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In Reply to: High resolution audio on a PC questions posted by LiamEvans210 on February 21, 2023 at 00:36:59:
No need to worry about getting deep into the PC Audio weeds. As such, I fully concur with Whell's following post:
"If you're just trying out a PC - based audio setup to see whether or not you like it, there's no need to spend much money at all!!"
"1) If you have an old, unused laptop sitting around, it really doesn't take much PC horsepower to turn a PC into a music machine. Repurpose the old PC for that purpose. Or, buy a used PC from a reputable reseller. For example, there's a reseller on Amazon selling refurbished HP Intel i5 mini PC's with 8 gig RAM for $90."
"2) For PC playback, VLC works well. Foobar 2000 would be better to the extent that it's a bit more "tweakable" to optimize the audio signal path. Both VLC and Foobar are free and open-source audio playback apps. Also, if you decide to use Foobar, you can experiment with WASAPI: https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_wasapi."
"3) On an older PC, older versions of Windows (no earlier than Win 8) might be a bit more responsive unless you have at least 16 gigs of RAM. Even better if it's in your comfort zone, some favors are Linux are designed to run fast on older PCs. And most Linux distributions are free to the user, though donations to support development are encouraged."
"4) To get started, no, you absolutely do not need an external DAC. Yes, you can run your soundcard's analog output to the analog input of your receiver. Are the results always optimal? No, but a decent soundcard can still produce very good results."
"Go for low cost first. If you like what you hear, you can then opt for incremental gains in sound quality. At that point, you can consider options like an external DAC. If you're using a standard form-factor desktop PC, you could even opt to upgrade the sound card. Less expensive than a stand-alone DAC, and there are even "audiophile" or pro audio internal PC sound cards that sound excellent and tend to be cheaper than stand-alone DACs."
"Keep us posted on what you decide."
As an aside, if you end up wanting to go with a separate DAC, for a good price to value/quality ratio, Schitt DAC's would be a great place to start.
-Mike
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