On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 06:27:09 -0500, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:



You just need a good sound card that doesn't resample or otherwise butcher
the digital signal. You need to be sure to avoid contaminating the digital
signal with a ground loop. But you said "optical link" didn't you? That
pretty well eliminates ground loops as a source of problems!

Yes, it's going to be an Audigy 2 NX, external (USB 2.0), because the
PC I'm planning to use only takes low profile PCI cards, and a decent
sound card in this form factor seems to be scarce as hobby-horses'
doo-doos

I did like that suggstion in another thread about PC based players,
where the poster had gone for a monitor-less system and controlled it
using VNC from a laptop! After all, a just decent s/h laptop is
probably cheaper than a new TFT monitor.
Gelf

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 18:48:19 +0000
Gelf wrote:

Yes, it's going to be an Audigy 2 NX, external (USB 2.0), because the
PC I'm planning to use only takes low profile PCI cards, and a decent
sound card in this form factor seems to be scarce as hobby-horses'
doo-doos

If you're only after digital out, who needs a decent card? anything will do.

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 06:27:09 -0500, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

I'm thinking along the lines of feeding digital audio from a PC
soundcard via optical link to a standalone Musical Fidelity DAC, then
to amp and speakers.

The sound quality of this system would be limited by the DAC.

Or the amp or speakers

You just need a good sound card that doesn't resample or otherwise butcher
the digital signal. You need to be sure to avoid contaminating the digital
signal with a ground loop.

What's the prob with ground loops ?
--
Comm again, Mike.

"pmailkeey" wrote in message

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 06:27:09 -0500, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

I'm thinking along the lines of feeding digital audio from a PC
soundcard via optical link to a standalone Musical Fidelity DAC,
then to amp and speakers.

The sound quality of this system would be limited by the DAC.

Or the amp or speakers

You just need a good sound card that doesn't resample or otherwise
butcher the digital signal. You need to be sure to avoid
contaminating the digital signal with a ground loop.

What's the prob with ground loops ?

In analog lines they can cause audible hum, in digital lines they can cause
lots of jitter.

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 17:42:22 -0500, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"pmailkeey" wrote in message
What's the prob with ground loops ?

In analog lines they can cause audible hum, in digital lines they can cause
lots of jitter.

I'll not ask what jitter is, but I guess it can't be good
--
Comm again, Mike.

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 00:37:43 GMT
(pmailkeey) wrote:

I'll not ask what jitter is, but I guess it can't be good

its 'noise' in the tioming of the digital pulses, ie. they arrive slightly earlier or later than they should.

jitter should be *irrelevant* on any well designed system. Even quite large amounts of it.

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

"Gelf" wrote in message


PC based hard disc players seem to be a common topic of discussion in
this ng at the moment

Has anyone any comments on likely sound quality compared to a
standalone CD player?

All other things being equal, the sound quality should be the same when they
are both playing the same data. The PC-based player could have an edge
because the data it delivers to your DAC might have fewer uncorrected
errors. This happens because playing a CD on a regular CD player is a
one-pass process with no opportunity for retries. The better CD ripping
programs will retry erroneous data reads, which can significantly improve
the quality of the actual data delivered to your DAC.

I'm thinking along the lines of feeding digital audio from a PC
soundcard via optical link to a standalone Musical Fidelity DAC, then
to amp and speakers.

The sound quality of this system would be limited by the DAC.

The CDs would be stored on the hard disc as wav files or flac
(lossless compression)

Been there, done that, it works.

My current CD player is a Marantz CD6000OSE

You just need a good sound card that doesn't resample or otherwise butcher
the digital signal. You need to be sure to avoid contaminating the digital
signal with a ground loop. But you said "optical link" didn't you? That
pretty well eliminates ground loops as a source of problems!

On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 23:27:54 +0000, Gelf wrote:

PC based hard disc players seem to be a common topic of discussion in
this ng at the moment
Has anyone any comments on likely sound quality compared to a
standalone CD player?
I'm thinking along the lines of feeding digital audio from a PC
soundcard via optical link to a standalone Musical Fidelity DAC, then
to amp and speakers.
The CDs would be stored on the hard disc as wav files or flac
(lossless compression)
My current CD player is a Marantz CD6000OSE

Gelf

If you're bothered about the looks of the thing, this might interest:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/module...tid=104&page=1

--
Jim H jh
@333
.org

Gelf wrote in message . ..
PC based hard disc players seem to be a common topic of discussion in
this ng at the moment
Has anyone any comments on likely sound quality compared to a
standalone CD player?
I'm thinking along the lines of feeding digital audio from a PC
soundcard via optical link to a standalone Musical Fidelity DAC, then
to amp and speakers.
The CDs would be stored on the hard disc as wav files or flac
(lossless compression)
My current CD player is a Marantz CD6000OSE

Gelf

I 've done exactly the same thing. Got a new pc, stuck in 4 x 160gb
hard drives and ripped my 700 or so cds as WAV files using EAC. An
optical out connects to a DAC and into my STAX phones and the sound is
awesome - at leaste the equal of any CD player I've ever owned (up to
£500ish). The convenience and ease of use is incomparable. Once you
get into creating playlists etc, there's no going back. I sold my cd
player, and a stack of CDs that I really have no pride of ownership
in, and I'm quids in. So much so, I treated myself to an iPod!

"Keiron" wrote


I 've done exactly the same thing. Got a new pc, stuck in 4 x 160gb
hard drives and ripped my 700 or so cds as WAV files using EAC. An
optical out connects to a DAC and into my STAX phones and the sound is
awesome - at leaste the equal of any CD player I've ever owned (up to
£500ish). The convenience and ease of use is incomparable. Once you
get into creating playlists etc, there's no going back. I sold my cd
player, and a stack of CDs that I really have no pride of ownership
in, and I'm quids in. So much so, I treated myself to an iPod!


Ha! Nearly posted the same thing (more or less) a few days back - if you are
going to listen to digital, what better way than straight from a PC, through
a DAC into a valve amp (my own preference :-). Vinyl ripped to hard disk
sounds particularly good and the accessability of hundreds (or thousands) of
tracks at a click or two means you can really rediscover those forgotten
little gems and can track-hop like a good 'un!

On this topic, a word to the wise......

taps side of nose with extended forefinger

....... don't go tearing into your local HiFi Robber Baron's yelling 'I wanna
DAC, I gotta have a DAC'!! Atm, these ole boys think they can't give 'em
away secondhand (these and graphic EQs) so they are priced reet cheap. Make
a fuss and you'll double the price!! Best to sidle up and act a bit dim -
'what's this then? what's it for....???'

:-)