A new king of sound cards for Home theatre?

1363 Views 14 Replies 6 Participants Last post by CHA, Oct 13, 2004

Beamer

Discussion Starter · Oct 13, 2004

Over the last week or so I have been checking out the market for a high end sound card to interface to my Lexicon MC12 V4.

Initially I went down the M-Audio path and then found the RME site in Germany. RME seem to be fairly and squarely aimed at the professional market and I note that a number of members are already using the RME DIGI96/8 PAD.

The DIGI96/8 is by all account a great sounding card but after talking with the technicians at RME I learned this board is shortly to be discontinued in favour of their new HDSP 9632 http://www.rme-audio.com/english/hdsp/hdsp9632.htm and is perhaps the reason why the resellers are selling them off heavily discounted.

The advantages of the new card over the older DIGI96/8 are :

Up to 192Khz Sample rate versus Max 96Khz

On board DSP versus using the host CPU for processing

192Khz / 24 bit A/d & D/A Conversion Versus 96Khz / 24 Bit

See the link for the full spec, this looks like a nice card but since I only need the SPDIF connection it may be a bit of over kill as I do not believe the Lexicon will accept a 192Khz sample rate.

Has anyone had any experience with this new card?

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vairulez

· #2 · Oct 13, 2004

It is not that new (it's been out for more than a year).

I own it and it's a very good card, analogic and digital ouputs are top qualities (very good DACS, low jitter), drivers are rock solid.

combined with an AOS4192 an the new nvidia codecs, you have a top quality 5.1 preamp (that might be as good as your lexicon)

Beamer

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 13, 2004

Vairulez

Thanks for the feedback, it sounds like you are well pleased with your card. I did do a search for reviews but did not find anything and assumed (wrongly apparently) that the board had just been released.

Do you think it is really worth the money if used only with SPDIF ?

Chris

SicteR

· #4 · Oct 13, 2004

I think buying that card for s/pdif only would be the definition of overkill

Beamer

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 13, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by SicteR
I think buying that card for s/pdif only would be the definition of overkill

May I ask why you think that ? I believe the D/A & A/D converters are only a very small part of the boards functionality and that the real gain is in the use of a DSP engine for the SPDIF conversion.

I'm no expert in these matters and you may well be right but it would be nice to have the input of others more knowledgeable than myself.

Chris

vairulez

· #6 · Oct 13, 2004

I had numerous soundcards and i can tell you this one sounds best in analog and in digital, it's definetly better than the m-audio revolution 7.1 for example.

is it an overkill for just an spdif output ? Not that sure people here are using lynx two b only for their spdif outut.

Branxx

· #7 · Oct 13, 2004

Beamer,

You are on the right track with your choice of sound card. For the given quality RME HDSP9632 is very cheap (comparing would one would have to pay for consumer high grade equipment).

Check this recent thread on relative merrts of good CD player vs. computer sound card.

There is a link there to the sound card comparison I did a while ago in which several person consensus prefered the quality RME analogue audio to Lexicon MC-12B.

I use both DIGI96/8 PAD and HDSP9632. There is not much difference between the two in sound quality terms, but HDSP9632 is newer design with features that maybe of use in home cinema applications. The sound card you listened during your last visit to my place was DIGI96/8 PAD.

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CHA

· #8 · Oct 13, 2004

With the add-on Analog balanced output card on RME's site, would it then be possible to feed five poweramps directly from the card..? Anyone tried this..?

With Theatertek 2.0 and its advanced audio features, this could be a great HTPC-preamp..

Branxx

· #9 · Oct 13, 2004

I only had a short oppotunity to try this with DIGI96/8 PAD and it worked with PowerDVD. In practice, the lack of bass management software makes direct-to-power amp less appealing. Note also that with the PAD card there is no volume control on any additional channels (HDSP have this problem resolved).

Beamer

Discussion Starter · #10 · Oct 13, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by Branxx
Beamer,

You are on the right track with your choice of sound card. For the given quality RME HDSP9632 is very cheap (comparing would one would have to pay for consumer high grade equipment).

Check this recent thread on relative merrts of good CD player vs. computer sound card.

There is a link there to the sound card comparison I did a while ago in which several person consensus prefered the quality RME analogue audio to Lexicon MC-12B.

I use both DIGI96/8 PAD and HDSP9632. There is not much difference between the two in sound quality terms, but HDSP9632 is newer design with features that maybe of use in home cinema applications. The sound card you listened during your last visit to my place was DIGI96/8 PAD.

Branxx

Nice to hear from you, I hope your well!

I had already read your referenced threads but moved on when I saw that it was mostly an analogue test, very interesting nevertheless. Have you updated your Lex to V4 yet? It really does show up the deficiencies of the rest of the system!

My Sony Multi CD player now sounds terrible so have decided to build a decent high end home theater player to replace it and possibly serve to play Hi Def movies.

Did you compare the old and new RME boards using SPDIF connections?

Chris

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Branxx

· #11 · Oct 13, 2004

Nice to see you back as well.

My Lexicon is still version 2, but I have just visited someone who upgraded to V4 to check the DRM effect and I liked what I heard.

In the thread there is also a reference to an earlier test concentrating on SPDIF link only. That put DIGI96/8 PAD vs. Theta David transport. I did not compared explicitly old RME to the new one, but the old one was extremely good in digital domain. From my own experience with the new RME it is at least as good as the old one.

There are two RME cards offered in the readers ads at www.sospubs.co.uk. You can also order new HDSP from www.musicians-gear.com (German store) from about Â£270.

CHA

· #12 · Oct 13, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by Branxx
I only had a short oppotunity to try this with DIGI96/8 PAD and it worked with PowerDVD. In practice, the lack of bass management software makes direct-to-power amp less appealing. Note also that with the PAD card there is no volume control on any additional channels (HDSP have this problem resolved).

TT 2.0 is supposed to have advanced bass-management, so in theory it should work with RME also..?!?

Actually, in my case, I don't need any bass-management..i run 4 full-range speakers at equal distance from listening area. All I need is separate volume-control for front/surround-speakers.

Branxx

· #13 · Oct 13, 2004

There are some worring comments about the stability of TT 2.0 so we need to wait a bit until that get sorted. Someone will also need to confirm that TT can work with the RME driver in multi-channel mode.

704set

· #14 · Oct 13, 2004

Quote:

With Theatertek 2.0 and its advanced audio features, this could be a great HTPC-preamp..

Does this mean you would not have to spend the money on a preamp. I'm new to this HTPC. What equipment can be replaced with a well built HTPC?

DVD player? Preamp? Scaler?

Thanks,

Skip

Red Sox - Only 8 more wins to break the curse. Aw faggidabout last night.

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CHA

· #15 · Oct 13, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by 704set
Does this mean you would not have to spend the money on a preamp. I'm new to this HTPC. What equipment can be replaced with a well built HTPC?

DVD player? Preamp? Scaler?

Thanks,

Skip

Red Sox - Only 8 more wins to break the curse. Aw faggidabout last night.

Yes, the HTPC has the potential to replace both the DVD player, Scaler and, possibly, your preamp..although the Preamp part seems to be the one area with the whole HTPC-concept that has been lacking..

But hopefully a pro-card like RME or Lynx together with TT 2.0 can change that..

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