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Realtek ALC1150 vs DAC... to buy or not to buy.

dragnalus

dragnalus

New Member
hi gang -
I'm looking for ways to improve my listening experience and was considering adding a DAC instead of using my computer's onboard sound. The onboard sound is the Realtek ALC1150 chipset. I use the line out (1/8" jack) and via an adapter plug into the auxillery RCA inputs of my receiver. I could instead use the optical output to a DAC, but I'm not sure how big of an improvement I would see. Would I need an extremely high end DAC to ese any gains? My budget is $250 or under.

My full current setup is as follows:
Receiver: Marantz 2270.
Speakers: 1 pair JBL Northridge E50 3-Way 8-Inch Horizontal/Vertical Bookshelf Speakers
Turntable: Reference 610T by Quadraflex with Empire EXL 30 cartridge.
Computer with Flacs with the Realtek ALC1150 mentioned above.

Would I have any noticeable gain in sound quality by purchasing any DAC that's under $250?
 
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I think the best use of external DAC is computer. So my answer would be yes. There are many reasons for this. It has all been discussed. Get the sound away from noisy computer is basic.

The question is which DAC? The best use is playing digital files. So what is resolution of files? Do you have hi-res? LOSSLESS CDs are not high resolution. You can't practically rip hi-res.
Music player software and configuration is important. What software are you using?
How to connect? - usually USB. Do you have optical output from your computer? (are you sure it is rare) USB works fine. Perhaps optical if you have hi-res and DAC has higher resolution with optical connection.

There are many DACs to choose from. Consider your requirements first.
 
Here's something from Creative Labs that will deliver a serious boost over on-board sound. It's a USB-powered DAC that comes with both RCA and optical outputs/inputs so it's perfect for connecting a computer to an audio system while totally bypassing the computer's audio hardware. Its audio chipset is far better than anything found in even the best desktops. It uses a power cord similar to a phone charger to connect it to a computer but is otherwise similar to any external DAC and allows you to use a computer as an AUX source on any receiver/amplifier you want to listen to. And it fits your budget.

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-digital-music-premium-hd

As you can see it looks like a regular DAC. As the name implies it's primarily meant for music, not gaming. My wife uses hers to listen to Youtube on her stereo but when I had it I used it to listen to hi-res music files I played on the Foobar 2000 audio player and the sound quality was amazing (provided the source file was of good quality, such as FLAC files). That purchase was one of the best use of audio money I ever made. It comes with a dedicated headphone amp but being USB-powered don't expect it to drive phones very loud. You're better off plugging your phones to the amplifier you'll be using with the DAC.
 
dragnalus said:
hi gang -
I'm looking for ways to improve my listening experience and was considering adding a DAC instead of using my computer's onboard sound. The onboard sound is the Realtek ALC1150 chipset. I use the line out (1/8" jack) and via an adapter plug into the auxillery RCA inputs of my receiver. I could instead use the optical output to a DAC, but I'm not sure how big of an improvement I would see. Would I need an extremely high end DAC to ese any gains? My budget is $250 or under.

My full current setup is as follows:
Receiver: Marantz 2270.
Speakers: 1 pair JBL Northridge E50 3-Way 8-Inch Horizontal/Vertical Bookshelf Speakers
Turntable: Reference 610T by Quadraflex with Empire EXL 30 cartridge.
Computer with Flacs with the Realtek ALC1150 mentioned above.

Would I have any noticeable gain in sound quality by purchasing any DAC that's under $250?
Click to expand...
At that price point, I'd start with this one. I've heard it, and was surprised how well it performed compared to my $500 DAC.

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/supercharged-maverick-audio-tubemagic-d2-dac.698877/

What botrytis said about computer 'noise', I agree. I spent more bucks isolating my DAC from internal computer noise, but didn't hear an improvement.

I do have hearing loss in the high range, but can hear differences in DACs.

I don't have any experience with the one KarlK is recommending, so can't comment.
 
BigElCat said:
I don't have any experience with the one KarlK is recommending, so can't comment.
Click to expand...

About that one, I forgot to mention one detail: because it draws its power off the computer you'll need to pay attention to the PSU's power output. About 600 watts is enough to make your amp sound the same as if you had it connected to a standard source like a CD player or phono. However, if you require a new PSU this will have a major impact on your budget in which case you'd be better off with the Maverick
 
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imral3 said:
Schiit Modi 3. $99 bucks.
Click to expand...

But it doesn't play very loud though. About the Creative Labs DAC mentioned above its official designation is SB1240 and AFAIK still in production, I have one that I keep stowed as a backup. At its original price point ($99) there was nothing that even came close in terms of SQ and impact, HPA's costing 3-4 times as much were only very marginally better than this plastic box. Its plain looks are deceiving;the inside houses serious goodies I don't recall the chip it sported but I remember critics mentioning that it was neither made nor designed by Creative, but commissioned by them. You'll also find a city of modular op-amps in there, plus high-quality Japanese caps among other goodies. No idea how Creative managed to come up with this but it changed my opinion of that company being the Bose of computer audio like someone else mentioned in another thread. The rare times Bose inadvertently comes up with almost good sound it's by accident. This DAC however is no accident. It was designed to be good and it delivers the goods at modest cost.
 
