External DACs vs. soundcards

If you can't get to the point in the first 30 seconds.. this video must be just plain garbage..

Thanks for this content. I must say that soundcards have improved a lot. Some of the new ones have exceedingly good isolation and very low noise floors indeed. There are others, still, that have breakout boxes connected via a mini HDMI cable to the soundcard. The DAC/ADC is handled in the breakout box and then sent digitally via the HDMI cable to the internal soundcard which moves the ADC/DAC away from the interference. This would seem to be the best of both worlds.

Many "gamers" might be concerned about USB external DACs because of the latency involved with the protocol. PCI-express on the motherboard has far lower latency which is important to "twitch" style gaming.

it seems to me that the best of both worlds would be such a solution, where the audio processor exists on a PCI-Express sound card, but all DAC/ADC takes place in the external breakout box which doesn't suffer from the same latency issues as a USB one might.

For music listening, of course, it doesn't matter. In some specific use cases, it does. Thus, there are options for all people.

Can any one please tell me is there any solution for amplifier card r dac for speakers directly from pc .

I'm an audiophile. I'm old and I just ordered my first ''real'' external DAC today with some exotic anacondas to plug into the outlet, amp and PC. Listen to the old man said the song, computers are and will be a swamp boutching ears to come. Ty Paul. Love from Québec.

The funny thing is I have a SoundBlaster AE5 ( Internal sound Card ) Sound BlasterX AE-5 is a SABRE-class PCI-e DAC with 122 dB DNR audio stream at up to 32-bit / 384 kHz* playback Dynamic Range: 122 dB, THD+N (DAC): 0.00032[%] (Bi-amp) Analog Impedance: 16—600Ω. I do in fact run analog out to a Rolls Buz off for grounding loop isolation balanced out to a Presonus Tremblor 10 and balanced out from the Tremblor to a pair of Adam A77X monitors and I use it for listening. I had a buddy bring over his DAC and it was an ok DAC in the $500 range and the DAC sounded Exsagerated and too bright as if the gain was turned up whereas the Internal sound card was very Honest in its playback and they both had a lower floor noise that was inaudible... I know people have an idea \ or knowledge about noise and what it does but your setup but isolation can be completed internally and is in this sound card and also the Sound blaster is physically EMI shielded. I have listened to many setups and I have yet to hear this noise in the playback, maby this was a thing in older sound cards but has been eliminated now in the high end. Note I do not record on this setup I only use it for listening. Recording may have an impact I do not know. But my playback is silent I have full dynamic range it is cristal clear. It comes down to taste and what you like for your playback and how you want it to sound. I go for a very SQ purest approach I want to hear it exactly how it was meant to be heard by the musician. I get that with an internal PCIe carded sound card setup.

i'm about to get an AVR to connect my PC. Is Marantz SR5015 any good? i'll connect IT trought HDMI and I'll Do A 5.1 or 5.1.2 setup. great vidéo btw.

PS i realy care about music quality.

This may be true for onboard sound. It is not true for current aftermarket sound cards. For instance, an essence STX II uses the TI PCM and Headphone amp chips. The shielding provides ZERO noise interference. Most Headphone Dac/Amps are not using as high a caliber chip as a good sound card. The other advantage to a soundcard is the software. Adjustments in sound stage and equalization are non existent on Dac Amps. Also everything can be controlled from windows, volume, mute, etc. No need to reach for the amp. Not too mention more connectivity and better Mic options. Total Harmonic distortion is also lower on Card than on 90 percent of similarly priced Dac/Amps. .00003 as apposed to a typical .1. You have no charts or numbers. Just saying it is better for interference. Interference has been gone for well over a decade on cards. I have to assume you have not used a high end soundcard.

The input signal to the external DAC is also from the internal sound card, no?

"Cheap little DragonFlyies"....i m guessing 320 dollars for such a small thing is a great choice for u ig

sir... external DAC or external sound card which is better for PA system..?

What's the difference between an external soundcard and a dac?

I have my amp plugged straight into my motherboard and I get 0 noise. Never had an external dac but I find it hard to believe it would do anything. On board dacs seem to be pretty good these days if you're getting a board with good audio codec.

I'm from Bangladesh too! had the same question, thanks a lot for your advice! The sad part is its 2021 August and we still dont have amazon here...

Thanks for clarifying and making this a bit easier for me to understand, i will definitely be getting a DAC been using soundcards. I allways wondered about the electrical interference effect on audio quality.

My question as well is a cd player and amp setup cleaner than a DAC and headphones? relative to price point i guess as well is another factor.

Just ordered "99% True". Only two left in stock on Amazon.

Can't wait to read it!

Thanks Paul...for sharing all your hard fought and long earned knowledge. It really is a rare thing to see.

(Shameless Plug effectiveness level: 100%)

this guys voice is crisp and smooth

How about a soundcard with digital/optical output?

