Seems like most people here use external DACs, whereas internal sound cards are looked upon as noisy and vastly inferior by their very nature. Admittedly, most decent sound cards are external, but there is nothing inherently inferior with internal cards. They are just more difficult to make properly.
My internal card has the advantage og drawing supersmooth current from a dedicated 12V rail from a very good PSU that smashes the wall warts you often get with external DACs, and is virtually noise free. The Onkyo card is a serious piece of kit designed by people who know what they are doing, its only really big disadvantages are people's prejudice against internal cards and its stupendously low price (about EUR 140).
So for people using PCs as their main source (of which there obviously are a few here), this one is worthy of an audition. It smashes bargains like the Beresford and the Linn Sneaky DS imo, and will be competitive with boxes much higher up the chain than those as well.
Hi Fidelio!
I know this topic is outdated, but since I'm planning to do a setup like yours I'd like to know exactly what components you used for your soundcard-PSU-construction and how exactly you connected them. The Onkyo SE-90 has no Molex connector for individual current supply, as far as I can see.
Please email me to "
jpm@mail.com" - I'd be very grateful!
Thanks in advance