build advice

[norseamd]

what does bitdefender sphere look like? for a paid product will it run better antivirus than the free programs for android?

 

[Sleepingforest]

already have both a asus xonar dx and a audio technica ad700. i just want to know if a amp would do anything for me.

If I were you, I would get rid of the Xonar. As Cerb said, it's just too close to other high power components to output a signal well. Look into getting a Schiit Magni/Modi or an O2/ODAC stack. Both of those will give you ample amounts of power for even something like the AKG 7XX series.

 

[norseamd]

will the true spirit 140 put any stress on the cpu or motherboard. the size is fairly more than other coolers.

 

[Sleepingforest]

You'll be fine. People put on 1kg coolers, 605g is nothing to worry about.

 

[norseamd]

alright. so i lookeed at those external audio devices. just found out about these not that long ago. what can you tell me about them. which one of those is better or are they the same. what is the cost.

 

[Sleepingforest]

My reccomendation? Schiit Modi feeding into a Schiit Magni. Cheap for audio ($200) and will last you pretty much until you get into $1000 headphones.

 

[norseamd]

what is a modi and what is a magni

 

[lehtv]

You've heard of Google, right?

http://schiit.com/products/modi
http://schiit.com/products/magni

 

[norseamd]

so one replaces the sound card and the other is a amplifier?

 

[lehtv]

Basically yes. Modi is a DAC, it connects to your PC's USB port for receiving a digital audio signal, and converts it to an analog output audio signal. As Sleepingforest suggested, Magni (a headphone amp) could be used to receive that analog signal for optimal listening experience using headphones. If you use some set of analog speakers, you don't need Magni, you just connect them to Modi directly.

 

[norseamd]

how does audio processing work. when i read about these before i read about signal noise but it seems like people were using them to record analog to digital. amd true audio is about audio processing and when i bought a sound card they said it would reduce the load on the cpu. i do not know much about audio procesing so you could tell me more if you do. from looking at these it looks like dac are more like converters but i have not read enough. is this not true?

 

[Sleepingforest]

Here's the basics of it.

When a sound file is on your computer, it exists as computer data--fundamentally, a series of 1s and 0s. It exists in discrete steps. However, sound is a continuous spectrum, so you need something that will convert from digital (discrete) form to analog (continuous) form. That is what a Digital Analog Converter, or DAC, does.

An amplifier takes an existing analog signal (which is received from the DAC) and boosts it's strength. The reason why you need one is that the signal outputted from the DAC is not strong enough to produce sound at an appreciable level on many mid-to-high end headphones.

Both of these things require interactions with easily disrupted electronics, so if you put these inside the case, next to powerful electrical signals, the quality of the sound will suffer. That is why it is better to use an external DAC/amp than a sound card.

 

[norseamd]

makes sense. where does true audio fit into this?

 

[lehtv]

AMD TrueAudio is a digital signal processing (DSP) technology, it means it processes the digital signal before it gets processed into sound. So it would take place before the data is received by any sound card/chip or any USB device like a DAC.

 

[Sleepingforest]

Clarify what you mean about "true audio".

 

[norseamd]

Clarify what you mean about "true audio".

amd true audio

basically what i am also asking is what processing does my asus dx do before the digital signal gets processed into sound.

 

[norseamd]

would it be possible to run optical out from the sound card into the dac

 

[lehtv]

Not into a USB DAC like Modi, but there are DACs that accept optical input.

 

[norseamd]

so would it be worth it to run a sound card with a dac or can the dac do audio processing also. usually i run as high of settings as i can. sound channels on planetside 2 is at maximum.

 

[norseamd]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/sharp-42...&skuId=8976043

this is my tv. at least it should. it is a tv that sharp made for best buy. got it for 300 after thanksgiving. any thoughts. wondering if the tv can play 120 hz from the computer.

 

[norseamd]

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=time...0remember us

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=imme...sic serenata

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=hall...ountain king

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=dvorak

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=mars...ger of war

https://soundcloud.com/search/sounds?q=sverker

https://soundcloud.com/search/sounds...he valkyries

this is the music i listen to if it will affect what my audio choices should be.

 

[Sleepingforest]

As I said before: generally speaking, a DAC/amp stack is already as good as you'll need in terms of audio resolution. The only reason you'd need TrueAudio (after some research) is for CPU expensive 3D sound calculations, but you can already get a good aurround sound implementation without a DSP.

A DAC/amp like the Modi/Magni will not impact the sound. The most significant part is the headphones. The AD700 is famous for having a very sterile, analytical sound, excellent for positional audio. You might want a non-gaming headphone though.

 

[norseamd]

the ad 700s sound excellent to me. i will not know if i like different headphones better than when i try them but i will have to make sure i have a decent source. at magnolia i listened to several headphones including the sennheiser hd700. they all sounded worse than my ad700. the hd700 had more varience in the mid range sound but overall it sounded worse. was confusing. it was not until the next day that i relized that i was listening from a macbook. the weakest link makes the sound i guess.

here is the magnolia selection as of now.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=-1558180156890511997&id=pcat17071&type=page&ks=960&st=categoryid%24pcmcat143000050011&sc=Global&cp=1&sp=%2Bcurrentprice+skuidsaas&qp=brand_facet%3DBrand~Sennheiser^brand_facet%3DBrand~Audio-Technica^collection_facet%3DSAAS~Collection~Magnolia+Home+Theater&list=y&usc=All+Categories&nrp=89&fs=saas&iht=n&seeAll=%2CBrand&browsedCategory=pcmcat143000050011

 

[mfenn]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/sharp-42...&skuId=8976043

this is my tv. at least it should. it is a tv that sharp made for best buy. got it for 300 after thanksgiving. any thoughts. wondering if the tv can play 120 hz from the computer.

No, that TV only takes a 60Hz input and interpolates it to 120Hz. A good way to tell if a TV can take a native 120Hz input is whether or not it is marketed as "3D". 3D TVs will generally take 120Hz, even if you are only using them in 2D mode.

 

[Sleepingforest]

The real issue was probably the lack of an adequate amp from the Macbook to the headphones. The HD700 and HD800 from Senheisser need lots of power, and are very picky about which amps will work well. That, and the HD700 is famously terrible value due to overpowered highs that hurt ears. Meanwhile, you could probably scrape by without an amp on the AD700s.