I've been contemplating on purchasing a shelf stereo with has a USB PC link on it (JVC UX-G50, for example). My question is, how does USB audio compare to analog audio?

My current set up is running a '1/8th inch to component' cable from my computer's sound card to the Aux input of my current stereo (Sony MHC-GX20).

Would I get 'better' audio from using the USB link? or from the soundcard? I've been trying to find answers on the net but never got an answer

That is highly dependent on the sound card... I wouldnt expect the JVC DAC to compete with some of the nicer sound cards out there, but it would be better than most sound cards built into motherboards for instance. You might look at M-Audio or for budget, the CHAINTECH AV-710 can be had for $22.

SilverBlade,

PC lossless music files over USB vs analog can be noticeable if you are listening critically with good speakers or headphones. I think the weakness of most compact office stereo systems are the speakers.

JVC make a fantastic set of speakers for the EX A10 and EXD5 compact systems. Those wooden cone speakers have surprising range - give them a listen if you have a chance.

- Steve O.

That is highly dependent on the sound card... I wouldnt expect the JVC DAC to compete with some of the nicer sound cards out there, but it would be better than most sound cards built into motherboards for instance. You might look at M-Audio or for budget, the CHAINTECH AV-710 can be had for $22.

Agreed, I am currently running bit perfect via the Chaintech reflash to Prodigy on my HTPC. This of course requires that you have some sort of DA and AMP in front of your speakers for your audio playback.

Agreed, I am currently running bit perfect via the Chaintech reflash to Prodigy on my HTPC. This of course requires that you have some sort of DA and AMP in front of your speakers for your audio playback.

I have the chaintech card. Do you have a link for how to reflash the card and send out bitperfect? I already have an external amp/dac I'm using.

I just connected a Digidesign Mbox (this is the USB hardware interface for the low end version of ProTools). I'm ripping the files to .wav on a PC using a Plextor drive and Plextools Pro but the USB interface is connected to an older G4 mac which is playing back the audio. I downloaded a standalone driver (no Protools) and it works with all the Apple apps and a few others.

I haven't used this audio interface in a couple of years and never did so critically, but I have to say there is oodles of detail in there. This interface may be set up this way for mastering purposes and it miught become fatiguing. Seems a bit crisp on top but I only connected it yesterday with some older, but excellent speakers I also haven't listened to in about 18 months. I was going to drop my M Audio 24/96 card into the PC and compare the two interfaces to a Sony SACD player (playing the original CD)

They say its best to keep the Analog signals out of the computer enclosure and the Mbox does this. I wonder if it makes any difference. I'll follow up after the weekend and let you know my findings.

The interesting thing is that not all digital appears to be perfect. The amount of jitter in the digital signal may affect that final sound quality. That is why some people recommend avoiding PCI soundcards (electrical noise from surrounding components) and say that USB is better for redbook CD playback. Any truth to this? Of course, USB devices lack their own power supply, so they are not immune either.

I have the chaintech card. Do you have a link for how to reflash the card and send out bitperfect? I already have an external amp/dac I'm using.


I used this thread:

http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.aspx?catid=17&threadid=70261&enterthread=y

did the trick, the AC3 filter info is out of date so you will need to blaze your own trail there but the reflash info is still accurate.

EDIT: You will still need to setup kernel streaming in your audio playback application, i could not get winamp to work, but Foobar 2000 works flawlessly.

The interesting thing is that not all digital appears to be perfect. The amount of jitter in the digital signal may affect that final sound quality. That is why some people recommend avoiding PCI soundcards (electrical noise from surrounding components) and say that USB is better for redbook CD playback. Any truth to this? Of course, USB devices lack their own power supply, so they are not immune either.

I have been unable to notice any sound quality loss between the original source, and the ripped .WAV files on my HTPC hard drive. That said, i am using my PS3 as a transport for the CD playback, it is possible once i have a true transport, preamp, and stand alone DAC I will notice a difference, but for now I believe my integrated VSX-81 receiver is probably the weak link in my chain vs my TOSLINK on my PCI sound card.

I have the chaintech card. Do you have a link for how to reflash the card and send out bitperfect? I already have an external amp/dac I'm using.

I thought all drivers after 3.10 supported kernel streaming. Is there a difference between kernel streaming and bit-perfect?

I'm using 3.24c because that was the last driver version to support EAX2.0 emulation on this card.

I use foobar2000 and stream out to my receiver.

I also have the CHAINTECH AV-710 in my HTPC and use it for bit perfect playback via optical toslink and recommend it. I've never been able to discern any electrical noise interference.