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In Reply to: RE: An old Windows laptop posted by AbeCollins on March 20, 2021 at 07:10:58
My current "backup" system is a wheezing old Dell Latitude 2120 (~ 10 years old by BIOS date), bought years ago for <$200, an excellent deal at the time (it was a closeout from Spanish market). Came with "Windows 7 Starter" which I don't think even was offered in the States. That was ok because I was studying Spanish at the University at that time. It has an Intel Atom, 2 GB RAM and a real spinning hard drive. It barely runs Win10. Yet it's adequate to run J River Media Center with only the occasional hiccup. It also serves as my emergency fallback PC (for personal and financial data).
I second what you say, or perhaps I'm putting words in your mouth: a lot of the claimed "sound quality" of the DAC, or indeed any electronics, is mostly wishful thinking that can't withstand the simplest of blind testing. My downstream electronics would appall you. I'll just say the brand name rhymes with "Derringer." 😃 I've never heard any identifiable difference in electronics that wasn't a noise floor issue. This isn't to say that differences will never exist, but it IS asserting that most claimed distinctions are adequately xplained by the ego, bragging rights and is otherwise hallucinogenic. By all means, spend $2000 on the latest audiophile approved item; when you sell it for a fraction of its price a few years later, I might be interested to buy it.
Follow Ups:
My DACs are 'relatively' modern.
Modern enough.
all the best,
mrh
Linux just runs faster and smoother and is a great way to repurpose older bloated Windows machines. Linux seems to be light footed and swift whereas Windows is like trying to run with concrete boots.
Of course I'm biased though. There is no Linux desktop, user interface, or suite of applications that can compete with Windows or macOS for the average consumer, i.e. non-techie.
IMHO Linux on the desktop is for techies but Linux truly shines in the data center.
The manufacturers and magazines want us to hop on the DAC chip of the month bandwagon but unless the DAC designer knows what he's doing in the analog stage, that whiz-bang DAC chip of the month don't mean squat ;-)
Unfortunately that's the sad case with many new DACs. They have the latest most expensive chip but they still sound like crap. I'll take an older modestly priced DAC where the designer knew how to get the highest quality sound quality out of the finished product.
Similarly, the highest bit rate PCM or super-res DSD means nothing if the original recording and mastering were poor. No DAC will fix that.
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