Audio Asylum Thread Printer

Get a view of an entire thread on one page

FAQ / News / Events

Computer Audio Asylum

Acoustic noise is the problem... Not electrical...

172.98.67.83

In Reply to: RE: GRAY AREA - Computers & Hard Disks in the listening room - Pictures posted by AbeCollins on August 26, 2016 at 12:16:37

Hi Abe. Thanks for all the pictures!

In all my measurements and listening over the years, I have always contended that the issue with "noise" is the **acoustic** noise that spinning hard drives and computer fans may have on the serenity of the listening room.

Sure, back in the old days, electrical RF/EMF noise could have been a problem but over the last 10 years huge improvements have occurred such that CPU's run with less power, hard drives have higher data density and use less power, and of course SSD's are silent.

IMO, the whole obsession around isolating ethernet, USB timing and electrical "noise" issues makes no sense and I do believe needs to be evaluated in an objective fashion and some evidence provided. Unless someone can show that this is an issue, it's just hype IMO. This is especially significant in the context of expensive DACs which I presume have been "over-engineered" to provide quality output... Otherwise why should we be paying many hundreds if not thousands if it can't even shield itself from a little bit of interference and provide clock stability!?

In this context, I think those computer servers are fine. I happily run a fanless HTPC in my listening room with SSD drive(s). Hard drives are a no-go for me though (especially that cheap 2TB WD Green!), but if it's essentially silent, no problem.

I personally would not spend the kind of money those "audiophile" server computers are "commanding" though from a value perspective...
-------
Archimago's Musings: A 'more objective' audiophile blog.

Follow Ups:

RE: Acoustic noise is the problem... Not electrical... - AbeCollins 11:04:03 08/29/16 (2)
I tend to agree with some of what you said.

I posted mainly for our audiophile population that have strong religious convictions about hard disks and computers not belonging in the listening room. They should have a closer look inside their very high-end 'audiophile grade' music servers to see what they consist of.

I gave two examples in my post of music servers that contain industry standard mini-ITX computer motherboard running the Linux OS, and some that may also include hard disk drives.

Before the days of SSDs I ran nearly inaudible 5400 rpm 2.5" laptop style disk drives. That coupled with 'memory play' meant that the disk drives didn't 'seek' during music playback.
- RE: Acoustic noise is the problem... Not electrical... - soundchekk 02:41:14 09/01/16 (1)
  You forget one thing.
  
  Everything you go for is gonna be a compromise.
  
  A well done local playback solution won't necessarily be worse than a bad network solution.
  
  Network related load and network related distortions need to be compared to distortions caused by local HDD/SSD.
  
  This all is not black or white. And it's basically all about effort.
  
  IMO it requires much less effort to build a quality, no-frill, headless,
  disc-less streaming client.
  
  Before you agree to anything Archimago is saying (basically all systems sound equal, noise and other distortions doesn't have impact because he can't measure them and bits are bits - everything is a hype ), I'd suggest to start reading stuff about one of his favorite measurement tools to get the picture:
  
  http://nwavguy.blogspot.de/2011/02/rightmark-audio-analyzer-rmaa.html
  
  Enjoy.
  - RE: Acoustic noise is the problem... Not electrical... - AbeCollins 10:58:26 09/01/16 (0)
    I cautiously said that I agree with some of what Archimago said and I understand the limitations of measurements when the measuring tools lack the resolution to arrive at meaningful conclusions, not to mention methodical setup and repeatability.
    
    And yes, nothing is perfect.
    
    IMO it requires much less effort to build a quality, no-frill, headless,
    disc-less streaming client.
    
    Probably but most people don't start out that way because you need a PC/Mac/Server/NAS (a computer) to begin with in order to rip and 'serve' to the client. And many people have more than one PC/Mac lying around to play with. I have several and have gotten excellent results going from the computer direct to DAC with a few tweaks along the way.

Post a Followup:

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?

Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
	Remember my Moniker & Password (What's this?) Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:

Message:	(Posts are subject to Content Rules)

Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:	Automagically notify you when someone responds.

To view your new posting or follow-up, click on the RELOAD or REFRESH button on your browser.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: