Computer Audio Guys List Your Rig!

KellyMic

System: Home built i7 quad core, 18GB RAM, 5TB (2TB SSD, 3TB Sata 3 RAID), nvidia Geforce x660Ti
Output: Schiit DAC on order, mean time X-Fi Platinum output to Pioneer DJM600 Mixer into a DBX Driverack PA into Crown CE2000 amp, then to Polk LSi25's.

Sounds amazing and Battlefield 3 is a blast! Soon to hook-up my Polk RT1000p's for back surrounds, then just need to find a good Center now.

SCompRacer

For now, works and sounds great.

Dell laptop w/Vista32/foobar 2000
foobar ASIO, WASAPI, SACD modules
ASIO for DSD
Amanero 1.056 device driver
1 TB USB music drive

Amanero OEM Combo384 USB to I2S module in DIY Buffalo III dual mono DAC (ESS Sabre32 Reference, ES9018's).
44.1Khz to 384Khz sample rates, Native DSD 2.8224 Mhz - 6.144 Mhz
http://amanero.com/

Connected to main system in sig.

Tbone289

SCompRacer wrote: »

foobar ASIO, WASAPI, SACD modules
ASIO drivers

I'm curious as to the benefit of using ASIO and WASAPI together. It's my understanding that they both accomplish the same objective.

SCompRacer

Tbone289 wrote: »

I'm curious as to the benefit of using ASIO and WASAPI together. It's my understanding that they both accomplish the same objective.

I need ASIO for native DSD (SACD) channel mapping support.

EDIT: There is a custom channel mapping thing going on to swap the R and L channel DSD reversal versus PCM playback. It is done in software versus a hardware switching solution. I had to do hardware switching to correct the SACD channel swap in the Denon 3910 I modded to export CD/SACD to the DAC via I2S.

Details here, cause I am not smart enough to come up with this on my own.
http://hifiduino.wordpress.com/category/computer-hw-and-sw/

Tbone289

That makes sense. Thanks for the info!!

EDIT: Are you having to switch output formats each time you go from SACD to other encoding?

SCompRacer

Tbone289 wrote: »

That makes sense. Thanks for the info!!

EDIT: Are you having to switch output formats each time you go from SACD to other encoding?

You are most welcome!

In order to have the SACD channels correct, yes I have to switch output format. I am fairly sure WASAPI will do DSD too, but you would still run into the R and L channel swap using it with my setup.

In players, some DAC chips share PCM (CD) and DSD (SACD) circuits into the DAC chip from the transport. So you connect to your external DAC and can play CD and SACD via I2S out (I2S separates clock from data where clock is embedded in the SPDIF signal). What happens is DSD uses individual circuits for R and L channel. If they don't follow the connection order you have at the external DAC, your R and L channels are swapped when playing DSD. I had to use a digital swich in my modded Denon 3910 to correct that for output to my external DAC. It is controlled by a manual switch on back of the Denon.

This is my first USB to DAC thing, and I made it more complex with all the options.:eek::cheesygrin: Before I was just SPDIF coax out or I2S out from a modded SB Touch.

falconcry72

PC rig update:

- now using a Stello U3 USB converter via AES/EBU out.

This thing kicks major butt.

ThirdWorldGuy

My Rig,
Custom built PC Windows 7 32bit
GeForce GTX 560 Ti HDMI to Receiver
MediaMonkey WASAPI Output through HDMI in Exclusive Mode with tweaked settings to prevent crackling and distortion during playback and switching between songs. Bitstreaming.
All FLAC library

I would like to apologize for digging an old thread but I really need to know somethings.
I'm a complete noob at this but does anyone here use HDMI for output to their receiver? I went through most of the rigs here but couldn't seem to spot a single rig that uses this. Almost everyone is using USB DACs and optical out etc.

hertz9753

ThirdWorldGuy wrote: »

My Rig,
Custom built PC Windows 7 32bit
GeForce GTX 560 Ti HDMI to Receiver
MediaMonkey WASAPI Output through HDMI in Exclusive Mode with tweaked settings to prevent crackling and distortion during playback and switching between songs. Bitstreaming.
All FLAC library

I would like to apologize for digging an old thread but I really need to know somethings.
I'm a complete noob at this but does anyone here use HDMI for output to their receiver? I went through most of the rigs here but couldn't seem to spot a single rig that uses this. Almost everyone is using USB DACs and optical out etc.

I use onboard sound and toslink to an older Onkyo 603 receceiver. Radio Shack Optimus Pro 77's modded with Polk Monitor 70 tweeters and and Polk R15 woofer. The receiver and Mirage Omni S8 sub are under my desk.

