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Originally Posted by sdrr00
here are the ASUS XONAR D2X sound card converters:
24-bit D-A Converter of Digital Sources: TI Burr-Brown PCM1796 *4 (123dB SNR, Max. 192kHz/24bit).
24-bit A-D Converter for Analog Inputs: Cirrus-Logic CS5381* 1 (120dB SNR, Max. 192kHz/24bit).
from what i read, these are VERY good, so i dont think i will be sacrificing quality. as you can see, the support 192khz/24bit, which is the same as the virus, right? the problem is now whether the unbalanced 1/4" to 1/8" will change or distort the signal in anyway, or will it act as a regular 1/4" to 1/4" balanced input?
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You wont be able to run balanced analogue audio from the TI to your soundcard's stereo 3.5mm line-input jack. It'd have to be of the domestic unbalanced type.
To use the analogue outputs of the Virus in this case, you'd need a cable that has two standard 1/4" mono jacks at one end (to make up a L and R pair of channels from your Virus) and a 3.5mm stereo jack at the other end (to put into your soundcard's line-input socket). You shouldn't have too much signal degradation if cable lengths are kept relatively short. The longer the cable, the more noise it stands to pick up.
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the first one is the Digital to Analog convertor.. that would apply to the SDPIF correct?
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No. That D-A figure applies to your line-out (from the soundcard to your speakers), not your SPDIF input.
You SPDIF input will be at either 44.1KHz or 48KHz at 16-bits. The signal doesn't vary or degrade from those figures. It's locked at that quality. If you pipe audio down your SPDIF, it comes out the other end of the cable exactly the same (44.1/48KHz at 16-bits). Whereas analogue stands to degrade/change.
But the SPDIF uses the same frequency and bit-depth as the USB output, so you may as well use that, unless you want to take a punt at the analogue outputs. However, as you only have 1x stereo analogue input on your soundcard, you will only be able to use a pair of outputs from the Virus's analogue outputs, and they will be unbalanced.
With the USB you have 3 stereo outputs from the Virus.