Hi everyone

I want to upgrade my current soundcard which is the RME HDSP 9632 for my PC?

can you recommend me some brand or cards which are better than mine?

thanks

Um... That's a pretty hardcore sound interface. The only way up is like, Lynx Two or Lynx 22 or whatever it is. Otherwise I'd just get a DAC and use that RME's digital out.

may i ask what word clock is used for?

i have one in my 9632 but have no idea how to use it

thanks

No idea, but if you're dropping that kind of money on something you should at least research what its features are

between lynx22 and lynxtwo , can you tell me which one is better?

it seems their price range is almost the same

thanks

If my first post didn't make it clear enough, I'm just throwing around ideas that I don't know much about except that those are considered "high end" PCI sound interfaces. I use the Audiophile 2496 coax out -> DAC, so I really can't tell you which cards have great analog outputs.

Going by their price ranges the Lynx L22 and Lynxtwo would be more like a sidestep than an upgrade to the RME...

Some DACs have word clock output; you're supposed to hook that to the soundcard and slave the soundcard to the DAC. This is supposed to greatly reduce jitter ie: make the soundcard a high-end transport.

I'd get a DAC that has a word clock output but they're kinda rare. The only one I can think of at the moment is the Lessloss DAC, but I suspect that its well above your price range.

my current DAC is benchmark DAC1. The reason why i want to upgrade my card is that i want to improve the digital signal in my card before transferring it to the DAC.

why is word lock I/O too rare on DAC? aren't high-end DAC supposed to have them(I guess, it is not for now)

my budget is up to 1.5k for the card

for $1.5k you could do a lot better than a soundcard hooked to your dac1

it's like buying a $500 mini cable to your predator. If you have a shitty dac, the way to fix it is better bits, not a better dac.

the way i think like this:

people use their digital CD player as a source (digital circuit) and connects it to their DAC ----> amplifier ---> headphones

so i think in my case the soundcard will be a digital source. I will connect it to my DAC ----> amplifier ----> headphones.

everyone wants to upgrade their digital CD player to improve sound. So I think I need to buy a better soundcard to improve my digital source ( after having a decent DAC. I forget to mention that i also have the accustice MKIV DAC)

am i on the right track?:confused:

so the digital CD player is also a transport , right?

then why do people upgrade their transport when they already have a decent DAC?

I am a bit of confused here:confused:. Isn't that the computer will transport our songs as a digital signal to our soundcard. And the card will transport it to DAC for converting to analog signal. (It is the same as digital CD player)

then a better soundcard will create better digital signal for transporting right.

if you are right, then I think i should use the money for buying the Denon D7000 instead.:p

However, I really want to improve my current setup but have no idea how to do it.

right now it is HDSP 9632 --> accustic MKIV ---> rudistor rpx 100 ---> headphones

should i consider power distributor because right now everything has been plug into a 5$ power outlet which connects directly to the wall.

i give up.

thanks for your help . I appreciate that

right now i have a chance to buy the RME Madi at a smoking price but have no idea how to connect the card to my DAC and not sure whether it is a good choice or not. Any advices?

Before throwing money at things hoping it gets better (or believing so through placebo), try and find out what everything does and why you might want to change something.

The Madi probably won't give you anything besides more features you won't use.

If you are really keen on a good PC transport, what about the Transporter? There's one on A'gon right now for $1.45k. It might be a better DAC than the benchmark DAC1, too.

d_rayman,

there is no point in changing from an RME sound card to another high end sound card just to output digital to a DAC1 (or any other DAC that is jitter resistant). The fact is that because your DAC is essentially jiitter resistant up to a wide range of jitter (due to the reclocking inside the box) the change in transport will do NOTHING. There is a reason the designers generally do not include a clock input on DACs that do reclocking: it removes their ability to reclock the signal. If you don't like your DAC1 change your DAC but otherwise with your setup I don't think you will gain anything (other than placebo like effects)

I don't think that you're going to listen to me because you don't seem to listen to anyone else but I thought I'd put my 2 cents in.

thanks everyone. I think i will stop thinking about upgrading the soundcard and use the money for the upcoming denon d7000

Personally I would go for the new AT-A2000X instead. Haven't heard too many great reviews on the Denon.

Personally I would go for the new AT-A2000X instead. Haven't heard too many great reviews on the Denon.

i read the review from headroom and knew that the phone is a lot better than the D5000, right?

AD2000X is great but i don't know whey they don't release W5000X too;)

Personally I would go for the new AT-A2000X instead.

And you've read great ones about the AT?

I come from the future.

d_rayman,

there is no point in changing from an RME sound card to another high end sound card just to output digital to a DAC1 (or any other DAC that is jitter resistant). The fact is that because your DAC is essentially jiitter resistant up to a wide range of jitter (due to the reclocking inside the box) the change in transport will do NOTHING. There is a reason the designers generally do not include a clock input on DACs that do reclocking: it removes their ability to reclock the signal. If you don't like your DAC1 change your DAC but otherwise with your setup I don't think you will gain anything (other than placebo like effects)

I don't think that you're going to listen to me because you don't seem to listen to anyone else but I thought I'd put my 2 cents in.

What makes you think the DAC1 is actually jitter-proof/immune to differences in transports?

You're probably right about changing the RME for yet another high end card not making too much of a difference though, the RME is already relatively high end and anything else would be more like a sidestep.

Personally I'd sell the RME and benchmark, get a transporter and start saving up for a real high end DAC. Note: Emphasis on "personally". New (electrostatic) headphones could be nice

Personally I'd sell the RME and benchmark, get a transporter and start saving up for a real high end DAC. Note: Emphasis on "personally". New (electrostatic) headphones could be nice

if i have to sell both my soundcard and DAC, then my desktop will become a quiet guy.

which DAC do you consider a high-end one?

This is the transporter I was talking about:

Transporter Wireless Network Music Player: The wireless digital music player audiophiles have been waiting for.

It is sort of a DAC (based on reviews, a decent one...), but it is mainly meant to be a high-end computer based transport for other external DACs. It should be better than any computer soundcard simply because it isn't inside a computer.

You can buy a used unit from audiogon here:

AudiogoN ForSale: Slimdevices/Logitech transporter

But there might be better deals out there if you can wait.

I don't know much about high end DACs to be honest, but the names usually tossed around here are the Chord DAC64, Lavry Gold, etc. The Benchmark DAC-1 definitely isn't one though.