PC USB External Sound Card, digital output only, no headphone out hence no DAC

JFQ

New Member
Jan 1, 2023
2
0
3
61
Canada, Quebec, Montreal suburb
Good day.

Perhaps someone would have an idea or a direction to point to. For years now all my music and video collections are digitized. They sit in a high-performance PC I built myself.
Connected to several LED TVs from 32 to 80 inches. This PC is the only device I use to listen to music and watch video content.

It is connected to a high-end Yamaha RX-A8A Aventage Series 11.2 AV Receiver. I have no need for a DAC. Anything I need to do with audio output of the computer is handled by that Yamaha receiver, be it headphones, 7.1 Surround, 7 channel stereo, multi room audio, etc.. The receiver has several digital audio and HDMI inputs and an excellent DAC.

What I have been looking for, for many years, is a high-end USB external sound card. There are a multitude on the market, all have ill-fated DACs and questionable engineering.
PC motherboards onboard sound cards are the same. There are some decent PCI or PCIe audio cards you can get to install in a slot inside a PC but not very practical in my case.
I would use that same USB external sound card on laptops I also own, when I'm not at home. Most modern stadium rental PA/sound systems have mixer consoles with audio digital inputs.

I know Roland makes Edirol UA-25 but again, has a so so DAC/ADC, maybe bypassed when using digital output, not sure.
You can find USB to coaxial/SPDIF optical AC3 DTS 5.1, 7.1 converter adapter sound card on eBay, no DAC, but only the one, from China...

That's what I need, PC USB external sound card, USB input from a PC to digital audio outputs, coax and/or optical, no DAC. Not many models I could find, only the one on eBay...

Hablamos pronto

 

Kal Rubinson

Well-Known Member
May 4, 2010
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NYC
www.stereophile.com
Do you already have a DAC to feed from that prospective device or would you accept another arrangement?
What software on your PC is managing the audio and video sources?

I suggest JRiverMediaCenter to manage audio and video sources including Dolby/dts decoding, bass management and up-mixing and feed its audio output via USB to a high-quality 8channel DAC and the video output to a display via HDMI (with or without a high-end video card).
 

JFQ

New Member
Jan 1, 2023
2
0
3
61
Canada, Quebec, Montreal suburb
Thank you for the interest. I simply need a USB device to pull the digital audio output out of the computer (through USB) and transport it, still in digital format, to a DAC which then interprets the data and then outputs it in analog format to move speakers, my AV receivers DAC does that marvelously.
For the software part, iTunes, Windows and Windows software such as MPC-HC video player handle the digital audio output of many different formats very nicely, audio and video. Surround, DTS, AC3 all kinds of Dolby and all kinds of lossless audio formats.
What I found is this; https://www.ebay.ca/itm/223997626678?hash=item34274c8936:g:pW4AAOSwJc9aW1Ls . I will get one to test. It does not support Apple OS, which can be an inconvenience.
I am surprised that there are so few of this type of sound card available on the market, been looking for years.
Thanks again.
 

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