PC to high end stereo

[niallmcg]

Hello...
I currently have 1.5 terabytes of music (mostly flac files) on my current computer that is working with a Soundblaster X-FiXtreme Audio card, running on XP and and duel core Intel 6600 @2.4 GHz with 2 gigs of ram. As of late I have run a 15 ft chord from my office to my stereo room. The sound quality is really fine, and am quite enamoured with the idea of running my Hard Drive music collection into this very high stereo. I have quickly become a fan of FLAC files and am thinking that PC's for storage and visual may well combine with fine audio.

Anyone out there using a PC to hold their music so that it can play through a high end stereo?:\ My real goal would be to dedicate a new computer entirely to this singular activity and have it sitting next to my stereo...within eyesight of my listening chair. I love the cataloguing capabilites and visual I get from MediaMonkey.

I know my current computer has the power for this sort of thing (easy)...but what about soundcards...and any other equipment that may be out there that I could consider. Bottom line I need 24 bit output...but I am also concerned with digital analog converters, that sort of thing. My current computer is used for way more than music, so it will stay put. I would like a new one for music only. Spending price...no more than $2000 including 22 or so inch monitor, keyboard-mouse.

My stereo is tube amp with pre amp and has no ability for remote or firewire or anything like that...I will be working with cables only.

Any opinions or thoughts, I love to hear them.
thanks

 

[mfenn]

Really anything with an S/PDIF output would be fine. I prefer coax for longer runs, if only due to the cost. I believe that even the Realtek integrated audio support 24-bit these days. It's all digital, so it's not like you have to worry about DAC quality (until hit hits your receiver). Come to think of it, doesn't your X-fi support coax S/PDIF?

EDIT: I see now that you're wanting to build a new computer. Honestly, the cheapest thing should be fine as long as you're using S/PDIF. If not, just throw one of the cheaper Xonar's into it.

 

[KGB]

Hello...
I currently have 1.5 terabytes of music (mostly flac files) on my current computer that is working with a Soundblaster X-FiXtreme Audio card, running on XP and and duel core Intel 6600 @2.4 GHz with 2 gigs of ram. As of late I have run a 15 ft chord from my office to my stereo room. The sound quality is really fine, and am quite enamoured with the idea of running my Hard Drive music collection into this very high stereo. I have quickly become a fan of FLAC files and am thinking that PC's for storage and visual may well combine with fine audio.

Anyone out there using a PC to hold their music so that it can play through a high end stereo?:\ My real goal would be to dedicate a new computer entirely to this singular activity and have it sitting next to my stereo...within eyesight of my listening chair. I love the cataloguing capabilites and visual I get from MediaMonkey.

I know my current computer has the power for this sort of thing (easy)...but what about soundcards...and any other equipment that may be out there that I could consider. Bottom line I need 24 bit output...but I am also concerned with digital analog converters, that sort of thing. My current computer is used for way more than music, so it will stay put. I would like a new one for music only. Spending price...no more than $2000 including 22 or so inch monitor, keyboard-mouse.

My stereo is tube amp with pre amp and has no ability for remote or firewire or anything like that...I will be working with cables only.

Any opinions or thoughts, I love to hear them.
thanks

Okay, spill the beans... what kinda tube amp? :megafap:

Also, try getting a higher grade X-Fi card (Xtreme Music or higher) and do the op-amp and filter cap mods. You wouldn't believe how much better it sounds ESPECIALLY THROUGH A TUBE AMP!!

I remember seeing an X-Fi (Titanium?) thread in the Hot Deals forums for around $60.

THREAD

 

[DaveSimmons]

Anything with SPDIF is fine unless you like to run some analog audio processing software with your X-Fi.

You could go with a little Atom box like an MSI Wind barebones and a single 1.5 - 2 TB hard drive.

Or a big case with a regular motherboard, better intel or AMD CPU, and a RAID-5 array of drives, but that will cost a lot more.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

May I STRONGLY reccomend the m2tech hiface. http://www.tweekgeek.com/_e/Portable_Computer_Audio/product/HiFace/HiFace.htm

Yes, it is expensive, but it uses very high-end clocking oscillators and it overrides the USB timing to sit as the bus-timing master. (I might be slightly off in my lingo, but thats the basic idea). It also outputs "bit-perfect" music at 192/24 bit from the foobar player in windows vista and 7.

