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Advice needed: am I going in the right direction?

I'm new to hi-fi sound world and spontaneously bought myself Yamaha NS BP200 passive speakers and Onkyo A-9030 amplifier, because I thought that connecting it to a PC will be a piece of cake - just buy some external sound card and you are good to go!

However after doing some research I found out that it's not that simple and now I'm kinda lost: does it (PC -> DAC or sound card -> amp -> speakers) even work like this. So, my question is:

Am I going in the right direction? And if yes, maybe you can suggest some DAC/external USB sound card that could suit my case (budget is about $150)?

jassblack

Showing 3 responses by jassblack

jassblack OP
3 posts
 
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I though that a DAC/sound card will transorm digital signal from PC to analog and then I could connect DAC/sound card to an amp through a stereo cable. Is it wrong?
jassblack OP
3 posts
 
Thank you so much, guys. 

One thing that is now not that clear for me, is there any difference between a cheap DAC and an expensive one, except for some noise that could be present in a low-priced ones and amount of outputs? Will they produce the same signal for the amplifier?

I'm an amateur musician myself and also wanted to buy the Steinberg UR12 external sound card to make some recordings on it. But will it also work for converting digital to analog for my sound system as an external DAC and will there be a difference in sound between Steinberg and some $100 DAC?


jassblack OP
3 posts
 
Thanks for the replies, you really helped me a lot. So, an extenral DAC is a way to go, but in some time I will also buy the Steinberg sound card, it would be interesting to compare them. If someone needs an amateur opinion on a difference between $100 DAC and sound card of the same price, write me a message, and I will share my experience :)
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