Habanero Monk

Foxconn E-350 based NTA350. Has a SSD drive. Win7 using ASIO. FooBar

Focusrite Scarlett 2i4

Yamaha P2500S

For sub duty I use another out on the Scarlett and feed a Behringer EPX2000

And sub (DIY dual opposed Infinity Kappa 120w.9)

And LSi 9's. Looking at seeing if the PSB Stratus Silvers on CL near me will be an upgrade. I can sell these and maybe break even. The seller is asking $275 for them.

EndersShadow

EndersShadow wrote: »

Office setup
Custom PC: ASUS P5E | Intel Q9650 @ 3.6 | 8 Gig Dominator 1066 | ATI 5450 | 2 WD Black 640 | Samsung 1TB | Corsair VX450 | Antec P182
XBMC
Audio GD NFB-5
Polk Ultrafocus 8000's (demo pair)

Thought I would update my first post as most of this is done...


Office Rig:
Custom PC:

• Motherboard: ASUS P5E
• CPU: Intel Q9650 @ 3.6
• Memory: 8 Gig Dominator 1066
• GPU: ATI 5450
• Hard Drives: 2 WD Black 640, Samsung 1TB
• PSU: Corsair VX450
• Case: Antec P182
• Extras: Noctua NH-U12P Cooler
• 5 x Noctua NF-P12 case fans
• NZXT Sentry LX fan controller
• Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Tuner

Interface: XBMC streaming FLAC and hi-rez audio, Pandora, etc
DAC/Headphone Amps: Audio GD NFB-5, Meridian Explorer
Pre-Amp: Sunfire TGA-II
Amp: Fisher 460a tube amp
Speakers: Polk RTA 11TL's
Headphones: Beyerdynamic DT-770's 32 ohm

[*]
[/LIST]

EndersShadow wrote: »

Soon to be:
Custom PC ordering parts soon
XBMC
USB Cable undecided on brand
Audio GD NFB-5
Beyerdynamic DT-770 80ohms (tenative choice)

Work office setup:
Custom PC:

Motherboard: ASRock A75M-ITX
CPU: AMD A6-3500 2.1GHz FM1 65W Triple-Core APU
Memory: 4 Gig Corsair DDR3 1333
Hard Drive: Samsung 1 TB 2.5"
Case: Wesena ITX-6
PSU: City Net 150 watt pico psu
Extras:

Noctua NH-L9a heatsink
Noctua NF-R8 80mm case fan
Silverstone Noise dampening foam
Silverstone 80mm fan filter
2 x Startech internal USB header to USB adapter
D-Link DWA-160 USB card
IR Sensor
Windows Media Center Remote

Interface: XBMC streaming FLAC and hi-rez audio, Pandora, etc
Headphone DAC/AMP: Audio GD NFB-5
Headphones: Beyerdynamic DT-770 32 ohms

j1mmy

Custom built HTPC
- Silverstone Grandia case
- Gigabyte MB - i5 3.1Ghz, quad core cpu, plenty of RAM, plenty of disk
- Fanless Zotac video card
- vm-ware desktop - several virtual pc's
- XBMC 12.2 Frodo
Denon 3808
- PA SDA-2B
- Paradigm 12" sub
- Paradigm reference center channel
- Paradigm di-poles in the back
- Epson 6500 projector
- 120" Carada screen

Apple TV Gen 1 160 GB
- running xbmc crystalubuntu
- streams content from HTPC over home gig network
- Panasonic 42" LCD TV in MB

Apple TV Gen 1 160 GB
- running xbmc crystalubuntu
- streams content from HTPC over home gig network
- Sharp Aquos 46" LCD TV in FR

Raspberry Pi
- not running yet but plan to use xbmc and attach to another TV in LR

jflail2

Another custom built HTPC here.

-Zalman 160xt plus case in black
-i7 3.4ghz quad core cpu
-580 vid card
-16gb of ram
-8TB of HD space, plus a SSD for the OS.

All of that connects to my new Denon receiver via HDMI, sound outs to my Rti-10 set up in the living room, while video runs to my 46" Sony LCD.

Teamfortress is a whole new level of joy on a 46" screen with the Rti's rumbling.

obieone

I've got a real simple set-up:

Antec case
MSI GXM890-G65 mobo
Phenom II X6 cpu
500gb hdd
8 gb of ram
LG BD-ROM/ DVD-RW

I've just got the optic going into the SC-05, with the DVI going into the Samsung 40", and no GC. It died over a year ago, and since I'm not really into games anymore, see no need to replace it.
I've got an old Soundblaster external sound card, but, the sound quality straight off the mobo is good enough.

timk65

My modest setup, sounds great to me!

