SPDIF Studio Question

I am in the process of putting together a basic home studio for personal use and have a few questions that some of you may be able to help me with. First so you know I did a search in the forum for several of this but either I thought the information returned was to dated or the amount of information that I would have to sift through was monumental and therefore difficult to narrow down for my purposes.

What I am thinking about is having a PC built that would include M-Audio's Audiophile 192 sound card in it...so I guess my first question is, is this a good choice or a bad one? I chose the card for several reasons: Cost, SPDIF output and the 24 bit/192Khz audio features.

Next question is regarding the amplifier for such a device and this is where things get a little weird (assuming that the card isn't weird enough for you guys already). I am looking at using an Audio/Video Receiver that could amplify the sound (100 to 150 watts per channel) into either a mono or stereo or surround sound configuration. In each case this would be for mixing purposes and is probably cheap enough in terms of quality for me to get the kind of mix I need. I would like to know what your thoughts are on this type of configuration, and if there is a better way to go? The other reason for the A/V type of receiver is that they typically have the SPDIF input so a converter would not be necessary.

For those of you wondering why SPDIF it just seemed like a logical choice to go with a fiber optic solution and not lose any sound quality between devices. Any way, any input would be helpful as I am sure many of you have already traveled down this path and could shed some light on this part of my setup.

Thanks,
-Ken Q.

Yes, that is a good card. One reason is it has balanced inputs. That means if you get a preamp, mixer, or guitar processor that has a balanced output you won't get noise if you use balanced cables. You don't see many cards in that price range that have balanced connections.

As for using the SPDIF it's not a big deal. You won't get any loss of quality using the analog outputs. In fact if you end up with sample rate clock problems or the stereo has crap converters in it you get worse quality. You should only use SPDIF (or any digital connection) when you have to. Those things are single direction and non error checking. So you can have problems and not even have a method to determine how bad it is. I would say the converters in your card will be better then the stereo so an analog connection would be best.

By the way wogg is right most of those mulit-channel surround amps and not very high quality. It would be better to just get good speakers with amps built in or a good stereo only amp.

A mixer adds much to any studio. First, you just don't have enough control over multiple tracks simultaneously using mouse and daw. An 8-track mixer is essential for this purpose. Also, my digital mixer is the central routing station in my studio. Once you experience the efficiency of keeping setup files for your working projects, you'll never want to work any other way.

You need a mixer, and generally you'll run your monitors, either active or passive through an amplifier, from the mixer's monitor out connectors, which are standard 1/4" unbalanced ports.

Ah, what's an unbalanced port, and does that imply there are also balanced connector ports? You bet it does.

You would benefit from one of those how to books on building a home studio available in fine stores, everywhere (or in your grocer's freezer.)

In the mean time, visit the Tweakheadz site and read some of the tutorials there for primary information on studio hardware.

Here's the link: Tweakheadz Guide

kwgm,

Thanks for the link. I have started to read the noob intro and it is very informative. In an attempt to not discard your observations I would like to explore a decent solution in the speaker area so I can listen to the stuff I have already recorded (headphones are really annoying and really skew the mix). The stuff that I have researched to date indicates that active near field speakers are the way to go (baring any new research I come up with at Tweakheadz of course). Although , I made the right choice in the M-Audio Audiophile 192 sound card it only has SPDIF output which would indicate that the speakers I choose would need to have SPDIF input correct? If that is true, then I have yet to find a decent speaker (i.e. active near field) solution and would really appreciate some guidance here.

-Ken Q.

ohhey, Wogg:

Thanks, that was what I was looking for. I think what was confusing me was that the specs indicating the SPDIF I/O got me into a single track focus on maintaining the fiber optic connection to maintain the 24 bit 192 Khz sound quality between the PC and any external devices. Now on to the next piece...speakers...

By the way is there a Cakewalk users group in the Dallas/Ft. Worth TX area?

-Ken Q.