Does PS Audio sell DACs? If so, you already fucked up. You're asking the wrong person. It's like asking a Monster cable if cables make a difference. -__-

I have an ASRock X370 motherboard with onboard ALC1220 audio, which is properly shielded and isolated by the manufacturer. I was thinking about getting an external DAC, then I started analyzing. I have an external headphones amplifier, so I plugged in a pair of sensitive AKG K371 headphones, and turned both the computer volume and the amp volume wide open. I heard absolutely nothing. It was pitch black, even when stressing the computer. I then ran RMAS, line out to line in. I was shocked at the results. Frequency response was dead flat from 20 Hz to 20 KHz. The noise level was -103 dB. The dynamic range was 103 db. Distortion measured 0.002%. IM distortion was 0.0045%. Crosstalk was -96 db. And those numbers were after being run back through the ALC1220 ADC. Yes, there are external DACs with better numbers, but all these numbers are way beyond the capabilities of the human ear to detect. I wouldn't mind having an external DAC to play with, but I'm having trouble justifying the expense. I guess it really depends on which motherboard or sound card you get.

Hello .. whilst I agree on the point about the "electrical noise" an internal sound card "could" have ( depending on the components & how they have been shielded ) ... I cannot agree that a DAC will have better latency than an internal sound card thats plugged directly into the MB .. Im aware that USB has got faster n faster ... but imo it will never beat the speed that a PCI slot can achieve. If im wrong about this .. please respond n tell me why so I can learn :)

i am currently running a lenovo yoga 510 and using a HDMI to connect to my TCL 4k tv, then it runs through an optical cable to my Onkyo A9130 amplifier. i was thinking about getting a Schiit Modi uber 2 and using that via usb and RCA to my Onkyo. which option would sound better in your opinion?

Thanks for the advice. I wanted to put my internal DAC inside my computer where the DVD drives are supposed to be (I would've cut the plstic plate to still have access and use passthrough cables to have access of it's back) because I don't have enough space on my desk ennymore. I guess it won't happen haha

i am using sound card for music production , a few days ago i realised DACs are much better and high quality for that purpose

Bare skunt fuck a dac /windows sound drivers are the best

I've used Soundblasterx AE5 and never heard any noise. I have very high end pc fully overclocked to the max. It sound really good with my DT 1990 and DT 770 250 ohm. Completely pure audio even at highest gain and highest volume. I'm curious about ''audiophile'' products but they probably not better than my soundcard. Also not sure which one is the problem dac inside the pc case or amp inside the pc case ?

I would say your Budget has alot to do with it. On some external DACs the USB line noise (due to usb voltage not being clean) can hurt DAC solutions under $200 (if your sensitive to that). But recently ASUS, EVGA, and Soundblaster have released some sound cards in the 180-230 dollar price point that are EM shielded and produce fairly clean audio (or as clean as you can expect under $230). Now some boards and Power-supplies will produce more USB noise than others, and as he said it can be cleaned up (and some high end DACs do this for you) but if you have a say a limited budget sometimes a good internal sound card can be cleaner than a $100-$180 USB DAC if its a good one (don't buy a $50 sound card and expect clean audio). That is not to say all DACs in that price range suck, so do some research to find ones that people say are clean (and don't connect it with a cheap $5 USB cable). If you looking for truely high end and willing to spend the money then go external DAC, but if you need to be under $230 then there are a few soundcards that are good (if your going under $90 then just use on-board audio, most cards that cheap are not shielded).

Hello, I've been using a modified ASUS Essence STX-ii Internal Soundcard for a couple of years with a Yamaha A-S100 Integrated and Polk LSiM-707 towers.
Actually (3) different sets of speakers were used during the testing.

By modified, I mean the Op Amp on the ASUS was switched out for a Burson Classic. While considerably more expensive than the surface-mounts, the Bursons are worth every cent.
Recently I had an opportunity to explore a Chord MOJO external DAC to compare it's sound with the modified ASUS soundcard.
I've read/heard SEVERAL comments about how noisy PCs are (hostile electrical environment) and while I'm not doubting this, I failed to hear any ill-effects during this test.
I'm not talking about "noise" like hums or hissing or buzzing (because it is DEAD quiet) and understand the theory about the "electrical noise," or interference in question. There is NO collapse in soundstage, the smoothness of presentation, the smoothness of the high-end, vocals nor tightness of Bass.
I played several WELL known tracks anywhere from 320 MP3 to DSD and, well, I could not notice ANY difference in sound between the soundcard and DAC.
The MOJO by the way has been compared very favourably with DACS priced several times higher!
It was a 3 day test (several hours), and I was being as neutral as possible during the evaluation.
I lost volume functionality with Gizmo (android control app) as well as the volume slider itself became inactive using JRiver media center for playback.
I'd be interested to see what others think but (for me on my system), I won't be dumping the modded ASUS card in favour of a decent external DAC. Not a chance!

