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I'm a long time user of CDs but just getting into computer audio. I'm using a heavily modified iFi Nano iDSD as my DAC, with a USB cable made by the same guy who did the iFi Nano mods. It sounds wonderful with my Toshiba Tecra A10 Windows 7 laptop, using Fidelizer in Extreme mode, and using a Passport USB drive to hold the music.
But I need my Toshiba for lots of other uses, so I decided to buy another laptop to dedicate to audio. Needing to save money, I bought a refurbished Thinkpad from eBay for $125, probably a ten-year-old laptop. Well, the sound is greatly inferior to my Toshiba, in fact there's little sense of quality at all.
This was a wake-up call. I guess it makes sense... if the USB cable can make a difference, and Fidelizer can make a difference, then certainly every other little piece of hardware that's part of the system can make a difference. I wasn't *trying* to buy a crappy laptop, I just thought it wouldn't make a difference and why not save money?
So I thought, "Okay I guess I need something newer than that Thinkpad with better specs." I bought a refurbished HP Probook 2530s with an i3 dual-core processor at 2.3 GHz, 4 GB memory, and a USB 3.0 connector useful with my Passport.
Well it sounds better than the Thinkpad but still doesn't approach the Toshiba. The Toshiba just has this "ease" about it, this relaxed feel, low noise-floor, "black spaces," quiet but crisp transients, but can rock too.
Now I'm mystified. Maybe I should just use the *Toshiba* as my audio laptop, and find something to replace it for my daily computing. But that wouldn't answer my question--why are these things occurring and how does one go about finding a good audio laptop other than hit-and-miss?
Any ideas?
Follow Ups:
you could try reducing the frequency of your new laptop, no need for 2.3GHz. Can do it in power options set max and min cpu to 0, this should halve the frequency.
Am using a Toshiba haswell i5 laptop, the haswell chips really help getting data through the cpu and the new chips out later this year should be even better as they'll be able to be fanless as well as having 512 bit instructions. So might be better to wait for those even if it means being able to pick up a cheaper haswell.
http://mqnplayer.blogspot.co.uk/
Why does reducing the frequency help? It would make the CPU slower to respond to I/O demands. But it would also reduce the emitted RF and the frequency of the emitted RF. Is that why?
reduced rf is the idea
http://mqnplayer.blogspot.co.uk/
Somehow there is this irrational notion that reducing Freq reduces RF. It is the frequency range that induces the worst intermodulation that matters and it may be that reducing frequency actually makes a system perform worse than it does higher up.
This is clearly a subject much loved by 'software experts'.
It is the frequency range that induces the worst intermodulation that matters....
And WHAT range might that be please?
Bought a 350$ Acer and it sounds fantastic!
Hey can you tell us more about the iFi Nano mods? Very curious, thanks!
It is probably worth looking at what had been installed in your used laptop as well as the background services and antivirus they are running.
Wireless is bad and so is Windows Defender and Mail Suite with loads of other stuff included.
If you can get hold of a usb filter, it is also worth trying.
If you use your laptop just for audio, I'd get rid of all the hot key services and graphics services too.
Check you usb latency and make sure that it is low.
Thanks for the tips. Note that this HP refurbished laptop came with a minimal Win 7 install... no factory drivers were installed at all, nor antivirus or any applications. I had to poke around for factory drivers to get some features of the laptop working. That's actually better than buying a new laptop loaded with junk!
I rely on Fidelizer to shut off services I don't need. Do you know what needs to be done beyond that? Fidelizer shuts of networking, but I'm not sure if that means it shuts off Wi-Fi.
http://www.cicsmemoryplayer.com/index.php?n=CMP.07OptimisationsMost of the steps work for W7. I don't regard each step as an optimisation. Technically this is something else, when you know what the optimal criteria are.
But you can experiment, taking care to have an original image at any time and listening to what the steps do to SQ.
For me, a simple player setup with no compressed files, minimal buffers, and no fancy processing work best.
W8.1 x64 sounds much better than W7 to me. Server 2012R2 is even better.
Edits: 01/27/15
See if installing light-weight Linux on the Lenovo makes any difference. Even if not, it could still be used for non-critical everyday tasks and will run faster than XP or Win7 on that same laptop.
usually the lower cost models use sub-standard hardware.
I too use a Toshiba for my music, it is about 7 years old, but at the time cost me about $3k, I'd say laptops are designed better the more high end they are at the time, you do get what you pay for.
there are others that can argue it is the operating system, while hardware does matter it depends how high-tech the OS is as well. I find Windows 8.1 to sound fantastic, and Linux as well. Going with that school of thought I have a Samsung Chromebook and a Samsung Chromebook 2, they both sound out of this world and are under $400. They use the new google operating system called the ChromeOS operating system. Which is as slim as a Linux system I have ever used that is fully functional.
I have been toying with finally dumping my cdp and going computer but sq is primary not convenience. I was told by someone who is an expert in the field use the the least amount of processor you can that will still run whichever OS and player. I don't have enough (read any) experience in this to know what is the least you can get away with. I was thinking perhaps this.
https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit-de3815tykhe.html
or maybe
http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/us/en/pdp/desktops/hp-chromebox-cb1-016-pc
but I certainly wouldn't want to get something then have it be the bottleneck.
for basic functionality, if you need more custom things you're probably better off with better machines.
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops/lenovo/q-series/q190/
found it for $214 shipped, thought that was pretty good. Plan on running Foobar
looks great, Foobar is a favorite of mine as well.
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