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Is ASIO necessary if going through a USB-DAC?

Posted by Dave in gva (A) on February 8, 2007 at 03:30:18

I'm still reading alot and trying to get my head around the various options and best audio quality set up for a PC audio system that I will have feeding my hi-fi chain.

As I understand it there are two broad options for approaching this:

1. A PC with a high quality soundcard (DAC in soundcard)
2. A PC without a soundcard feeding a USB-DAC over a USB cable

Despite the recent thread asking for comparisons between a USB-DAC and the Lynx l22 card (most of which seemed to favour the Lynx although few people seemed to have directly compared the two), the majority of what I have read here seems to favour the USB-DAC route as providing a better quality sound.

I understand that if I go with the soundcard route it is in my interest to use an ASIO solution to bypass the Windows audio stack.

My question now concerns my configuration if I go the USB-DAC route. From what I read about ASIO it is an interface between a sound application and a *soundcard*. So...if I go the USB-DAC route do I need to worry about ASIO at all?

Hope that's clear and thanks for comments on my understanding of all this,

Dave M

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