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In Reply to: RE: *New* computers that already support SATA posted by E-Stat on October 20, 2014 at 12:51:10
but by the time I added either a GOOD USB-SPDIF converter or a PCIe Juli@ card (the one I have is PCI), it's approaching $500. Need coax out to get 192/24 to the Marantz, USB only does 96.
$500 out of my already spent for the year audio budget. vs $60 out of the household budget to tweak the Dell
worth a shot
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I seriously would NOT worry about the difference between 96 and 192k, there is almost no chance that you can hear the difference between the two at this stage.
OTOH there MAY be something to be gained (all other things being equal) by using a USB to SPDIF converter, if only because, like I said, coax right out of a PC/sound card may not give the best results (and I'm talking about perceptible differences...I've had a coax out of a HPackard PC once and it was just NOISY.).
Then again, whether this will be any better than the straight USB connection into the Marantz is, in your case, very questionable, because it sounds like your problem is the multiple USB slots necessary to get your songs to the DAC.
PC audio is in my opinion a huge can of worms, because most PCs are not built to prioritize audio only (they're there to surf the internet, etc.)
If I were to start from the beginning, I would probably just buy a Mac mini laptop setup with an optical out, and just not expect to put ALL of the music there. Just the stuff you like.
The 192 kHz downloads tend to sound better than the 96 kHz. At least that's my experience when I've been able to compare the different formats for the same album.
It's definitely worth the download wait and the storage costs, but whether it's worth the sometimes absurd price premium is something else. Some sites charge the same for all the hi-res formats, in which case it's a no-brainer to go with the highest available resolution.
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
PCI slots are still common on many motherboards, so it shouldn't be difficult to find one that can accept your existing card.
PCI slots come in different versions, so they don't work on all motherboards, at least if the computer is very old. In my case, I was able to return the card.
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
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