The result is the best possible USB SPDIF transport on the market. Some will say that firewire or top end PCI/PCIe cards are better, but others think this is actually the current pinnacle of PC audio technology.

If you want to avoid USB, Asus's line Xonar makes some excellent sound cards.

As for a DAC, I currently run a Little Dot DAC_I, which is a great value for the price ($300~). There are a TON TON TON of DACs out there these days, go to head-fi.org to learn more. Sorry about your wallet.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

Btw, there is a nasty, and on going debate in the world of high end audio regarding whether there are better or worse SPDIF (digital) transports.

Some say digital is digital. Others say there is "jitter" or other effects. I sorta split the difference and go for things like the hiface, which implements anti-clock errror/anti-jitter measures, but again, at $150 its not going to break the bank in a high end setup.

OTOH, I do NOT believe in spending $5000 for a CD player.. thats just... yea.. no.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Before the OP spends an extra $150, can you find any links to double-blind tests showing an audible difference from jitter?


<-- in the digital is digital camp, no Monster optical cable for me

 

[DaveSimmons]

- Stupid Flanders forum, double posting for me. -

 

[Deleted member 4644]

Before the OP spends an extra $150, can you find any links to double-blind tests showing an audible difference from jitter?


<-- in the digital is digital camp, no Monster optical cable for me

Just believe man! Just believe!

Let's put it this way. I actually am "mostly" in the digital is digital camp myself. However, I have had enough different sound cards, and I have listened to enough computer audio, to know that CPU utilization, hard drive utilization, and a ton of other factors combine and result in crackles, pops, hiss, and other artifacts in music produced by computers.

Call it jitter, call it cpu load, whatever, but different audio cards do produce different results.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Let's put it this way. I actually am "mostly" in the digital is digital camp myself. However, I have had enough different sound cards, and I have listened to enough computer audio, to know that CPU utilization, hard drive utilization, and a ton of other factors combine and result in crackles, pops, hiss, and other artifacts in music produced by computers.

Call it jitter, call it cpu load, whatever, but different audio cards do produce different results.

I'll agree that CPU load can interfere with feeding the audio to the SPDIF port consistently, causing a tick or pop from a gap in the signal.

I used to run into that when I had a single-core CPU for my music server and tried to do anything else on it besides run Foobar. I haven't had problems since moving to a dual-core server (A64 X2 2 GHz), even using the motherboard audio.

So I'd still say not to bother if using a dual-core CPU and not loading it up with other tasks.

 

[Modelworks]

Get an external DAC and any current motherboard with a spdif port.

 

[themisfit610]

Forget about S/PDIF. You don't get anything beyond 16/48 on that in it's consumer implementation. It's big brother AES/EBU will scale up a lot higher, but gear to connect to that is beyond the audiophile domain, and into (post)production, pro-audio type stuff.

So, if you do have anything that's 24 bit or greater, you need to output via analog.

In this case, an excellent EXTERNAL dac is preferable, with high quality components (DACs OP-AMPs etc). Also, cables are a bigger deal in the analog realm, so if you are going the analog route, get some a decent cable. No need to go all-out on the nonsense uber-expensive interconnects, and you're not sending a powered signal, so there's no need for massive cables either. The only place for those is connecting your speakers to your amplifiers

Otherwise, just get a S/PDIF compatible card that has decent de-jitter magic. Jitter is a real thing, but it very rarely actually causes problems. It certainly won't make your music sound DIFFERENT (since digital IS digital), but jitter can cause the S/PDIF stream to drop samples, which can result in audible crackling / popping. This is quite rare, however, especially on a dedicated system.

~MiSfit

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

digital is digital. Jitter may be real but if you are getting continuous music, then you're fine. You either have music or not. You can't have reduced quality music.

 

[piasabird]

Why not use a high-end Theater class Receiver and stream the sound files to it and output it to a home theater 1,000 watt speaker system. This is how they would amplify HDTV Audiou over HDMI.

http://www.integrahometheater.com/model.cfm?class=Receiver&m=DTR-80.1&p=i

I think these are make by a Japanese company called onkyo. I think they sell them places like the Sound Room. They call it a receiver. It can access the Internet over Ethernet. I have heard them advertised on the radio for making real theater sound for an HDTV but they should be great for Music. They are available in a wide range of varying quality and models. The models I have heard advertised were like $500 or so.

