so i wish to ask about your opinion about these 2 situations :
1. A music play with ASIO format go through normal cable to speaker.
2. A music play with digital format go through optical cable to speaker.

Which one can perform better?

i don't know whether your Z-5500 got a good DAC inside or not, if you have a good external DAC/decoder, the 2nd method will be the best....method 1 need to pass-through DAC and opamps before go to your speaker, the sound will greatly affected by DAC and opamp...

keep in mind that:

method 1 is the highest quality Analog output from the sound card

and

method 2 is the highest quality digital bit-stream output from your sound card.

So any recommendation for external DAC?

Sorry bro, i'm not familiar with external decoder, if you want just ask HERE, but i would like to say the XtremeMusic build in Cirrus Logic CS4382 DAC was quite decent adi...only the opamp after DAC make a different...

I suggest you try connect the analog and digital to compare which one suit your taste, i'm not recommend external DAC for your setup because no need to do so...

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 19 2008, 02:24 AM

External DAC for your z5500? But bear in mind but most of the external DAC only support stereo channel... And just to clear things up, external DAC and external decoder are two different things

well, just now i soldered the output directly from DAC, listen it and i noticed that

with opamp
1.more bassy.
2.midrange more pronounce but not clear/a bit blur.
3.rough high region.

direct coupled from DAC
1.less bassy than opamp.
2.clear midrange.
3.high region sound is smooth, airy.
4.-10dB in volume decrease.

i would say that the difference not so marginal, not night and day...maybe just a matter of taste for different people..

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 19 2008, 05:17 PM

With opamp everything is just in-your-face kind of experience, not the kinda thing that I like especially fo music listening, the soundstaging is very wide without opamp.

For me whet you describe is night and day, because you can clearly hear the difference, but well, one man's meat is another's poison. What speaker did you use with the X-Fi?

i pair with Yamaha RXV-800 amp and Concorde floor stander at home...but once i go back university, i have to settled with my AL MX5021 only...

EDIT: i like the sound by DAC alone too, but i think the card not designed to use like that, so i will change opamp also...

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 19 2008, 08:44 PM

OPAMP freak!! can open an opamp discussion thread liao.

i wish also...so that can collect some information for opamps

just do it pal

im sure many people want information about opamp,lolz.

Hmm, some information here, maybe useful for someone or may be not...for those who want to use SPDIF connector actually no need to buy 3.5mm mono to RCA(for me quite hard to find it)...just buy the easy-to-find 3.5mm stereo to dual RCA and connect the left channel(usually white colour) RCA to coaxial input of your amp...just got chance to tested out today..

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 20 2008, 05:17 PM

Nice find, coolkwc. But internal DAC is great for me

All my opamp has arrived today, tested it on other channel and do A/B test, I don't like them. I prefer no opamp

I have 9 opamp now, 5 of them are high quality. I don't know what to do with them. Don't ask me any because they not for sale

What I do now? Remove all the opamp and all the capacitor on opamp supply because its unneeded

EDIT: Forget to add, I'll get Sanyo OS-CON 10uF 10V and 47uF Blackgate NX for free soon

This post has been edited by Najmods: Jun 20 2008, 07:10 PM

what opamp you get today?

well, you can do that, but i can't, because i still need the analog multichannel outputs for movies and games...

hmm, today i just compare my Yamaha DAC vs X-Fi opamp...yap, this time i can differentiate quite easily....first heard i noticed the difference but can't tell exactly...after heard the same song repeatedly, finally i can told whats the difference...

the sound through X-FI DAC--> opamp
1. all the background instruments mix like rojak, can't distinguish the distance of instruments, through this test, i finally understand whats call layer of sound.
2. the vocal voice too 'hard'?!!? too centered and upfront.
3. the high region rough, some smooth/airy very high region just nick behind the instrument.
4. overall the stereo image decrease, all instruments, vocal tends to sounded in center, and i finally understand whats call soundstaging, narrow in overall.

i won't going to mention impression on Yamaha amp DAC, it just reverse of the word mentioned above

i will call this as, well, morning 9am and night 9pm

yap, the comparison i done can't compare this two because Yamaha amp DAC are totally separated from X-FI, i just want to express what i have learned today...maybe i'm wrong in some elaboration, correct me...maybe i will do direct comparison for X-FI DAC vs X-FI DAC-->opamp later...oops, yesterday i can't said it was night and day because i used the poor cable as signal cable, i known after i tested using RMAA and found that the cross talk was so poor, thats why CS4382 can't really impress me for yesterday test...sorry for CS4382

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 20 2008, 09:21 PM

Oh, I guess I tell them anyway. The opamp I buy is LME49723 (super secret), slightly worser version of LME49720. Sounds rougher, maybe not burn in, but it still quite the same as LME49720. The other one is AD8066 (ultra secret), it was fast, and it was rather flat, I quite like it though, but I prefer laid back signature, warmth and very wide soundstage of no opamp because my system is quite forward

Your last sentence just remind me different people have different sound system hence will have different resultant effect from the same DAC output...maybe pure DAC sound signature more suitable for system A but not suitable for system B.

---

Added on June 20, 2008, 10:19 pmhmm, an interesting question here....

Where the TS went adi? i can't ever saw him since i joined this club in January this year...i just noticed recently this thread was conquered by two of us adi... and proud to say i more like TS...see my total post on this thread...

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 20 2008, 10:22 PM

Are the latest creative drivers buggy and still features limited?

Its only beneficial who uses Vista, if you using XP better stick with the older official one since there is no major upgrade from it. From what I read from various forum, yes, it is buggy

Yea thanks man, useful for me
Btw, do u think there's any degradation of SQ by using this stereo-to-dual RCA as opposed to single RCA?