Looking for a USB soundcard for HiFi music listening

Hi! im looking for a USBsoundcard thats really good to hook up to a 2.0/2.1 stereo system for music listening. i dont care about making music or playing games. i dont want an PMCIAcard, just because i move my laptop alot back and forth so i want to be able to just plug my usbcable in, turn on the amplifier and start playing music

want:
- USB2
- as high Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) as possible
- optic AND / OR coaxial connection.
- support 24-bit/96kHz - but 24-bit/192kHz wont hurt

i live in sweden.
thanks alot in advance

 

Creative make an external USB version of the Sound Blaster. I have the Live! version and its great. Got all the hookups. Look for the X-Fi version.

 

coming from a professional music background, my opinion is to completely skip the Creative or other "PC hi-fi" companies. you'll get much, much better results by using a soundcard designed for music producers or DJ's.... they are of much better quality that will give much better, truer sound without the extra algorithms or other bloat that surround the Creative cards. these cards are almost always USB or Firewire now, and give you high-quality outputs AND high-quality inputs (many with phono preamps) that will be far superior if recording audio.

start your search with the M-audio line of external soundcards. you'll most likely find one that will have all the features you need and will give you hands-down much better results than anything creative or on-board can.

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.list&ID=mobileinterfaces

the Audiophile USB is their entry-level soundcard and still sounds phenomenal. has all your requirements and more...
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/AudiophileUSB-main.html

Presonus, Digidesign, Lexicon, and Focusrite also make wonderful cards.

here is PSSL.com's list of their computer inputs/outputs. disregard the MIDI interfaces on that site.
http://www.pssl.com/csearchresults2...Type]~TType~6~cdesc~Audio~VSort~A~Logo~[Logo]

one last thing: you'll want to make sure the card you get wither has WDM drivers so you can use it as a regular soundcard or some other type of driver that is compatible with Windows Default Sound. you can call up the companies to confirm this.

_sean

 

thanks alot sean

 

Thanks for the info Sean S. I was actually looking for an expresscard slot or PCMICIA option to add to the laptop of a friend of mine who is a DJ. I agree that these pro cards are better but for a given price range the Creative cards are actually pretty good.

 

M-Audio Transit
- SNR: 104dB (typical, A-weighted)
- TOSlink optical digital output allows AC-3 and DTS pass-through
- 24-bit/96kHz USB audio
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-focus.html

vs Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit External
- TOSlink optical digital output allows AC-3 and DTS pass-through
- SNR: 100dB
- 24bit/96kHz

if im going to plug my reciever to the optical toslink, am i going to hear any difference between the 2?

if u have a good reciever is it better to use the optical output to let the recievers DAC hand the conversion between digital and anlog? or is it better to use coax? or buy a soundcard with really good DAC and send analog to the reciever ? gahh my head hurts xD

 

there's a difference between signal-to-noise ratio and keeping the sound from being coloured or muffled in the process. the m-audio stuff will be much more transparent than the creative stuff, giving a truer sound.

and getting into digital vs. analog is a completely different arguement that could last many pages and pages

honestly, i doubt you'll hear any kind of difference in letting the DAC on your soundcard or the DAC on your receiver do it unless you're using the top-tier equipment (i.e. $10,000 speakers). really, it isn't going to make hardly any difference. you can always just try it out yourself and see if you hear a difference.

 

I actually thought back in the day that Creative was the best for computer audio until i heard the the quality of a professional sound card. For the average user with general listening needs the pro cards are almost overkill. Its like giving a Bugatti Veyron to an 90yr old to go to the store once a week. But If money is no object I would prefer to skip over the creative stuff.