* HT Omega Claro Halo 24/196KHz soundcard
* Polk TSi 500 speakers
* Yamaha RX V473 AVR
* PC / Linux with AMD 8 core and 16GB, use quodlibet for playing music

Polk&Beans

Custom PC: And another gutted ComPaq box, full blown build, for re-ripping ALL my CD's (Long Story) 8^(

Lenovo H405 Box & MoBo (At least 4-1TB and 3-500GB HDD's layin around. Lost count)

3.2GHz AMD Athlon II Quad Core, 8GB Ram, dual 80mm push and 120mmPS & 92mm pull fans

W7-HP 64bit, All silent settings, MS-Config'ed-minimal bs running in background, USB-full power, No-power saving modes anywhere, Media Center-hacked up-grades, DB Power Amp rip software, WASAPI Audio Exclusive Mode. (A little more work than you Apple Boys)

Intel-Pro Gigabit NIC Card-No hits, misses or errors.

Samsung 22X DVD/RW SATA Drive SH-S223C (2) Because I am gonna wear em' out re-ripping again 8^(

Asus-ATI Radeon 6540-DVI/HDMI/VGA W/120mm fan blowing on it and, N&S bridge heat sinks

Pangea Audio - USB cable 24awg -Ohno-PCOCC & 4% tinned silver solder on all 4 conductors - 1 Meter

SonicWave-Corning Glass-Toslink Cables (1 Meter) (2) (No Jitter Bugs or EMI/RFI)

Music Fidelity 24/96 V-Link II-W/ WASAPI Exclusive Mode-Worth every penny! Massive jitter reduction!

Sony SDP-EP9ES Digital Signal Processor (24bit/44.1/48Khz processing)

Just arrived intact! Score! For optional jitter reduction (If needed) & Parametric EQ, Surround Modes, Input Leveling, Optical Out & 5.1 Analog In options (Or maybe to my SONY museum)

Feeding To:

Marantz SR5007-(Slays my now gone, Onkyo TX-NR809 for audio) (Miss a ton of video features though)

Parasound HCA1200 MK II- 205 real watts RMS x 2 @8 Ohms-325@4 Ohms (Soon to be Re-Capped)

Polk RTi70 Tower Speakers-(Rebuilt XO’s) Bi-Wired & Tied to Parasound

Polk Monitor 40’s (For Now)(Rebuilt XO’s and braced/damped boxes) Bi-Wired & Tied to the Marantz

My custom built M40 speaker stands to have same height as RTi70’s

Velodyne CT-150-15”-275w Sub-12/24db Slopes (New PS Caps and Amp Module)

SONY DVP-S9000ES DVD/SACD/CD Player (Still great with up-scaling 1080P receivers)

SONY RDR-GX330 DVD Recorder (The only recorder I’ve found that records everything)

Sony BDPS1000ES Blu-ray Disc Player

SONY CDP-CX-90ES-200 Disc CD Changers (2) (Re-Capped) W/On-Screen Display-Daisy Chained=400 CD’s

SONY TC-K615S-Dolby S/B/C Cassette Deck (For ornamental nostalgia now & the SONY museum)

Could list the SONY Museum, but I have a headache already. 8^)

Pablo

Polk&Beans

P.S. Looking for a cheap DAC?

The Sony SDP-EP9ES Digital Signal Processor makes for a pretty damn nice DAC, stand alone...

All proprietary SONY chips and massive filtering/jitter curcuits.

GooglyIt.

Pablo

bigaudiofanatic

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Anyone on the PC side using or tried JRiver?

Yep, I now own it and have it for both of my computers. I love it after leaving itunes. I am still learning about it.

Sumerian

recently built my HTPC.

Corsair 550D
Corsair Liquid Cooler 60
I7 4770
16 GB Ram
250 GB Samsung Pro SSD
Asus Z87 Deluxe Mother Board
Asus Xonar Essence STX
Pioneer Bluray BD2208
Seagate 4 TB Media Disk (Flacs)
J river Media Player

Sumerian

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

Yep, I now own it and have it for both of my computers. I love it after leaving itunes. I am still learning about it.

+1 Loads of options... Worth every penny

nguyendot

AUNE T1 + DT770's right now.

doctorcilantro

Tbone289 wrote: »

I'm curious as to the benefit of using ASIO and WASAPI together. It's my understanding that they both accomplish the same objective.