Let me ask you something. USB EXTERNAL SOUND CARD. It also is isoloated from interference. So your statement that DAC has advantage is no more valid. That is only true for internal sound cards but external sound card gets away with that issue just like DAC. So the question is: What is better? external usb DAC or USB soundcard?
-GOT YA! =)

Yeh this is bullshit. Just because your external USB dac is "isolated" from the PC that doesn't mean it really is. Your USB cable is powered by the PC which is powered by, you guessed it, the power supply of the system. There are USB devices out there that can overload and kill systems if you mod in a giant capacitor so there is absolutely no safety net at all with USB cables and noise. The power and data pins are indeed separate Probably the most effective solution is SPDIF due to it being optical or alternatively a sound card since pci-e pins are actually pretty well isolated. In fact after a quick google tons of people seem to face USB noise.

This guy doesn't sound very knowledgeable. I get more noise from my LCD display than from my PC. Cheap PSU's do make a lot of noise so don't use one. They are switching power supplies after all. I'll stick with my professional Audio Science internal sound cards.

People can use thunderbolt port if they dont want the card to be in the computer.

DAC 👍🏻

Like so many other of your videos, this one gave a nice answer to logical questions among the less wiser. When you talk about keeping distance between the computer and the DAC, I miss a rule of thumb. I would imagine, that a Laptop is less noisy on the outside, so a direct connection to the usb makes sense there, but how about the deskstation, where even the cabinet is very open. Would it then make a difference to put a USB extender between the case and the DAC?

i have the sound blaster AE 5 sound card which uses the sabre32 ultra class DAC and i dont hear any noise when playing music either via a tosh link or wireless over to the receiver.

I have a Asus Xonar STX II and an external DAC. Both allow op amp swapping, both have discrete Sparkos op amps. The PC has a very high up the food chain seasonics power supply, a PC bus power filtering card and a shielded audiophile power cable. The DAC has the same power cable(s) and a filter on the power supply. The external DAC uses AK 4497 DAC chips and XMOS USB chip, it uses an audiophile USB cable and a USB PC card that filters the power.
When they are both populated with 3 Sparkos op amps the sound from the 2 sources is almost equal in quality, with the ASUS Xonar being a touch more exquisite in it's sound.
At the end of the day I felt I coulda saved on the external DAC and been better off with the ASUS... until I sorted out converting everything to DSD 256 (with appropriate filter setting) on the fly on the PC and sending that to the DAC., in that case the DAC wins hands down, and probably does so against any DAC that doesn't convert the stream to DSD.
So, until you are going with DSD or something else above the normal, a well setup PC soundcard can do the business, but it has to be done right and fully...

I’ve had both versions of the asus essence stx and it was a big improvement from the onboard sound card BUT when I tried external Dacs then I realised how bad the sound was from the sound cards
Much better to get a good external Dac

Roland makes a great dac for a decent price, and they are bus powered. I took mine and isolated the power and run it off a big battery and it made it even better.

I've had the Asus Xonar, Auzentech Prelude, Auzentech Hometheatre HD soundcards and I totally agree with Peter. Just get yourself a good external dac and use the optical out from the computer to feed it. You'l get a nice clean signal out with no noise that way. I've got a Rega Dac and an Emotiva xda 1 Dacs and they are AWESOME in comparison to those soundcards. TBCH most motherboards come with a reasonable onboard soundcard these days so definitely not worth buying another one for a few % difference.

Get a JCAT card with an external power supply and feed your DAC via USB. Makes a huge difference if you clean up audio right at the source

JCAT Usb Femto pcie card + usb galvanic isolation + external DAC = bliss

Thats funny i got an Asus Xonar STX II whit Burson Op-Amps (so i had to detach the shild), and i cant even hear it when my system in on.
So i gess i have no EMI problems? Even when im Gaming it dosent do any noises.

Best way is buy dedicated surround sound system and delivery digital signal to it.

From my own extensive research, having isolated left/right traced channels on the PCB and maybe, maaaaaybe having a dedicated USB DAC output on your motherboard is the best and only effective means of maintaining a high quality signal internally. Gigabyte usually makes great motherboards for this, among others. Regardless of what you do, yes, get an external DAC.

I'm starting to realise Paul is a poser with these intros

I've owned external dacs that picked up mouse/usb noise just as bad as internal cards.. A decent computer psu is atleast 50% of the problem😑

idk, i have sound blasterx ae5 inside my pc and i prefer it over external g5

Some sound cards have a usb card before the audio section on then plus external psu connector for power, the problem is that all the switching noise goes into the power supply so basically is the same as using the power from the motherboard SOC since they all use common grounding, there is a solution which in my computer works really really well and its not expensive, if u go on ebay and search for el fidelity noise filters, u can find noise filters for fan's, hdds, pci-e x1 they even do usb filters, i use one pci e x1 filter and 1 hhd filter, the hdd filter connects to both sata and sata power connectors, the difference is simply unbelievable, so much smoother sound!! It shows that Paul is right, the computer is a very polluted environment, but i think there are solutions to this problems

That’s not true, there are many pci sound card sounding much better than most of outboard cards.