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I have one as well, that I keep at the cottage. It always surprises me that a product from a gaming sound card manufacturer can sound this good but you need a desktop and beefy PSU (650w minimum) to pull all the juice from it as it is USB-powered, which can be a benefit seeing as a desktop PSU can provide instant reserve power (provided you switch off the on-board audio in UEFI) unlike the tiny PSU most 12v DAC's come with. USB may only be 5w but it needs to be 5w all the time, not fluctuate as it would with a modest-power PSU. Also if you use more than 3 USB devices (excluding keyboard and mouse) you'll need 700w (add 50w for each set of 3 USB devices, 100w if those devices consume a lot of power, such as NAS drives that don't have their own power source). This applies to all USB-powered DAC's connected to desktops and using only NVMe and/or SATA SSD drives and a DVD writer. Regular hard drives require more power and, if you have enough of them, can heavily tax the PSU.

Regarding SQ from the SB1240, it can be compared with that of something that would fall between the Dragonfly Red and Dragonfly Cobalt. Like those it produces little swing which explains in part the grossly underpowered headphone amp that comes along with the DAC. Clearly that amp was just put in there because at the time of its inception very few audiophiles knew what the heck a DAC was and its purpose wasn't clear. But when you open up the SB1240 USB HD X-Fi, to use its full name, what is immediately apparent is the split layout. On the left you see a very basic headphone amp, the good stuff is to the right: DAC chip (don't remember the brand but it's the same LG uses on their G7 flagship which is reputedly the smartphone with the best sounding audio of any phone), a little city of OP-amps, Japanese caps and so on. There's barely enough room to fit all this stuff in even though as DAC's go the SB1240 is not small. Clearly that indicates that the DAC was the priority, not the amp. RCA ins and outs tell the story, this "amp" is meant to be used as a standalone DAC. For the price it's still a fairly decent deal as it costs less than a Dragonfly Red, but forget about portability.
 
If you use a powered USB hub to connect a DAC it no longer draws current from the PC. I connect my Topping D-10 through a powered USB hub powered by a linear power supply.
 
JoeESP9 said:
If you use a powered USB hub to connect a DAC it no longer draws current from the PC. I connect my Topping D-10 through a powered USB hub powered by a linear power supply.
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That can be a viable alternative as long as the hub's PSU is able to provide sustained voltage to the DAC. It certainly would improve things for those who don't have powerful desktop PSU's or use a laptop. I kinda do the opposite when I use the 1240: most of my USB peripherals are connected to a powered hub, only keyboard, mouse and DAC use the desktop's PSU (apart from motherboard resources obviously). Single drive is NVMe. What I'd like to know is just how much power does a USB-powered DAC need to perform at its best.

EDIT thanks to your input I just called a local computer shop and purchased an AC-powered USB hub. In my case it's not for my home DAC, a Naim DAC V1 that uses regular 110-120v, but to power four 6Tb NAS drives that I suspect are stealing voltage from my desktop's 750w PSU. It could use the break, considering my power-hungry X299 motherboard. What possessed me to purchase such a gaming board I don't know, I'm not even a gamer and it doesn't sound any better than the Z-390/490/590 which is half the price and compatible with any LGA 1200 CPU (LGA 1151 for the Z-390). Now I'm stuck with a board whose socket (LGA 2066) isn't compatible with 95% of the CPU's out there, so when the time comes for a CPU upgrade... they own me dammit. Nice going lol
 
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USB powered DACs are designed to draw less than 0.5 A for the original USB spec conformance to ensure widest compatibility. Those that need more usually have a separate power inlet marked with the voltage/current required.
 
gvl said:
USB powered DACs are designed to draw less than 0.5 A for the original USB spec conformance to ensure widest compatibility. Those that need more usually have a separate power inlet marked with the voltage/current required.
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Well my new powered hub should be more than adequate in the amperes department then :)

I never checked the specs of the 1240 so let's see online... (back in a minute)

Well, Creative isn't the most forthcoming when it comes to power specs and I didn't find anything I didn't know already... except that this model is still on the market after 11 years. They must've sold lots of them, mainly because there was little choice in DAC's back in 2010 and 24-bit/96KHz signal looked impressive I suppose. It also comes with a fairly complete set of decent DSP features on top of the usual bloatware. Creative's claim that the included headphone amp is of "audiophile quality" is however ridiculous.

One thing I noticed about this DAC is that PSU has a dramatic effect on SQ. A small 500w PSU will make it sound bad but a 750w PSU will make it sing.
 
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