# Help on HTPC audio setup - two soundcards?



## greenmachine (Sep 12, 2010)

I'm working on building a high end HTPC - very early stages really - but am confused about the audio options. Key functions of the system will be to play blu rays and music. I'm assuming to get TrueHD blu ray audio I'll need to use a HDMI output, either via the graphics card (ATI Radeon HD5XXX) or a dedicated HDMI sound card (I'm looking at the Asus Xonar HDAV1.3). Am I wrong on that - can it be done via 7.1 outputs? 

But I also want an audiophile quality sound card to play music. Had my heart set on the Xonar Essence STX or ST. Has great reviews and the frequency ranges are much better than the HDAV1.3 but my understanding is that it won't deliver my TrueHD blu ray playback. 

So assuming the above is correct (is it??), I'm wondering whether I could rig things to have two sound outputs - my graphics card (or HDAV1.3) for blu ray and xonar essence for music. Will be running Windows 7. Is it possible to have HDMI as default but setup xonar essence for something like windows media centre???

Any advice gratefully received!

Btw, probable system setup:
i3 or i5 with Asus P7H55-M USB3 mobo
Kingston DDR3 4gb ram
WD Black 2TB H.Drive
Sapphire HD5XXX 1GB DDR5 GPU
Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 and/or Asus Essence STX/ST???
Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 600w PSU
Origen AE H6 HTPC case

Playing through to a denon avr2310 receiver/monitor audio speaker system

Read more: How do you play audio on HTPC through both HDMI and Analog output? - Home Theater Forum and Systems - HomeTheaterShack.com


----------



## recruit (May 9, 2009)

There should be no need to buy another sound card if you are going with the latest ATI graphics card as they are able to Bit stream the HD audio to an AVR via the HDMI output, so I would save the money and put towards something else.


----------



## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

Ditto, as long as you trust the dacs in your AVR.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## greenmachine (Sep 12, 2010)

Thnaks guys :T So I'm right then in thinking that it should be possible to stream blu ray audio via my gpu and have a dedicated sound card (xonar essence ST) for music (porbably WMC) playback?


----------



## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

Yes, you can select separate output devices, if you feel you need to. The data flowing down the HDMI cable should be identical to the original disc/file, so if you trust the DACs in your AVR, a second card would not be worth the money for what could likely be no tangible improvement.


----------



## bclare (Dec 22, 2009)

Using WMP for music playback may be problematic as I think it uses the default sound device.

If you use something like jriver, foobar etc. for music playback, then you can select a non default device for sound output. 

I have 3 soundcards in my computer! A fireface 800 firewire, x-fi and lynx card. I need 13 channels for a 7.2 setup with front active speakers (uses 6 channels). Sound cards output direct to power amps

I have not bothered with trying to avoid the downsampled audio, as active speakers make a bigger improvement than the very small effect of downsampling


----------

