Need advice on audio card

ECARCTICFIRE

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Mar 27, 2015
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Hi
I have a old high end stereo system from around 1990. I want to hook it up to my pc and use streaming apps such as Spotify to play classic rock/hardrock. I built my pc and it has a msi h8m-p33 motherboard which is a very basic motherboard with built in audio. I have already hooked the stereo up to the computer and it sounds ok. I was wondering if there would be a great improvement in sound if I upgraded the sound card to a Asus essence xonar stx. It seems to be one of the best cards on the market.

Thanks
EC ARCTIC FIRE
 
Solution
unless your home stereo system is quite expensive (over $600-700) i think the xonar stx is a bit overkill for your needs. also, instead of the xonar you may want to look at some of the soundcards put out by claro.

my thoughts are that a xonar dx or creative z would be more than good enough for your purposes. if its an old system with analog hookups i'd use the line-out jack (essentially you'd use the dac only instead of the amplifier) into an rca red+white if that is the case. benefits of a soundcard are virtual surround options, option for 5.1 speakers.

you could even use an external dac such as a schiit modi (normally used for headphones) if you only have a stereo system. it has straight rca outputs. benefits of an external dac are...
unless your home stereo system is quite expensive (over $600-700) i think the xonar stx is a bit overkill for your needs. also, instead of the xonar you may want to look at some of the soundcards put out by claro.

my thoughts are that a xonar dx or creative z would be more than good enough for your purposes. if its an old system with analog hookups i'd use the line-out jack (essentially you'd use the dac only instead of the amplifier) into an rca red+white if that is the case. benefits of a soundcard are virtual surround options, option for 5.1 speakers.

you could even use an external dac such as a schiit modi (normally used for headphones) if you only have a stereo system. it has straight rca outputs. benefits of an external dac are portability, can use with laptops, less electrical noise. it will only ever be stereo sound though.

ultimately your call.
 
Solution

ECARCTICFIRE

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Mar 27, 2015
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it's a full speaker system. It has 2 Boston tower speakers A Boston center speaker and the 2 small rear speakers. The amps is a onyko, Not sure what model. The whole thing cost around 2000$ 25 years ago. Do you still think the xonar is overkill for this system?
The schitt looks good though.

Thanks
ECARCTICFIRE
 
since it is a 5.1, it depends on what kind of inputs you have.. and more importantly if that system accepts a surround sound signal or if it only accepts a stereo signal. also important is if you care about giving it a surround signal (if you will play movies or games) or if a stereo signal is okay (for music this is all you're going to use anyways).

a schiit modi does one thing well: stereo sound. it is not going to be doing any surround sound. if music or stereo sound is all you will ever be exporting then it will do a good job.

now, if i'm thinking correctly what you described may be a receiver of some sort. before taking this any further (or before you going out and buying anything) please list the exact model number of the onkyo box.
 
i'm 99% sure this is yours but please verify that http://audiozavar.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/p1130476.jpg looks like the back of your unit.

it only accepts stereo input (rca jacks) so the most you can get from your pc is stereo (without upgrading your whole receiver).

since it only accepts stereo, the modi would work.

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however, there is an alternative and one very much worth thinking about if you want surround sound.

you may want to upgrade your receiver to something which is capable of accepting a 5.1 signal input. this would allow you to get full surround sound capabilities through either hdmi or optical instead of being limited to stereo only.

without having ports capable of surround sound input, you are limited to only stereo from your current system.
 

ECARCTICFIRE

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Mar 27, 2015
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Thats it. I don't really want to buy a new receiver. It has dolby pro logic surround sound. what would I connect the modi to the computer witb? Would the schitt provide as good sound quality with this system as the xonar stx? Thanks
ECARCTICFIRE
 
well, without a receiver capable of more than just stereo RCA jack inputs, stereo is the best you will get.

honestly it seems that you wanted a soundcard more for the DAC since you would not be using the amped jacks so would be bypassing its amp completely since you would need to use a line-out (line-level) jack for output.

the schiit modi is just a DAC (no amp) and does a good job at straight stereo sound. it hooks up via usb to your pc simply and exports via rca which is what your receiver takes as input.

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the only reason i'd consider the stx (or the cheapest soundcard you can find with line-level or line-out without needing a spdif to 3.5mm adapter....) would be if you wanted to run headphones, a microphone, a pc speaker set in addition to your stereo or wanted to let the soundcard process the virtual-surround data itself (instead of letting your receiver do it). otherwise, you really do not need one and any DAC would work.

completely your choice as to what route you take. just providing some opinion
 

ECARCTICFIRE

Estimable
Mar 27, 2015
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4,510




I think I'll go with the schitt. I didn't know the stx was an amp.

Thanks
ECARCTICFIRE