quote:
Cantatis Overture 192
I do not have experience with that particular soundcard, I gather it's new so I guess you won't find much help as to how it sounds.
I do, however, have extensive experience with PCI sound cards, and they do indeed have the potential to sound
very good. There are a few caveats though; they respond very markedly to your ATX PSU quality, and even more to the power regulation of your motherboard. From personal experience, most newer PSUs are very good, but do spend a little on a proper one. You get what you pay for. For motherboards, I am sure there are many good ones, but I have found that any new Gigabyte board gives excellent results SQ wise. Experiment with different PCI slots, but the lowest one is usually the best.
The card you asked about seems sensibly designed, with excellent parts. It runs a VIA Envy chip, which means excellent, bit perfect drivers, and they can do 88.2 and 176.4. Considering the price, this looks like something that is worth trying out. The Onkyo and Audiotrak cards sound fantastic, perhaps this is a new contender.
I would like to add that PCI sound cards are, in general, very much underrated as analogue sources, and, considering their price, a must try. For example, you would have to spend about £1000 on an external DAC to best the Onkyo and Audiotrak cards in my experience. They are great vfm. In my setup, noise is a non-issue. The card does not add to the background noise of my Naim amp, which already is quite quiet.
I'd say go for it, would love to hear some feedback on the Cantatis card.
