Audio Interface - Thrifty Options?

#1

Boring old discussion, I know, but I’ve been disappointed recently by a few purchases -
Sound Blaster 3 (96kbps) USB sound card, through a Ground Loop Noise Isolator.

I figured this would be the perfect cheap setup, but the output is still way too dodgy.
So the main suggestions are to buy a mad expensive audio interface, but I feel like there must be another way because of the fact that when playing audio from my phone it is absolutely perfect.

So what other options are there?

  • HiFiBerry DAC Looks great, but relies on using a Pi to make music
  • Streaming audio from PC through phone? Or through a Pi somehow?
  • Hunt for something on ebay? Not easy to find for cheap
#2

Seems like streaming audio over a network doesn’t cut the mustard in terms of bitrate.

I’ll try this tutorial http://www.whence.com/soundcard-dc-dac/ - Using a super cheap usb sound card and overriding its coupling capacitors. Worth a few small experiments before shelling out hundreds on a MOTU

#3

The thing I want to now is how the hell do you get a 3rd audio channel for the Z input

#4

That’s a question for a separate thread dude