Would appreciate a little sound (card) advice

ChristopherDAC · 09-09-2005, 10:48 PM

Greetings all:
I have a sizable collection of LaserDiscs, and I would like to be able to record music and other audio from them conveniently. Unfortunately, at present I have only the integrated audio device on my motherboard, which only supports stereo analog input.
As at least three-fourths of the audio I want to record is in 16-bit 44.1 kHz PCM [the CD-audio data stream buried on most LDs since the mid-80s], and my player has a digital output, I would like to get an audio device which would accept S/P-DIF input which I could then dump to a .WAV file, preferably without any reclocking or other processing. Fiddling endlessly with the recording levels in order to strike a balance between dynamic range and headroom is driving me bats, when I know I could make a bit-for-bit perfect copy instead, given the equipment.
Does anyone have a recommendation for such a device, preferably inexpensive? I am running Windows XP Pro on an AMD Sempron platform, Soyo motherboard with plenty of expansion slots, mounted in an old Dell case which is mostly empty space by this point.

Chet_F · 09-09-2005, 11:00 PM

Do you need a SPDIF In (2-pin)?

Here's one that's cheap:
http://www.mdofpc.com/onlinestore/cm...d-p-11605.html

I don't know if that will work for you.

pricewatch.com is a good place to search for good prices. Just be careful who you order from - check their feedback.

Good luck.

ChristopherDAC · 09-10-2005, 09:57 AM

Well, that's got SPDIF input, but it's inside the case, not an external connector, and I've already got that -- in fact I think the integrated audio on my m/b is exactly the same as that stand-alone card! If I could think of an easy way to use that internal connector, I might do it, but what I really want is a TosLink or RCA or some kind of mini-jack to accept a digital feed from outside.
I'm not nearly so concerned about digital output, because my preferred modus operandi would be to burn the .WAV files to CD once I have them as I want them, and then play those back with my regular audio equipment. The point of this excercise is less to preserve perfectly what the recording engineer intended [though it would, hopefully, have that effect too], but to keep me from having to re-do his job. From that point of view I can live with analog output if I have to choose one or the other.
To put it another way, while most people have the litmus test of "can I play back a dtsCD in my CD-ROM drive, feed it through the digital out to my reciever, and get dts?", mine is more like "can I play a dtsCD or dtsLD on my LDP, pipe that into the box, record it as a .WAV, burn that to a CD, put that in my LDP again, run it to my reciever, and get dts?". That's the kind of thing I want.

Anybody know one?

Chet_F · 09-10-2005, 07:09 PM

"can I play a dtsCD or dtsLD on my LDP, pipe that into the box, record it as a .WAV, burn that to a CD, put that in my LDP again, run it to my reciever, and get dts?"

I don't know a great deal about home theater equip, or converting to another type of media. That said I don't think you can get that very last part, i.e. 'and get dts'. I would think once you convert it to a .WAV file, you are essentially downgrading the audio to 2 channel 16 bit 44kHhz stereo. You can't take that sound and convert it back to a DTS format and get what you originally started with, i.e. the DTS sound from the DVD or LD at it's original bitrate.

Here's something a little closer:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=180-970

But this is used to convert analog sound to digital. I don't think that's going to help you.

You'll love this nest link. This guy built his own digital to analog converter:
http://sound.westhost.com/project85.htm

That brings about another question....what type of connection do you have for your SPDIF?

I think I found what you need, not positive though, take a look:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...2496-main.html

Hope that helps.

ChristopherDAC · 09-10-2005, 08:00 PM

The audio stored on a dtsCD is formatted as 2-channel, 16-bit, 44.1 kHz PCM -- that is, the dts stream is [if you will] camouflaged as a regular Red Book stream in order to get on the CD or LD in the first place. If I record that digitally, the .WAV file will contain the pseudo-audio data, and if it's not resampled or otherwise processed it can be played back as DTS. [Note: playing back through a normal DAC as PCM results in a truly evil "black noise" which can damage equipment.]

Anyway, I'm not looking for a digital-analog convertor, or an analog-digital convertor, because I'm not trying to playback digital files to analog audio or record analog audio to digital files. I can already do those things. What I want to do is catch a PCM stream via SPDIF and dump it to a .WAV file -- digital to digital. For that, I need [I think!] a soundcard with a digital input.

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Ken Chan · 09-11-2005, 04:20 AM

Quote:

that's got SPDIF input, but it's inside the case, not an external connector, and I've already got that -- in fact I think the integrated audio on my m/b is exactly the same as that stand-alone card

I have a Soyo motherboard with a C-Media chip, and it came with a tiny card with S/PDIF in/out (both optical and coax) that plugs into the motherboard. It's short; it doesn't reach the PCI slot.

If you don't have that option, then any soundcard with a S/PDIF in should work. The cheapest one I found at newegg.com was this Turtle Beach -- $50 for the retail version ($2 less for OEM).

ChristopherDAC · 09-11-2005, 09:46 AM

What I need would be one of those cards, then, because my M/B was a discount item, a return which had been checked and found good I think, and it was without any of the extras Soyo describes. Perhaps I can get one from them... I'll have to look into it.

Christian Behrens · 09-11-2005, 04:13 PM

The new Soundblaster X-Fi cards are supposed to allow bitcorrect input/output in the "audio creation mode". They are not the cheapest cards around, but IMO one to watch (the number of transistors of its DSP - 51 million - rival a Pentium 4).

-Christian

ChristopherDAC · 09-12-2005, 05:31 PM

I was at Fry's today and they seemed to have two models which might do what I want, the Turtle Beach Catalina with optical in and out, and the SIIG Soundwave 7.1 with coax. Now I can use TosLink or RCA indiscriminately since I have both, and I don't make any difference between them; has anybody any experience with either of these?