Who makes high-end 2-channel PC sound cards?

[Vern J]

I need help.  As a former Audio Research stereo owner (SP3A1 preamp, and D51 amp) I really enjoy good quality audio.  I'm looking for a similar quality in a sound card for my PC.  I'm only interested in stereo.  I currently have two Genelec 8030A speakers and MIT cables with RCA connectors.  What are the top manufacturers of PC sound cards and which model(s) do you recommend?  I would prefer a card that has RCA jacks.

[botrytis]

What OS will you be using? That will help to give some direction.

[mansr]

I've heard generally good things about the Asus Xonar cards. Never tried one myself.

 

The Lynx E22 also looks decent, though it's more studio oriented so you'd need some adapters to connect RCA cables.

 

High-end DACs these days tend to be USB connected. Not that many internal cards around any more. Is there any particular reason you can't (or don't want to) use USB?

[AudioDoctor]

Some high end Motherboards and at least one super expensive monitor have an ESS Sabre DAC built in and 24/192 capability.

 

https://www.asus.com/us/Monitors/ROG-SWIFT-PG35VQ/

 

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-RAMPAGE-VI-EXTREME-OMEGA/

[20hertz]

The Genelecs take an XLR, why not use a very good external USB to SPDIF or AES converter?

[botrytis]

5 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

Some high end Motherboards and at least one super expensive monitor have an ESS Sabre DAC built in and 24/192 capability.

 

https://www.asus.com/us/Monitors/ROG-SWIFT-PG35VQ/

 

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-RAMPAGE-VI-EXTREME-OMEGA/

 

So do Creative Labs cards and they are designed better. Heck, they even make DACs now.

 

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-zxr

[esldude]

11 hours ago, Vern J said:

I need help.  As a former Audio Research stereo owner (SP3A1 preamp, and D51 amp) I really enjoy good quality audio.  I'm looking for a similar quality in a sound card for my PC.  I'm only interested in stereo.  I currently have two Genelec 8030A speakers and MIT cables with RCA connectors.  What are the top manufacturers of PC sound cards and which model(s) do you recommend?  I would prefer a card that has RCA jacks.

Why RCA jacks?  The Genelecs have XLR.  Because you have MIT cables?  Buy some Canare  XLR cables.  

 

Instead of a sound card get a good DAC with USB as mentioned by others.  A good choice might be one of the semi-pro interfaces.  They'll have balanced outputs to feed the speakers.  And you'll be able to connect via USB. Something like Focusrite or Steinberg or Motu or similar.  The monitor outputs on these are made specifically for something like the Genelec speakers.  

[AudioDoctor]

12 hours ago, botrytis said:

 

So do Creative Labs cards and they are designed better. Heck, they even make DACs now.

 

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-zxr

 

I didn't know about these, interesting!

 

That's neat, but it has a Burr Brown DAC, not the ESS DAC.  This one has a 32/384 and DSD64 ESS 9038 DAC

 

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-ae-9

[botrytis]

16 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I didn't know about these, interesting!

 

That's neat, but it has a Burr Brown DAC, not the ESS DAC.  This one has a 32/384 and DSD64 ESS 9038 DAC

 

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-ae-9

 

I had one, it was a nice sounding card. It died when my PS went down.

[bluesman]

21 hours ago, Vern J said:

I need help.  As a former Audio Research stereo owner (SP3A1 preamp, and D51 amp) I really enjoy good quality audio.

 

Your analog experience may be a bit ahead of your digital fund of knowledge.  The "best" DAC chips on mobos and PCI/e cards are pretty much all on gaming hardware.  But gamers are not concerned about the kinds of noise and distortion that plague audiophiles, and all the fiddly bits and "extra features" on gaming boards make electrical noise.  Some even have fans, so they also make mechanical noise.  And the internal power supplies in most standard computers are electrically and mechanically noisy by themselves.

 

Gaming sound cards and boards seem to be limited to 24/192 - I don't know of any PCI/e card or any mobo with an onboard DAC that will play higher resolution files.  Especially if you want to be able to listen to even basic DSD files at their native resolution, you'll have to go to an external DAC.

