Hi All,
Please forgive my ignorance on the subject; I want to build a HTPC for dvd/cd playback. My question has to do with the choice of an audio card for the machine.
A little background on where I'm coming from. I write music for film/tv for a living and am love the sound from my active nearfield monitors (Genelec 1031a's and a pair of Mackie hr824's). When researching on components for a Home Theatre that I'm building, I realized both Genelec and Mackie have 'Home Theatre' Solutions now. I was planning on getting 4 mackie Hr824's for Front and Rear L+R, a Hr626 as a centre channel and a HRS 150 for the LFE. Since these monitors are active, I don't need an amplifier. My question arises at this point as per the need for a dedicated dac/pre-amp. Having a HTPC handle the DVD/CD playback, I'm wondering if I bought something like the 410 from m-audio if I could just take the outputs from the card to my speakers. This is assuming that any of the Software DVD Players can decode DTS and Dolby Digital and send that to the 410 for output. Any issues with this? Drawbacks - volume control? Are there any serious advantages to taking a spdif/coax or optical output to a dedicated DAC and then to the speakers (I understand that this has everything to do with the quality of converters on the audio card)?
Sorry for the long post, I'm really interested in finding an elegant solution.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
Best,
Michael Warning
Toronto, Canada
Please forgive my ignorance on the subject; I want to build a HTPC for dvd/cd playback. My question has to do with the choice of an audio card for the machine.
A little background on where I'm coming from. I write music for film/tv for a living and am love the sound from my active nearfield monitors (Genelec 1031a's and a pair of Mackie hr824's). When researching on components for a Home Theatre that I'm building, I realized both Genelec and Mackie have 'Home Theatre' Solutions now. I was planning on getting 4 mackie Hr824's for Front and Rear L+R, a Hr626 as a centre channel and a HRS 150 for the LFE. Since these monitors are active, I don't need an amplifier. My question arises at this point as per the need for a dedicated dac/pre-amp. Having a HTPC handle the DVD/CD playback, I'm wondering if I bought something like the 410 from m-audio if I could just take the outputs from the card to my speakers. This is assuming that any of the Software DVD Players can decode DTS and Dolby Digital and send that to the 410 for output. Any issues with this? Drawbacks - volume control? Are there any serious advantages to taking a spdif/coax or optical output to a dedicated DAC and then to the speakers (I understand that this has everything to do with the quality of converters on the audio card)?
Sorry for the long post, I'm really interested in finding an elegant solution.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
Best,
Michael Warning
Toronto, Canada