Need Good Sound Card for Definitive Technology Mythos ST Speakers

[holyindian]

Please help me choose a good sound card for my HT setup. I am really confused.
I am a "noob" Audiophile, and dig music quality, after months of reviews i decided to get a State of the art home theater system.. these are Monster Speakers, i am really happy with these.

Definitive Technology Mythos ST - Front x2
Definitive Technology Gem XL's - Front x2
Definitive Technology Center TEN

SVS Subwoofer x 2
With Pioneer Elite SC-27 A/V Receiver.

Along with Home Theater, I have also setup HTPC with these. Hence looking for real good soundcard.

I am NOT into games. I use my HTPC only for music (played via FooBar or Winam), Watch Movies over CyberLink PowerDVD.. Sometimes watch Rip movies over VLCPlayer. So its basically a media HTPC.

Over weeks of reading, i have arrived to a conclusion that HT | Omega series is good, also couple of Asus models go along well.

I have seen some very good reviews about HT |Omega for my kind of requirement i.e. music and movies.
Now my question is..
Is HT | Omega Striker enough for me? Or should i go for HT | CLARO plus + (as i read somewhere Claro Plus + is better than Claro in terms of Music clarity. Or is it just over rated?
Also would like to know if CLARO halo XT is really good.. or an over kill for me / my requirement.
Just because i have spent a lot of money on HT setup, i want to spend smartly over accessories.

Or is there anything else you guys can suggest for me.

Anticipating your reply.

 

[astrallite]

If you want musical clarity, take the sound card processing out of the equation, it's just an additional source of noise in the chain. A sound card with an HDMI out like the Asus HDAV 1.3 would probably be optimal.

Using optical or hdmi will send an untouched digital signal where your receiver will (1) apply any DSPs (2) convert it to analog using it's DAC (3) put it through the pre-amp stage, and finally (4) the amp gain stage.

Using a sound card would add 3 steps to the equation: (i) Digital to Analog conversion at the sound card level (ii) sound card pre-amp stage (iii) receiver analog to digital stage, prior to #1 - #4. All it does is add more noise by turning a 4 step process to a 7 step process before the sound hits your speakers.

Sound cards are designed with computer speakers in mind: to go through steps (i) - (iii) and then hit the gain stage right away. Getting a sound card in your position is basically like daisy-chaining 2 receivers; it serves no purpose.

 

[mi1ez]

Yeah. what he said!

 

[holyindian]

Why would I need this card to send music to my AVR?

This card is meant for bitstreaming of HD audio tracks from BDs, and even then separate sound cards like these have become largely redundant due to the ATI 5000 cards. As of now i dont have a BD. Its just i want junk from my pc to be streamed to my HT setup

 

[astrallite]

Why would I need this card to send music to my AVR?

I am a "noob" Audiophile, and dig music quality

...

 

[holyindian]

Huh??
So much for a basic information...

 

[astrallite]

My thoughts exactly.