Creative have a range of SoundBlaster that connect via USB and have both
digital in and out.
They also come with editing software and are not too expensive, and they
sound infinitely superior to any sound card.


"Bob Latham" wrote in message
...
I would like to use my PC to record a 44.1Khz 16bit spdif signal and
perform basic editing (splitting tracks etc.) before burning a CD. My
Arcam AV amp provides digital out for analogue inputs. It seems sensible
to me to try and use that signal rather than the usual analogue feed to
the PC card.

Can this be done and better still, can it be done at minimal cost? I do
have a sound card but of course it has spdif out but not in. Does anyone
know of a card that does spdif in and doesn't cost 60UKP or more.

Software, is their anything that can perform the above from an spdif
rather than analogue input?

TIA for your help.


Cheers

Bob.

On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:08:01 +0700, §|ª®T?ߪRt?@$t §|ª®T?ߪRt?@$t wrote:


Creative have a range of SoundBlaster that connect via USB and have both
digital in and out.
They also come with editing software and are not too expensive, and they
sound infinitely superior to any sound card.

The problem is creative's firmware. They do so much processing on the audio
that that after you go through all various resampling stages and in and out of
the mixers, you're lucky if you have a 70 db s/n and less than 10db deviation on
the frequency response. I wouldn't be surprised if the audio goes to analog
and back to digital a couple of times in the process.

On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:08:01 +0700, "§|ª®T?ߪRt?@$t"
wrote:

Creative have a range of SoundBlaster that connect via USB and have both
digital in and out.
They also come with editing software and are not too expensive, and they
sound infinitely superior to any sound card.

No they don't. They don't sound at all bad, but then neither does
even the onboard sound on a modern computer (as long as you forget the
Mic In). But as quality soundcards go, SoundBlasters/Audigys etc.
are at the bottom of the scale. Many professionals would say off the
bottom of the scale.

AZ Nomad wrote:

On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:08:01 +0700, §|ª®T?ߪRt?@$t §|ª®T?ߪRt?@$t wrote:



Creative have a range of SoundBlaster that connect via USB and have both
digital in and out.
They also come with editing software and are not too expensive, and they
sound infinitely superior to any sound card.


The problem is creative's firmware. They do so much processing on the audio
that that after you go through all various resampling stages and in and out of
the mixers, you're lucky if you have a 70 db s/n and less than 10db deviation on
the frequency response. I wouldn't be surprised if the audio goes to analog
and back to digital a couple of times in the process.

Paging Mr Krueger. We need a definitive answer about this Creative
resampling business.
It seems odd that if you are recording from vinyl at 44.1KHz, the card
should
do the ADC at 48KHz and digitally resample to 44.1KHz. And it is
impossible if you are recording at 96KHz. As for a 48KHz SPDIF being
digitally resampled to 48KHz, that is plain silly.
What were the Creative software team smoking?

--
Eiron.

"AZ Nomad" wrote in message

On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:08:01 +0700, §|ª®T?ߪRt?@$t
§|ª®T?ߪRt?@$t wrote:


Creative have a range of SoundBlaster that connect via
USB and have both digital in and out.
They also come with editing software and are not too
expensive, and they sound infinitely superior to any
sound card.

The problem is creative's firmware. They do so much
processing on the audio that that after you go through
all various resampling stages and in and out of the
mixers, you're lucky if you have a 70 db s/n and less
than 10db deviation on the frequency response. I
wouldn't be surprised if the audio goes to analog and
back to digital a couple of times in the process.

I'd like to see someone produce proper technical tests to support this
claim = i.e. test results from the Audio RightMark program.

I've been testing Creative Labs audio interfaces for a decade or more, and
there has been considerable improvement. I can't think of any of their
modern products that are anywhere near as bad as stated above.

Here's an oldie - the SBLive! 5.1

Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:+0.16, -0.60
Noise level, dB (A):-83.8
Dynamic range, dB (A):83.6


Here's a fairly recent cheapie SBLive! 24 bit (under $40)

response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:+0.07, -0.18
Noise level, dB (A):-103.6
Dynamic range, dB (A):92.0


Another recent cheapie - the USB 24 bit, but still under $50

Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:+0.13, -0.65
Noise level, dB (A):-89.2
Dynamic range, dB (A):88.3


Here's a real oldie - an original SBlive! from the late 1990s

Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:+0.33, -0.86
Noise level, dB (A):-83.6
Dynamic range, dB (A):82.9