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Re: You know the "tweak" gurus will glom onto PC Audio....

Posted by John Swenson (A) on November 10, 2005 at 13:41:11

In Reply to: You know the "tweak" gurus will glom onto PC Audio.... posted by davehg on November 10, 2005 at 12:20:23:

Hi Dave,
some of these are not so far fetched. I've been hearing some significant differences in sound on my USB DAC from such things. (Its actually usually other people that hear it first!)

USB cable length and cable type and manufacturer DO make a difference. I've found that an active repeater cable sounds considerably better than a long passive cable. For the same length cable some manufacturers sound better, and its not always the most expensive either.

Cable placement can also make a significant difference! We had a case where a cable was going into my DAC and causing some strain on the connector so a little block of foam was put under it so it went straight into the connector, this significantly changed the sound. You could take the foam out and move the cable up and down and change the sound (making sure it was always going straight into the connector). When the cable was resting on the metalic surface the sound got worse, when raised off the surface it got better. (USB cable risers anyone?)

Vibration and PS issues DO effect the source computer. A laptop running off its batteries does sound better than one running of its AC supply. Putting the laptop on cones or roller bearing improves the sound significantly. I've also heard this from a MAC mini. The position of the laptop screen also matters. It sounds better with the screen almost closed than it does with the screen in normal viewing position (presumably the raised screen is more susceptible to picking up airborne vibrations)

Given the above it seems like 4 7 and 10 might be real live viable tweaks!

Since I don't actually have a real squeezebox I cannot comment on how it relates to cable issues etc. I am just running softsqueeze on the mini-ITX box. So far I have not heard any difference between running slimserver on different computers. So far I have just been running the ehernet connections through a Linksys switch/router. It would be an interesting test to try it direct without a router/switch involved. I'm doubtfull it will make a difference, but then I didn't expect the exact routing of the USB cable would matter either!

That brings up some tweaks not on your list. We all know that PS issues significantly effect the SB2 (and presumably SB3), but I haven't seen much going into vibration control for this device. My guess is that it WILL effect the sound. So the Mappleshade replacement SB2 box might be a useful product (which of course will cost 3 times as much as the SB itself, but what the heck, thats audio for you!)

With this high end computer audio stuff being so new and such a fringe part of audiophiledom in general, its probably going to take awhile for the full range of tweaks to show up.

Hmmmmm, I have a pile of maple out in the garrage from a previous project, maybe I'll try a maple mini-ITX, linear PS case for the little computer. I'm not quite sure how to shield it properly though, but its a long way away from the "system" so maybe I won't bother. I have some time this weekend, maybe I'll give it a whorl and see what happens!

John S.

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