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In Reply to: RE: Many say Win 8.1 sounds better than 7. posted by beppe61 on January 18, 2015 at 22:46:22
The “problem” imho is in the judgement.
I could easily hear a difference between the Toslink and the (adaptive) USB of my Benchmark DAC1 driven by an iMac.
In this case, it is exactly the reverse: the USB sounds more dynamic, the Toslink more laidback.
One day I could lay my hand on an asynchronous USB to SPDIF converter. Now I could compare USB to SPDIF, to AES/EBU and the Toslink and adaptive mode USB.
There was a subtle difference between SPDIF/AES and the Toslink.
The one that differs most remained the adaptive USB. So what I first considered “Dynamic” I now consider as more jittery, it screams.
Maybe in your case it is the reverse.
The Well Tempered Computer
Follow Ups:
Interesting comment, thanks. I've considered comparing tToslink and coax as alternatives, since the Arcam alloows for all of these. Yte another thing to think about!
Hi and thank you very much for the valuable advice
I understand there are a lot of variables involved
and actually i ended with good luck ...
By the way if i had to rely on a pc i would start from the selection of the SW more than the HW
1) which OS ?
2) which drivers ?
3) which SW player ?
then i would select an HW that can run all this SW without problems.
Just to be reasonably sure that the pc is not a bottleneck.
Then there is usb cable ... try different and listen for any differences.
Then if i want to stick with a specific converter the solution of the usb to spdif/optical can be also reasonable.
But i believe a lot on OS to be different one from another.
There is even one i think Ubuntu Studio that is tricky but specific for audio. Unfortunately usb dacs' drivers for Ubuntu are not always available.
most of what i i know comes from reading experts' comments.
The poster has not mentioned which OS he is using anyway.
Thanks again.
Kind regards,
bg
Edits: 01/19/15 01/19/15 01/19/15
First of all, thanks to all who responded. In reply to your comment, Beppe, let me tell you what I just did. I configured my laptop to use Daphile:
www.daphile.com
It was extremely easy if you have modest computer skills. The instructions are quite clear. The cost was a $10 flash drive. I now reboot my computer to the flash drive and control the media player from my iPad. Daphile immediately recognized and catalogued my external music drives, and it recognized my Arcam irDAC without a problem. The improvement was profound. The sludge and haze are gone, the background is silent, the instruments sit in real space, and for the first time I understand what PC audio can do, aside from the mere convenience. I don't know if it's the ultimate answer, but it makes it clear that a clogged-up Windows system will seriously degrade USB performance. :-) That and a modest USB cable upgrade have me listeneing to everything all over again. I will continue to investigate the idea of a more powerful server with a minimal system geared toward music playback.
I looked at Audiopphile Linux, which is also free, but it's very tweaky, requires a lot more patience and leanring curves and, as you mentioned, the DAC driver issue is a seriuous one. Daphile was exceptionally easy to install and set up, and it works like a charm. For $10, it opened a new window on the hobby for me.
Hi and thanks a lot for the very interesting advice
I will get this SW and try for sure.
I hope to have no problems for drivers ... but at this price the experiment is mandatory
Not only. It would be the evidence of the impact of the OS on the overall performance.
But i have also to add that considering that i understand that in Youtube they are thinking to stream good quality music concerts i am mostly interested to a full features media player that can also stream AV from internet.
Youtube should start a streaming pay service quite soon i understand.
With many nice concerts available. This is very very tempting.
Thanks again.
Kind regards,
bg
Edits: 01/22/15 01/22/15
That's a good point about streaming content. I've only just begun to look into these alternate OS systems, perhaps there is one that enables you to port online content, I don't know. I imagine there's a good deal of open-source stuff out there to investigate. You mikght look at the Raspberry Pi gadgets, they are surprisingly powerful--a friend loaned me one and there's a lot of potential there. At any fate Daphile is worth a try, I think you'll be impressed with the difference. My wife, who has very sharp ears, and who generally refrains from commenting on the various evolutions of my system, volunteered last night that this is the best it's sounded in years (meaning since I made the switch to PC audio).
So far I've kept the viideo stuff seperate, using a Blu-ray player for streaming content. That's why I like the Arcasm, it's got six inputs, and the coax and optical are as impressive as the USB. It's a great "hub" for a multi-componet system.
Hi and thanks again
I think your approach is more sane than mine
To keep separate A and V
You say " using a Blu-ray player for streaming content "
May i ask you which one are you using ?
Thanks again.
Kind regards,
bg
It's an old Vizio. Not bad, and mates well with the Arcam for CD playback too. :-)
Hi and thanks a lot for the reply
I am always looking for a blue ray player also able to stream from NAS and Youtube and Netflix
I have one Panasonic of which i like the image and sound but the streaming of nas contents is quite tricky and annoying
I would love to be able to do all this without pc sometimes
Thanks again.
Kind regards,
bg
As an addendum, I installed Daphile on an old Gateway netbook I had, and the performance is even more impressive.
Oh, and if you try it, and experience any stuttering, go to System, choose Audio Output, and select "Squeezebox Play" rather than "Squeezebox Lite." I got better performance this way.
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