Ok I've been making do with onboard audio for a good while and I'm tired of it. I recently plugged in a tiny little USB card from an old Creative headset and hooked it up to a Soundblaster E3 that I picked up super cheap, and it sounds immeasurably better than my onboard. However, I'm not thrilled by the limitations and I figure a decent external stand-alone USB DAC AMP combo thingy would be a better option than any other soundcard/onboard solution. First of all they are free from the crosstalk/interference with the PC chassis, they require no drivers and are pretty much universally compatible with whatever setup I want to use. So why am I here? I want an external USB DAC AMP with a switchable output, so I can swap between my headset (to be replaced by decent phones eventually) and a pair of bookshelf speakers either side of my monitor. Oh, and I'd like to keep things sensible, price-wise. So, under £100 what be great and under £75 would be awesome. Any ideas, experience, suggestions, generally mockery or trademark Bit-Tech thread derailment?
There is this. It is not switchable but it has two outputs. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HIFI-A2-...hash=item3f7bccc7e1:m:m_aNcGNVMjs037xBdtUbspA And then of course there is the cheap way. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-5mm-Ja...310716640?epid=1467001813&hash=item1c0313d8e0 Personally here is what I would do. I would use the E3 as a sound device for your speakers. Get yourself one of these. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Isolator-H...27676864&sr=8-4&keywords=ground+loop+isolator Run that into your speakers. Then get whatever USB Amp/DAC you want and then simply switch them in Windows. Click on the speaker in the tray, click the arrow and it will bring up the sound devices, then simply switch it there. At home I have about 7 sound devices I can switch through whenever I like.
Try a Behringer UCA-202 (NwAvGuy review). £20 for a 2-in-2-out USB audio interface; has phono inputs, phono outputs, 3.5mm headphone socket, and headphone volume control. You'd need a separate amp for the speakers but £20 leaves a lot of headroom in your budget for an inexpensive amp. My UCA-202 has been one of the best pieces of audio equipment I've ever purchased. It implements the standard USB audio class so it has worked on literally every system/OS I've thrown it at: Windows, Linux, Mac OS, tablets, phones, Raspberry Pis, and even the b@st@rd love child of tablet and digital photo frame the O2 Joggler. EDIT: "b@st@rd" as in "illegitimate offspring", not b@st@rd as in "you unpleasant person"... Thank you swear filter...
A mate at work is lending me his Xonar u5 tomorrow, for a couple of days. Nice chap that he is. I'll see if that ticks the boxes first, then I'll explore some of the options in this thread. Thanks all.
Tangentally related to the topic at hand - Automatically change your Audio Input, Output and Volume per application in Windows 10
Have a (fictional and non-existent-on-this-forum) upvote for that. I often have lots of audio devices hanging off my PC and that might come in handy.
Ok, got home, plugged in my mate's Xonar u5, ordered one 15 minutes later. It may not be the latest and greatest in audiophile equipment, but neither are my ears, and it is markedly better than listening to onboard audio.
If it works for you and you like the sound that comes out of it then I'd call that a win, regardless of whether or not it was hand-assembled by naked virgins with blessed & anointed components. Most "audiophile" stuff is seriously overpriced and objectively indistinguishable from cheaper equipment. Quality does matter for analogue signals, but that doesn't mean you have to pay £1300 for a speaker cable.
There's no doubt in my mind that some high end stuff is worth it, but much of it is just for epeen w@nking and absolutely pointless unless you have perfect hearing. I do intend to cough up for better headphones but my eyes will be set firmly on the "good for the money" review scores.