chaintech av-710

[influx]

where to get it
card is available from www.hometheatrepc.com.au $90
still cheaper to import from the US, depending on your shipping costs
www.compgeeks.com will ship it to AU , i recommend FEDEX as its trackable and less likely to get lost, but some people have had good success with standard USPS


Certain shuttle boards have the same onboard sound as the AV710

Originally Posted by Osiris

Yes, its the same. The SN25P has the Envy24 coupled with the Wolfson WM8728 DAC too. Source (see the specifications)

.:Osiris:.

Linux
These instructions on getting the high sample rate mode to work under Linux with ALSA were originally posted by Head-Fi member ADS at www.vandemar.org

Originally Posted by ADS:
In order to get the Chaintech AV-710 to run in high-res mode and use the superior Wolfson DAC, download the asound.state file here(mirror).
Copy this to your /etc/ directory as root, and run ‘alsactl restore'. This will enable the high-resolution jack. Notice that this will not mute the volume on your speaker outputs (unlike the windows version), so you can listen to your headphones and speakers at the same time. It's a fun effect, but you'll probably want to disable it. To do this, open up alsamixer and mute the ‘Master' and ‘Master Mono' controls. If you want your speakers muted by default, then after alsamixer run ‘alsactl store'. If still haven't figured out how to get the card into 96000 Hz sampling mode without problems, so if someone could get that to work I'd appreciate it. I know it has something to do with the ‘Multi Track Internal Clock' setting. To play around with it you can use ‘amixer cset numid=43′.



new drivers up at www.VIAARENA.com
version 4.51a.

afaik this card is still available from HTPC (see link below) but its still cheaper to import from the US

an excellent resource for this card is: http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=59

the head-fi computers-as-source forum.

also: http://users.skynet.be/fa449939/The%...ch%20Guide.htm the revised guide.



how to set it up

you want to be using the 7/8 jack (which is the output from the wolfson DAC). go into the VIA control panel and click 'hi sample rate 2 channel'

more info at head fi http://www5.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=75454 and the revised guide above.

the latest drivers are available from www.viaarena.com

pic of card

THIS IS NOT THE CARD TO GET
* IF you are more interested in creative's latest whizz bang EAXv4.324.235a
* you need 9.1 or whatever the latest amount of channels is

THIS IS THE CARD TO GET
* If you want better sound quality for music than creative's cards (eg. audigy2), which is on a par with M-audio REVO, for a LOW price.
* You're using headphones or 2 channel stereo


apparently on head-fi this US$25 card is = or better than an audigy2, music wise; so i'm ordering one fromt he US . fedex shipping is more than the card itself!!! but i should get away under AU$80 all up, not too shabby, thats half the price of an audigy2. or an m-audio revo, which is more expensive again.

will post a review when it arrives, just thought i'd let people know its a good bang for buck option, as long as you're cool with ordering O/s

[EpHeSuS]

interesting. Seen any australian retailers? Might just get one

[Tenoq]

I too read of Head-Fi that it's got better DACs than the Audigy 2 (not hard, apparently). Let us know how you go with it... I'd be very interested!

[livkn]

www.secretnet.com.au have got the av 512( 5.1 setup) it looks like the baby brother of the one you mentioned but he may be able to get it for you if you email him.

[ArcTan]

Originally posted by livkn
www.secretnet.com.au have got the av 512( 5.1 setup) it looks like the baby brother of the one you mentioned but he may be able to get it for you if you email him.

according to this the 512 isuses a c-media chip whereas the 710 uses the via envy 24PT-7.1 http://www.chaintechusa.com/tw/eng/p...No=16&SPSNo=28

[influx]

yep, i m n ot sure who the aus distributor of chaintech are, i found the company that sells the vid cards in aus but not the sound cards

hopefully i will get my av710 and my amp at around the same time so i can get a huge boost in quality

[ArcTan]

http://www.chaintechusa.com/tw/eng/d...try.asp?ASNo=4

Protac International Computers Australia.(VGA only)
Sydney Headquarter:
95 Derby St. Silverwater, NSW 2128
Tel:+61-2-8748-8888
Fax:+61-2-8748-8801
Website:www.protac.com.au
Melbourne:
Unit 7, 2 Sarton Rd, Clayton VIC 3168
Tel:+61-3-9560-7188
Fax:+61-3-9560-7288

[influx]

Originally posted by ArcTan

Website:www.protac.com.au

yeh, them. they only distribute the vga cards, not audio

[ArcTan]

Originally posted by influx
yeh, them. they only distribute the vga cards, not audio

thats what it says but if you look at the sound card section, there's a audio excel sound card there and if you click on the link it directs to chaintech

[EpHeSuS]

we were looking for an australian retailer.... they only have the AV-512

[influx]

Originally posted by ArcTan
thats what it says but if you look at the sound card section, there's a audio excel sound card there and if you click on the link it directs to chaintech

yeah i saw that but its the av-512 which is not the av-710 like EpHeSuS said

[ArcTan]

Originally posted by influx
yeah i saw that but its the av-512 which is not the av-710 like EpHeSuS said

yeah but if you email them you'd know if they will bring it in aus or won't be bringing it in

[influx]

i dont need to i already ordered mine from the US

[dakiller]

trin and a mate of his off ocau were organising a small group buy of these sometime soon and im going to get one to have a play with, will probably end up being around $50 which is dam cheap

couldnt hurt to do a few mods to it, bypass all the analouge stage on the card and go straight from the dac to me amp + swap all the power supply caps and anything else i can do

[influx]

apparnetly theres some jumper that you change and it does stuff thats about my level of modding ability