I know with WASAPI I only get 24bit, and have to use ASIO for 32bit support and with Vega DAC.

steveinaz

Asus laptop w/LMS-->WD USB HDD (flac files)-->Modem/router-->Squeezebox Touch w/Channel Island Power Supply-->Benchmark DAC/PRE-->Placette Passive-->Parasound HCA1500A amp-->Harbeth 7ES-3 monitors

Kimber Hero IC's
Kimber 8TC v.2 speaker cables
Belden 1694A digital coax

recoveryone

Custom built Game rig (old one)
Win XP
Squeezebox LMS 7.7 ****
Win MP for burning CD's (320kps for use both in home and cars)
Intel P4 3.0Ghz
2GB of ram
Linksys Wireless Adapter w/speed boost 9db highgain ant (running off wireless Home network)
(3) 80GB HD
Ext 350 GB HD (main music source)
Ext 1.5 TB HD (backup for whole house)
Plextor DVD/CD burner
Sony DVD/CD burner
3 sets of fans
500/W Thermaltake PSU
System runs 24/7 in garage
Supports:
3 Classics V3
Touch
Transporter

disneyjoe7

Reused an old Pentium4 2gigs of ram computer, using an old soundblaster live card. Was running win xp listening to The Breeze over 181.fm but when xp wouldn't update codec's for The Breeze I switched to Ubuntu. Running this thru pre amp to Halo a23 amp.

11tsteve

11tsteve wrote: »

AMD FX-6100 @ 4.55 ghz, XSPC liquid ... Win 7
crossfired 6970
Corsair 120 G ssd
HT Omega
Tributaries Series 5 optical
Matrix Mini DAC (which i would like to replace with a Keces)
Acurus RL-11
Parasound HCA 1200 II
Polk RTA-11T (updated Xovers, RDO-194, rewired, damped drivers, Armacell gaskets, spiked)

music is in AIFF format on a 1TB WD cloud drive.

i have tried Media Monkey and Foobar and haven't decided. my drives are due for a reformat, so i'll figure this out then.

currently in search of new cabling as most of mine is cheap crap....

updated rig.....

AMD 8350 8 core, currently at 4.8 Ghz. under custom liquid loop.

Sapphire 6850

Mushkin 120 Gb ssd and Windows 7 64 bit

HT Omega with Grover Huffman D.I.

Peachtree Dac-It with Morrow M4 custom Y-cable going to both headphone and listed rig.

speakers change between the updated RTA11T, Infinity RSb, and a pair of 5JR which are next up for refurbishing.

doctorcilantro

Updated:

J. River MC19 + Auralic ASIO (sometimes JPLAY 5.2) PCM2DSD playback and PCM/DSD playback
NAS - Synology 411j 12TB Raid 5 8TB + (3) 4TB SATA internal
File Types - .FLAC .DFF .DSF .MP3
PC - CoolerMaster SilverStone Fortress FT03 Mini-Tower, Quad-Core i7 at 4gHz 16GB RAM, Windows 7 X64
USB Interface - Adnaco S3B USB-over-fibre on 5v battery
DAC - Auralic Vega
Amp - Decware EL34.1 ("Rachel")
Speakers - Zu Union Cubes

11tsteve

11tsteve wrote: »

updated rig.....

AMD 8350 8 core, currently at 4.8 Ghz. under custom liquid loop.

Sapphire 6850

Mushkin 120 Gb ssd and Windows 7 64 bit

HT Omega with Grover Huffman D.I.

Peachtree Dac-It with Morrow M4 custom Y-cable going to both headphone and listed rig.

speakers change between the updated RTA11T, Infinity RSb, and a pair of 5JR which are next up for refurbishing.

I forgot the 8 GB of Gskill Ripjaws 8-9-9-24 @ 1866, and that Jriver is my preferred media player.....

j1mmy

+1 on the Ripjaws

RamZet

Mine is more focused on games but I do use it for music too.
Im at the last stages of a rebuild so I havent decided if im going to stay with the onboard or go back to x-fi or a newer sound blaster card.
I could also skip the sound card and stick to the USB Music Streamer II Dac for music.
http://highresolutiontechnologies.com/music-streamer-ii

System specs are
Intel i7 3820
EVGA X79 4-way SLI Classified motherboard
16GB DDR3 2133 XMP -RipJaw Z series
Vertex 4 SSD
XFX R9 290 in TriFire ( three video cards)
ABS 1100w BZ series PSU
Windows 7 64bit Pro edition
Three Acer 24" H233H monitors @ 5760x1080p
Custom full system Water Loop. CPU, motherboard, and videocards.
for Audio im using a Rotel Pre and Amp and some Free Bose speakers with a Sunfire Sub.
heres an image. http://postimg.org/image/ezgs8v6s5/
image with a more completed water loop. http://postimg.org/image/wvhomcjjp/