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In Reply to: Re: PC Sound Quality affected by Background Programs posted by ThomasPf on August 20, 2006 at 11:16:48:
Hogh quality aes/ebu
Follow Ups:
So, in addittion to clock stability higher level of noise on the shielding could also make it into your DAC?I have never seen a RME DAC so I don't know how well they are isolated but you should try the setup with an optical cable instead. You might get a different sound (or even worse sound overall since the RME DACs don't seem to have any dejitter mechanism) but you can check whether this changes with the amount of background activity on the computer.
I am going optical from a DIO24/96 into a Lavry DA10 and don't seem to have that issue but every machine is a bit different which makes this so hard.
Cheers
Optical connections are inferior in sound quality to electrical and very optical cable dependent. Generally, there is a degree of veiling although they can sound 'better' in that they hide some of the problems.The inputs to my dacs are transformer isolated and it is not, I think, a question of noise. If two computers with diffrent audio paths, one internal and one external, show the same repeatable sonic trait with Zone Alarm on and off, then I attribute this to the program
I have no quality difference whatsoever on my Lavry between AES/RCA/Toslink in crystal lock mode. I don't know exactly what veiling means but the frequency response is identical. All measurements and hearing tests are identical. I think whether you see a difference based on the connection depends very much on the design of the DAC.For your case that leaves either some processing that you do with the bits that could be impacted or the earlier mentioned influence of the power supply conditions on the clock circuit of your sound card.
Despite your Lavry, I doubt that your system is sufficiently revealing of differences.We come from opposite directions. You talk about bit perfectness and can't hear cable or interfacial diffrences. It is a fact that there are bandwidth and interfacial problems with optical fibre and most audiophiles opt for isolated and marched electrical connections. I hear and have measured clear interface differences (the simplest being the eye patterns), having taken care over system connections and ancilliaries.
Acoustics and hifi are about reactions to sound, not about bits and theoretical correctness of computer processing.
There are so many things out of hand... It is like Nvidia control panel performance setting, I hear exactly the same differences when changed to "High Performance" regardless the PC, sound card, configuration and whatever I always test. No matter Dual Core, motherboard or memory improvements.. The differences are more or less pronounced, but all have a characteristic sound. Even each build of DirectX(9.0a, b, c), TT, Foobar, or ASI0 driver. I tested an older RME driver build and it sounded less dynamic (for my DIGI96 I prefer the 2.11 over 2.10).Ahh, and hardware is also amazing at least with internal sound cards. The other day I played music with the PC chasis open and it sounded much more transparent, natural and deep.
I am not sure I can follow you here.The analog output of my DAC measures identical independent from the connection technology. The eye pattern for the clock signal after the reclocking stage is identical as well. I am pretty ure that this is revealing enough. As to my system I have published it before.
From the Lavry it goes into a Bryston 9B-ST to Harbeth Monitor 40.
Revealing enough for me.
Cheers
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