thing though

I use the no resampling route because the card's analog inputs mess up when anything higher than 48KHz is played back.

From what I understand the Chaintech's Wolfson DAC will automatically resample any 24-bit output to 96khz. Thus, you should use foobar's resampler, as it will resample the 64-bit output from the decoder before outputting it as 24-bit, plus avoid any other problems the Chaintech card might have while resampling. That's why you use it on the Creative and AC97 cards--they accept 44.1, but they'll automatically resample it to 48k. Might as well use foobar's higher bit depth / resolution and avoid whatever process that soundcard is using, which is likely inferior.

Is the difference audible on the Chaintech on most equipment? Probably not, especially considering that most people can't tell the difference from using foobar to resample to 48k on the Creative cards or letting the card do it itself.

But if your computer is fast enough, why not enjoy the warm fuzzy feeling that you're using the highest quality foobar resampling provides?

Hey, just thought about this: Can anybody actually ABX sound cards? Now, that would be interesting...

I use resampling to 48khz with winamp (I've got one of those old AC97 that resamples everything) because else my photo camera clips (11khz) sound like uber crap. Apart from that, I can't hear the 44.1khz -> 48khz resampling done by the soundcard.