 

If you really want an internal sound card, the best ones I've heard are the Creative Sound Blaster ZxR and the Asus Essence STX II. I think they both have TI (formerly BB) DAC chips, but I don't remember the details. I looked for one a few months ago to put in the PC I use for my DAW.  But I got a "digital interface" instead (M-Audio 2x2 in this case) because the specs are as good as or better than the cards, there's more flexibility, they're less expensive, and they're easy to upgrade / repair / replace without taking your computer apart.

 

If you want to bring your excellent 20th century analog taste with you into the 21st, I'd go with an external USB DAC with a good power supply for sound quality, flexibility and value.  Your Genelecs are nice speakers that may benefit from balanced inteconnects.  There are some great DACs now with balanced outputs and seriously fine SQ for $400 or less from SMSL, Topping, and others.

[botrytis]

39 minutes ago, bluesman said:

 

Your analog experience may be a bit ahead of your digital fund of knowledge.  The "best" DAC chips on mobos and PCI/e cards are pretty much all on gaming hardware.  But gamers are not concerned about the kinds of noise and distortion that plague audiophiles, and all the fiddly bits and "extra features" on gaming boards make electrical noise.  Some even have fans, so they also make mechanical noise.  And the internal power supplies in most standard computers are electrically and mechanically noisy by themselves.

 

Gaming sound cards and boards seem to be limited to 24/192 - I don't know of any PCI/e card or any mobo with an onboard DAC that will play higher resolution files.  Especially if you want to be able to listen to even basic DSD files at their native resolution, you'll have to go to an external DAC.

 

If you really want an internal sound card, the best ones I've heard are the Creative Sound Blaster ZxR and the Asus Essence STX II. I think they both have TI (formerly BB) DAC chips, but I don't remember the details. I looked for one a few months ago to put in the PC I use for my DAW.  But I got a "digital interface" instead (M-Audio 2x2 in this case) because the specs are as good as or better than the cards, there's more flexibility, they're less expensive, and they're easy to upgrade / repair / replace without taking your computer apart.

 

If you want to bring your excellent 20th century analog taste with you into the 21st, I'd go with an external USB DAC with a good power supply for sound quality, flexibility and value.  Your Genelecs are nice speakers that may benefit from balanced inteconnects.  There are some great DACs now with balanced outputs and seriously fine SQ for $400 or less from SMSL, Topping, and others.

 

https://www.evga.com/articles/01281/evga-nu-audio/

 

here ya go more than 192/24

[davide256]

On 8/21/2019 at 3:47 PM, Vern J said:

I need help.  As a former Audio Research stereo owner (SP3A1 preamp, and D51 amp) I really enjoy good quality audio.  I'm looking for a similar quality in a sound card for my PC.  I'm only interested in stereo.  I currently have two Genelec 8030A speakers and MIT cables with RCA connectors.  What are the top manufacturers of PC sound cards and which model(s) do you recommend?  I would prefer a card that has RCA jacks.

My last PC sound card for audio playback was an Asus Essence STX 7 years ago... a waste of money even then despite having all bells and whistles possible. Your better bet is to use the audio off PC HDMI output for your monitor  fed  through an AVR. But if you want best sound, thats a dedicated

purpose built music server with a high quality power supply connected via USB to DAC

[Echolane]

When I had my last computer built I discarded my Sound Blaster audio card for the Xonar Essence STXII.  I have Spendor S3/5 Monitors and an Audiomat Arpege tube amp at my computer which normally produces excellent audio.  I took an instant dislike to the sound produced by the ASUS card produced.it never got any better over time either.  I wish I could have kept the Creative Labs Sound Blaster but my new mb didn’t have the right slot for it,

 

meanwhile, the ASUS card kept going down and I would have a computer that produced no audio.  Wound up sending the card back to ASUS twice.  Paid local techs to make it work, but it was never reliable.  I suspect there was some incompatibility with my mb because my husband had the same ASUS card in his computer and it works flawlessly.

 

i am replacing the internal sound card with an external DAC, an Audio Alchemy DDP-1, a really wonderful piece of gear I’ve had in my main audio system.  I recently bought a used Berkeley Audio DAC Reference Series 2 which is about 8x the price of the DDP-1 when new and I can hardly tell the difference, that’s how good the DDP-1 is.  I’ll go along with other comments to invest in an external DAC.  Like the DDP-1, for example.  Check the reviews on this DAC.  They don’t exaggerate.