Question about outboard sound adapters

[nightflier]

At my work we are hitting a glass ceiling of quality and functionality with built-in computer sound cards (mostly off-the-computer-store-shelf types and whatever's built-in to the computer). So I wanted to take a look at some of the outboard sound adapters like the Headroom TotalBithead and orther USB-based adapters. Also, with so many of our users moving to laptops, it makes more sense to use outboard sound cards instead. I was wondering if someone could enlighten me on this.

- First of all, is a USB connection of high enough quality & speed for such an application? For example we've moved all our USB-based video to Firewire because we were not satisfied with the USB performance.

- How does something external from the likes of Creative Labs (X-mod @ $80) compare to something like the Total Bithead ($150)?

- When comparing a CD played on my computer to one played on my amp, the sound is dramatically different, which is to be expected, but what accounts for this? Is it the CD-ROM (generic brand), the sound card, the cpu, the cabling? I am asking because changing out a cable would be a lot less expensive, for example.

- Am I hobbling sound reproduction by not using a good sound card? That is, I know it's used when editing audio, but is the sound card invoked when ripping and burning CDs?

Sorry for the long winded questions, but this is all new to me. I'm a bit of an analog luddite.

[Dusty Chalk]

The biggest problem is that most soundcards go through the kmixer. Do a search on kmixer to get more information.

Yes, even USB v1 is good enough for 16/44 audio -- my M-Audio Sonica is just such a device. If you do more than CD (DVD video can go up to 24/96), then you'll need USB 2, but that's about it.

I'm actually not familiar with the Bithead. Nor the Creative Labs. But you should find information out about the driver associated with the card/outboard device/whatever, if you're going for hi-fi quality.

[nightflier]

Dusty,

Actually neither the Bithead or the Creative require drivers (according to the online documentation) so I presume they use an internal generic driver to send the sound information via the USB port. The question is would it be better to use a proprietary driver?

P.S. Yes, we will be needing DVD 24/96 audio quality.

[Dusty Chalk]

Only if the proprietary driver is better. Your best bet is to make a short list of outboard DACs, and then search on their name + kmixer.

[nightflier]

I don't mean to be a stickler about this, but I've contacted both Headroom and PS Audio, and they said that no third party driver was needed for the USB function on their headphone amps. PS Audio doesn't even ship theirs with a software CD. It seems like I'm getting conflicting information about this functionality.

[Feanor]

The biggest problem is that most soundcards go through the kmixer. Do a search on kmixer to get more information.

Yes, even USB v1 is good enough for 16/44 audio -- my M-Audio Sonica is just such a device. If you do more than CD (DVD video can go up to 24/96), then you'll need USB 2, but that's about it.

I'm actually not familiar with the Bithead. Nor the Creative Labs. But you should find information out about the driver associated with the card/outboard device/whatever, if you're going for hi-fi quality.

My M-Audio Audiophile USB supports ASIO 2; (Audio Stream Input Output). What's that about? I gather it's an alternative to Microsoft's DirectSound and is targeted at musicians and sound engineers, but beyond that I know diddely. I installed these drivers but I don't know if their actually being used. I do know that for sound the Audiophile does not use the standard "USB device".

I found a couple of references for ASIO ...

http://www.soundblaster.com/resources/read.asp?articleid=53937&page=1&cat=0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_stream_input_output...