On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 02:32:32 -0000
Jim H wrote:

Most likely you will be playing pack at 48kHz then, so *better* than
CD quality, all other things allowing...

But most source material is 41k, so doesn't upsampling to 48 hurt the
sound?

In theory.

In practice (despite the recent threads) I very much doubt that any sort
of half-decent upsampling is audible at all.

I *did* say all other things allowing, htough ;-)

--
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!

"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 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 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

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 Thu, 15 Jan 2004 13:33:36 -0000, "Keith G"
wrote:



(How *topical* can this group be - I've got to hook my DAC up to my
soundcard this very afternoon - and this is not the first time this has
happened by a long chalk!!)


I've a M Audio Delta 66 sound card and wonder what you experts think
of it quality of sound wise on its analogue outs. I have noticed the
mains hum is quieter than the CPU fan !
--
Comm again, Mike.

"pmailkeey" wrote in message

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 13:33:36 -0000, "Keith G"
wrote:



(How *topical* can this group be - I've got to hook my DAC up to my
soundcard this very afternoon - and this is not the first time this
has happened by a long chalk!!)


I've a M Audio Delta 66 sound card and wonder what you experts think
of it quality of sound wise on its analogue outs. I have noticed the
mains hum is quieter than the CPU fan !

Please see:

http://www.pcavtech.com/soundcards/delta-66/index.htm

Compare that to a similar report for a good CD player:

http://www.pcavtech.com/play-rec/cd67se/index.htm