[Carlman]

Has anyone heard any of these types of cards?
http://www.jdsound.com/store/category.asp?SID=2&Category_ID=392

Here's my deal... I've been drooling over some Audio PC's for a while.  My only purpose will be 2-channel music from the hard drive.  I want the PC to replace the need for a CDP and/or DAC entirely.

I have a laptop (or 2) that are very quiet.  I see these cards for $130-$400... And to build my audio PC will cost around 7-800. (I have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard.. and extension wires for these.)

So, if these cards in my laptop can sound as good as a really nice cd player, (around 1-2,k) I'm in the money.  My only issue will be long IC's.... which I can possibly make or have made for the purpose.

I just think going the laptop route makes a million times more sense to me.  Any thoughts, experience, or other wisdom is appreciated.

-C

[vpolineni]

echo indigo is a good pcmcia card.  you could get the indigo dj that has analog outputs but I think they're not as good as pci cards.  You may want to try the echo laptop adapter and then get a layla to hook it up to. I think that would be the best solution for you.

[Carlman]

Cool... I'm thinking of buying the Echo Indigo as an experiment....
Going the Layla route is exponentially more than I need functionally... and adding the Echo Layla adaptor would then cost more than building a PC with a very nice PCI card.

[scooby_scrappy]

I have been using my pc as my music server.  I am using the creative audigy nx2 usb2 sound card which I use for both audio and ht.

I think there are more option with usb than pcmcia cards.  There is a very good usb device which I discovered in one of the tact postings.  It is called the waveterminal au24 and it costs around $250.

[EchiDna]

http://pcazeles.perso.cegetel.net/acxo.htm

this fellow has used an RME card in the past through an old laptop... but the link appears to have been removed from his page *sigh*

check it out all the same, very nice use of a pc as a source

[Carlman]

I have been using my pc as my music server.  I am using the creative audigy nx2 usb2 sound card which I use for both audio and ht.

I think there are more option with usb than pcmcia cards.  There is a very good usb device which I discovered in one of the tact postings.  It is called the waveterminal au24 and it costs around $250.

I would think PCMCIA would be better than USB for data transfer speeds... However, I don't know why, though.

Thanks for the tip on the waveterminal, though... I may just have to check it out..