PC Sound Card for nDac?

ESI Juli@

Auto sample rate switching.  Good card for the outlay. 

-Patrick

My local dealer highly recommends  SOtM tX-USB by Sonore.

Edit -- Oh but it's usb output.

Dump the optical and go for bnc-coax spdif cable.

use an external usb-spdif converter

best value for money John Kenny MK3 or maybe his upcoming ciúnas.

best sound quality Sonicweld Diverter HR2

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aleg

+1 only heard this in a PowerMac, but it sounded very good.

The other card i also heard that was very good was a Lynx.

An alternative is the Stello U3 though as Windows does not support the USB Audio standard it needs you install a driver. I have no idea if installing an additional driver on your PC is okay, but it think it must be as I have seen no complaints. 

It is a shame you can't upgrade to a Mac, but like you I have to use a PC at work. I wouldn't dare install anything on it though as it hasn't crashed for several days, which is a new record ... horrible Lenovo thing in genuine extra cheap plastic. I'm sure your PC is much better. 

Looking at the price of the Stello or the Audiophillia - it's cheaper just to buy a Mac. If I wanted to spend that kind of money, I'd probably just get the audiophillia: Naim seems to have thought them good enough to incorporate the tech into the Dac V1.

My PC's rock solid. I built it myself a few years from parts that I chose. I'm running Windows 7 and don't remember it ever crashing in the past few years. I've also got a couple of Lenovos that I use at work and they seem to be rock solid too.

More often than not, it's the IT depts. at huge corporations that muck around too much with their install images, and msft takes the flak for it.

With the Lenovo i am forced to endure, it is the build quality that is really bad and reminds of me of the old IBM Stinkpad ... I've had PC laptops from Sony, Fujitsu and Compaq: all of which were well built and much better than the Lenovo. However, give me an Amiga any day.

I agree with you that corporates muck about with operating systems too much. In my job, an iPad would be much more useful than a Lenovo, but even with the BYOD initiative, they wanted to muck about with MY iPad. I said ... get lost or words to that effect. Still when i retire I shall never have to use a corporate PC again . 

I've always found Lenovo's to be well-built -- pretty much as well built at the IBM Thinkpads before them.  I have the new Lenovo X1 Carbon for work (they supply it, and they really want me on Windows, not a Mac) and it's pretty decent IMHO.  Not Macbook Air or Pro quality (we have both at home), and I still prefer OS X, but I'm happy traveling the world with the X1 in my bag.

Yup. I'm getting one of those at work too as part of a company wide PC refresh.

Man, you must have one jacked up PC if it crashes every few days.  My old Dell server/workstation serves me audio, hires video all day and is powered 24/7.  I dont think I have rebooted once in the last 3 years other than the occasional reboot after installing a Flash update or something.  Not one crash.

Work PC is brand new but in the last 7 years I cant remember freezing up or needing to reboot in that entire time.

-Patrick

I would have to wonder if it is some buggy software you are using.

Patrick

It is a corporate build, if i want to put software on it, i have to ask permission. Only non-standard package I requested was Firefox. 

All the best, Guy