Author: Terry Ebdon

I have several computers that I use for audio, but the important ones are the HP Envy desktop and Microsoft Surface Pro 2. I have 5 nice outboard audio devices (with DAC & ADC) that can interface to those two computers. At least 4 of them will appear to Windows as a sound card. The devices are: Zoom H4N, Korg M3, Korg Radias, Behringer Ultra Curve and Novation X-Station. The Radias might not works as a soundcard, I’d need to check. I’ve used the H4N with the SP2 a lot. About 10 years ago the X-Station was used with my Asus laptop, but I think it’s been at least 3 years since I switched the Novation on. It used to live in Dublin, it's now boxed-up in my study. The HP Envy has a decent graphics card (NVIDIA I think), that also provides audio processing. I suspect that card has both analogue and digital output. I imagine the best audio quality would be using the Korg M3 as a DAC, but that would be very OTT. Also a little impractical, as the M3 is on the opposite side of the room, and takes a while to boot up. I have a desktop audio rack sitting next to the Envy, with the analogue audio routed like this:

HP Envy -> EuroRack Pro -> Autocom Pro -> Ultra Curve -> KRK RP6

Well… sort of. All audio in that rack (which includes the Korg Radias) is actually routed through a Behringer 48-point balanced patch bay. So I can easily re-patch the audio path for all devices. In theory all I need is the appropriate digital audio cable from the Envy to the Ultra Curve to get a high quality DAC into the HP audio chain. There are some down-sides to that approach. The most used device in the rack is the EuroRack Pro. This is an 8/16 channel mixer with rotary faders and illuminated per-channel mute buttons. All Hi-Fi audio (i.e. not the transceivers) in the study routes through this. (Tuner, CD player, Xbox, Blu-ray, HP Envy, Radias, etc.) Using the mastering processor (Ultra Curve) as a DAC for just the HP would remove some current functionality (e.g. room tailoring & RTA for all audio) while making the interface less intuitive (e.g. how would I quickly adjust the HP volume?) Possibly a better approach would be to use the H4N as the Envy DAC. But I’d prefer to keep the H4N in a “grab bag” with the SP2. All of this ignores a basic question: just how good is the NVIDIA DAC, i.e. would an outboard DAC make a noticeable difference when listening via my RP6 monitors?

10-MAY-2019 👈 Top of page 👉 23-NOV-2019

Find me coding on GitHub, networking on LinkedIn, answering questions on Stack Exchange and hanging out on twitter.