PC Hardware → Re: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE Vs. ALC892

The problems I ran into with USB DACs is that most of them do not offer "simple" things that people have come to rely on, such as:

1. Microphone input (including where your own voice can be heard in the audio stream used for playback/output). A lot of USB DACs don't offer this, and those which do often do not implement what I put in parenthesis.

2. Headphone output impedance mismatch; I've been bit by this more times than I can count (but not specific to USB DACs either; happens with anything really).

3. "Stereo Mix" or "What U Hear", where what's being output is essentially software/hardware loopbacked and thus can be recorded.

4. Complications involving output jacks vs. speakers; quite often what speakers have do not match what the USB DAC outputs to (physical jack-wise)

The 3rd item can be accomplished using a physical loopback cable, but almost always results in volume/amplification issues where you're having to "fine-tune" volume settings in two places (input and output) constantly so things aren't over-amped/clipping.

These, combined with the problem of even more cables (good USB DACs are often AC powered, while some can be powered off a 9V battery), often drive general people away (myself included).

Just my $0.02 when dealing with PC audio nonsense. All the above is why I just stick to physical sound cards.

Well that's likely just due to a few things.

1. internal sound cards are much more popular so issues are likely to be found/fixed.

2. the category of USB DAC, (IE basic junk vs recording studio gear vs home theater gear)

I hear the one I linked and its lesser counter parts is good and I have been considering getting it but can't decide if its worth it and also I've been thinking of using a USB DAC with VMware ESXi to give a VM an audio in/out.