Chaintech AV-710, and why I love Envy24 by Article Admin
While this will include a review of the hardware itself -in this case the Chaintech AV710 sound card- it’s also going to be a little lesson on how to extract bit perfect audio from your PC and into a discrete home theatre system. While part of this article really isn’t for everyone, I’m sure the vast majority of readers can take something away from the review section of it.
The hardware we’re looking at today is a sound card based on the VIA Envy 24 chipset, the AV-710. Chaintech produces this card for significantly less cost than other discrete Envy 24 cards; the small black PCB doesn’t carry much on it, nor does the box come loaded with anything extravagant ? just the basics needed for good quality sound output to many different formats. Aside from the card itself, you’ll find cd’s carrying a truly basic driver set, the typical DVD software from Intervideo, and an optical cable for S/PDIF.
There isn’t much to be found on the card, either; the most obvious part is the large IC in the middle of the board - the 24 bit Envy itself in all its glory. This is the HT-S version, unlike the HT, which can be found on high end gear like M-Audio Revolution. What?s missing, compared to the HT, is hardware downmixing from 5.1 sources to two channel, some input channels (2, instead of 4), and anything more than 20bit/96KHz analog recording. Digital I/O remains the same as the HT with a full 24bit/192KHz capability. Most of that is going to be irrelevant to most users; if you are planning on doing recording work with a PC sound card, your money would be well spent on something more capable than this card. For playback the card has very few drawbacks compared to its more expensive Envy 24HT rivals. Chaintech chose to skimp only in one obvious area; the choice of the standard analog output amp/DAC. The DAC (digital to analog converter) for the main 6 channels is a VIA Vinyl VT1616 model, which limits your output to a maximum of 48KHz and 18 bits. This means is that it does not live up to the lofty numbers printed on the box, and it doesn?t subjectively sound as good as the other two channels Chaintech included for the “rear” speakers to complete the 7.1 specification. The Wolfson 2 channel DAC can handle a high sample rate, capable of a much more robust 192KHz, and full 24 bit resolution. Instead of merely wasting this, it can be selected as the main output to a set of stereo speakers, and you get all the joy that can be found on those much more expensive cards (with two channels - they use more competent DACs for the other 6). For right now, most music is locked away in only stereo, and the 6 channel formats (DVD-A and SACD) have not found their way into mainstream computer use. DVD movies with their Dolby Digital or DTS soundtracks, on the other hand, are fully ready for systems with more than two speakers, and if you are planning to use the analog outputs to connect to your surround speaker system, perhaps a step up to a more expensive card is worth the investment. There is still one more way to accomplish that goal using the Chaintech card, and that is how I happen to have it set up - using the included optical S/PDIF output.
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