Soundcards digital inputs & quality

[spf.ma]

Hi,

A dumb question has come to my mind a few days ago : is that true that only
AD and DA converters matter in the chain, so I only need to use a great
AD/DA box to feed any SPDIF input (onboard sound card) to get great results
(I only mean audio quality, not latency or driver capabilities), using the
required sample rate of course ? Or are there some differences between a
low-budget card (say a M-Audio TRANSIT) and a high-grade one fed by, say, a
Mindprint DI-PORT ?
In fact, I'm looking for a "near mobile" 2I/2O solution (no matter if the
converters have to be power-supplied externally) for PC.

Or if you know a great USB or FireWire ADAT solution ...

Thanks

[Monte P McGuire]

In article >,
spf.ma > wrote:
>A dumb question has come to my mind a few days ago : is that true that only
>AD and DA converters matter in the chain, so I only need to use a great
>AD/DA box to feed any SPDIF input (onboard sound card) to get great results
>(I only mean audio quality, not latency or driver capabilities), using the
>required sample rate of course ? Or are there some differences between a
>low-budget card (say a M-Audio TRANSIT) and a high-grade one fed by, say, a
>Mindprint DI-PORT ?

As long as the digital input can reliably clock to an external source
and it doesn't do any sample rate conversion, then yes, it doesn't
matter. Some cheapo soundcards "do you a favor" and have hardware
sample rate conversion built into their inputs, and this doesn't
always sound good. Maybe you can defeat it, maybe not.

Now, verifying this ability to load in external digital without any
processing will be hard to do at home, so perhaps some quality reviews
are worth reading?


Regards,

Monte McGuire

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> A dumb question has come to my mind a few days ago : is that true that only
> AD and DA converters matter in the chain, so I only need to use a great
> AD/DA box to feed any SPDIF input (onboard sound card) to get great results

Well, there are things like microphones, preamps, mixers, power
amplifiers, speakers. . .

If you're asking whether it matters which digital I/O device you use, not
much.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Len Moskowitz]

Monte P McGuire > wrote:

>As long as the digital input can reliably clock to an external source
>and it doesn't do any sample rate conversion, then yes, it doesn't
>matter. Some cheapo soundcards "do you a favor" and have hardware
>sample rate conversion built into their inputs, and this doesn't
>always sound good. Maybe you can defeat it, maybe not.

Lots of the very low cost S/PDIF interfaces can't manage bit-for-bit
accurate transfers so beware.


--
Len Moskowitz PDAudio, Binaural Mics, Cables, DPA, M-Audio
Core Sound http://www.stealthmicrophones.com
Teaneck, New Jersey USA http://www.core-sound.com
Tel: 201-801-0812, FAX: 201-801-0912