Maudio or onboard sound

[jameson_uk]

I am currently using SPDIF out on my nForce2 mobo feeding direct into my Denon 3805 receiver. This seems to be ok but not awe inspiring, working for both music and movies.

Music is ripped in 300kbps MP3 and FLAC (moving everything to FLAC as I get the time). Output is via ASIO using BASS (music) and pass-through on Theatertek (DVD).

As supposedly everything is being transferred digitally to the amp and any decoding done there, is there any point even considering an mAudio card?

[the_leander]

A high quality sound card will almost always beat even the best onboard solutions, it will also increase framerates on more demanding games.

The question is however, will you notice a difference if the sound is put through that setup (IE, the less the awe inspiring sound might be the result not of the computer, but what it's routed through). Unfortunately, not being familiar with the equipment, its a question I can't answer. I'm told that the mAudio cards are pretty good however.

[Tom]

M Audio stuff is fantastic for audio quality, but does nothing for your frame rates! Would probably have an impact on it, actually.

If you're looking for something as a jack-of-all-trades, stick with your SoundStorm, or switch to whatever the latest Creative card is. :)

[jameson_uk]

I guess I did not make it clear what I was getting at....

For music I use ASIO and SPDIF. I believe this takes the windows mixer out the equation and basically I take the decoded digital audio signal and output it to amp.

If I get an mAudio card, then no matter how good it may be, would this then effectively mean I am doing something like converting the signal to analog into the card and the re-encoding it as digital to output it again and perhaps doing some processing?

Ideally I want the source to not be touched by the PC and arrive at the amp to do the deoding (Having spent £500 on the amp, I suppose I should use it). I know that with say MP3, the PC will have to decode the output and convert into a PCM stream (? is that the right term ?) but there is no need for the PC to actually do anything other than output that stream.

After lots of pro-castenating then, I guess the question might be better phrased as "how do I get the best possible audio signal out of the PC into my amp?"

[ojobson]

I use an m-audio card and i get some low volume buzzing when routed through my hi-fi system - i haven't quite got a htpc, but I do use it for that use... - but anyway, I would avoid any processing in the computer; The m-audio sound card does sound good when cranked up with music, but with low volume speech and stuff (i.e. films) you notice a few.. irregularities(?) in the sound that def shouldn't be their. but then that could just be my setup...

hope that helps anyway. Need to build myself a propper htpc soon...