 

[s44]

Ah, never mind. Move to the A/V forum if you want a serious answer.

 

[gsaldivar]

If there is an SPDIF limitation, why resort to A/D conversion? Can you keep the signal digital all the way to the receiver using audio-over-HDMI with an ATI video card? Supports multichannel 7.1/32-bit/192kHz etc and no SPDIF patch cable required like on Nvidia cards...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1029603

 

[Modelworks]

Forget about S/PDIF. You don't get anything beyond 16/48 on that in it's consumer implementation.

Spdif can do 24bit 192khz fine now. It started out with a 20bit limitation with 24 bit optional but that was years ago and most hardware does 24 bit now.

So, if you do have anything that's 24 bit or greater, you need to output via analog.

No. I have many devices that take 24 bit 192KHz inputs over spdif coax and most any DAC on the market now can do it fine over the normal coax connection.

Most of the concern over jitter is for older hardware. The processors now have such an accurate clock reference that jitter is almost unmeasurable.

 

[SgtSpoon]

Btw, there is a nasty, and on going debate in the world of high end audio regarding whether there are better or worse SPDIF (digital) transports.

Some say digital is digital. Others say there is "jitter" or other effects. I sorta split the difference and go for things like the hiface, which implements anti-clock errror/anti-jitter measures, but again, at $150 its not going to break the bank in a high end setup.

This is what audiophiles do, I wouldnt waste your time on things like this. You would think they are people that enjoy listening to music, but they actually put alot more time in fierce discussions about things that just dont matter.

A fine example :
http://consumerist.com/2008/03/do-coat-hangers-sound-as-good-monster-cables.html

If it sounds good it sounds good ... what else do you need?

 

[mfenn]

This is what audiophiles do, I wouldnt waste your time on things like this. You would think they are people that enjoy listening to music, but they actually put alot more time in fierce discussions about things that just dont matter.

A fine example :
http://consumerist.com/2008/03/do-coat-hangers-sound-as-good-monster-cables.html

If it sounds good it sounds good ... what else do you need?

Yep, in my experience, audiophiles don't actually like listening to music at all. What they really like is tinkering with audio equipment (which is fine), but their lack of technical know-how sends them right into the arms of the snake-oil vendors.

 

[C1]

I would also agree having been there & done that. On Leo Laporte talk show, he tells about $20,000 set of one meter length audio cables that are available. All of it is so stupid (as this is a case way beyond more money than brains; for that kind of money you could go straight optical right out of a phono cartridge or how about just go to the studios & just buy the masters). After doing my own testing over time some of the conclusions might surprise you:

- The American taste in general anyway wont like transducers (eg, cone speakers) which are too good anyway. (That is, the frequency output being too flat & smooth [like the Europeans tend to prefer] as that sounds boring as instruments arent perceived as separated.)

- In 1980s money, there wasnt a lot to be gained in a system costing more than what $3500 could buy as the concept of the recording itself became more over shadowing (ie, studio vs hall, microphone placement, technician decision about mixing, etc.)

- The room itself in which the listening is done significantly affects what one hears & the louder played the more so (eg, due to exciting any room modes). (A nice touch is to be able to control/adjust the room's reverberation time.)


There are more points, but my conclusion was, after a certain reasonable equipment quality point [ie, what $3500 at that time could buy], get a super clean parametric equalizer, a great powerful amplifier & just shape the particular media piece being played to suit your personal taste (eg, woman's voice, bass levels, etc.; this allows one to even compensate for room modes). I still recommend a cost allocation as follows:

- 50&#37; to transducers
- Rest to Electronics (which are the least of the variables)
- 20% - 40% of the total price to control/shape room acoustics (eg, an additional $1000)

 

[JEDIYoda]

actually if you get the rymnsom sfxzt converter and then run it in parrallel to your dimavitch molester cable you will get a better over transient indicative indicator from the translucitive box!!

Good Luck!!