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RE: Music Server Computer transport - Round One.

Posted by bcherry (M) on November 5, 2009 at 00:24:26

In Reply to: Music Server Computer transport - Hop On! posted by bcherry on November 4, 2009 at 06:49:06:

OK so all the bits arrived, we connected them together: MSI Wind Neton>>>Musiland USB to SPdif>>> the Satch DAC>>>UTS-UVC linestage>>>Fusion>>>LCAO full range speakers -- something like the picture save the black box in the centre which came later.

First task: configure the digital playback stream to bypass the computer on board sound system and output through the USB>>Musiland. I download an ASIO music player and got some music to play that way.
OK, better than using the sound card, but not as good as our standalone transport. But there is still much we can do, so -- promising.

Now aforementioned expert arrives on the scene. Here's how he explains the issues:

" ...both the Apple Macintosh and PC Audio core build into the operating system are not designed for absolute quality, but for
convenience, which raises some interesting issues.

By default, none of the existing computer configurations offer a “Bit Accurate” digital output, regardless of the connection method used. Instead CD audio is always resampled to 48KHz to comply with the Windows Audio standard set down under the name Audio Codec '97 (AC97).

This means in order to get a PC to perform as well sonically, as a good quality CD Transport (or indeed better than most, to which it has the potential) we need to bypass this operating system audio section."

The computer we choose for this task is an All-In-One, meaning screen, cpu and all hardware is mounted in one chassis. Like a notebook it has a fan which comes on based on system temperature. In this case we don't want a fire breathing screamer as those things are a Dante Inferno of heat and noise, which is bad for the perfect bits we want.

He goes to work stripping out bloatware from the OS (XP) and setting bios to use minimum of system background resources and background processes. In the end, playback only uses about 5% of CPU. Now all the Media Portal software, skins, plugins and latest Musiland drivers are installed. Not a small job and it takes the expert most of the day to get it configured.

CD's are now ripped with the correct plugin and we listen. Better! Still not up to the separate CD transport, but we've taken a big step forward and we still have the hardware to attack! Interesting we try an A/B playing a CD by the on-board CD reader compared to the same ripped and playing from the hard disk. Very similar but after listening for a while it is apparent that the CD reader is just a little less good than the ripped CD, less space, less openess and detail - just a little but definitely noticeable. The expert explains this is probably because the CD reader puts a load on system resources which dulls the sound.

OK now for a little reconstructive surgery - not for the squeamish!
DIY - Done Right!

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