My revamped computer rig

zingo

I revamped my computer rig and I like it.

B&W 602S3
2x Audiosource AmpOne
Soundstage Vaccum Two preamp
AMC 8 DAC
Adcom ACE-515
my computer via digital out (lossless audio)

It sounds really good, and the digital out to the DAC was a nice upgrade, but I also forget when I sit down that the B&Ws are still book shelfs at the end of the day. (my ears are tunes to my 2As) I know it seems like a lot for a computer, but that is were I do a lot of sitting. Plus, did "overboard" ever stop an audiophile? Sorry for not having pictures right now.

zingo

Well, I am sitting about 3 feet from the speakers. It does make it really fun if I get the time to play some video games. The whole system has a very neutral sound, which I feel is ok for a computer because of the nature of it all. (But I'm sure the B&Ws don't help with that "neutral sound")

Yashu

You and I have a similar setup. What are you using for digital out? Are you using a USB s/pdif output device? If not, I would say it could be your best upgrade yet.

I have:

NAD c160 pre
Grant Fidelity Tube buffer (I have been rolling tubes, still experimenting)
NAD c350 used as an amp
HagUSB s/pdif out
Monarchy DIP classic
MHDT Dialogue II non-os DAC
A few sets of speakers, JBL studio monitors recently restored, PSB Alpha Bs, and a few others.
(also have a sansui tu-417 tuna, but that isn't PC related)

I am addicted to nearfield.

How is that pre of yours and how do those amps sound? Are you using them in some kind of bridged mode? B&W are revealing speakers... I truly suggest a good USB s/pdif out if you do not have one. The Trends UD-10 comes to mind right away. If you are truly getting bit-perfect out from your sound card, then a monarchy DIP might be also a great upgrade, as there can be a ton of jitter from a soundcard, and also the extra electrical isolation makes a difference.

zingo

I really like the pre. It's a little warm, and pretty detailed. Plus it just looks cool. The amps are solid. The sound quality isn't audiophile, but good and they are a great price. I am just running them in 2 channel bi-amps to the speakers. I might try a different amp and see what happens. The B&Ws are very revealing and bright because of the aluminum tweeter. But very detailed and I just don't know if I want to upgrade. I am just running the digital out from my mobo. I'm sure a USB one would be better, but I don't have that upgrade bug yet.
How far are your speakers from each other, and how far do you sit from them? Do you use any toe-in at all?
Funny thing about my set-up is how disorderly it is. On my desk is the speakers with the pre on top of the left one, the two amps with my monitor sitting on top, and then my DAC and power center on the bookself next to the desk because I ran out of space. It needs to be fixed.

Yashu

Well... my monitors are true nearfield, so they are fairly close, and even the PSBs sound good in the nearfield, but I don't like them as much... they need space, I need to lean back to really enjoy them.

I see two weaknesses in your system right now, but it can be fixed by one thing. Right now you have both revealing speakers and noisy, jittery, and possibly not bit-perfect digital out. First, are you using ASIO out to make sure you bypass the windows mixers? Are you *sure* the output it bit-perfect and not resampled to 48khz?

One of the first things is to make sure you are bypassing windows mixers, there are many ways to do this, but one is by using ASIO or Kernel Streaming. Then, you have to be sure that you are getting a true bit-perfect signal, as many soundcards, on board sound, and so on, they resample everything to 48khz and then back to whatever you have it set to output to. If you really don't want to get a digital output device that is going to be true, then there are options, you can use your playback software to resample to 48khz at a much higher quality than the soundcard is ever going to be able to do (winamp and foobar plugins can do this), and then your card will send out that better signal at 48khz. There are still problems with this, like jitter, electrical noise, and other things. USB s/pdif out is really the way to go if you like your DAC, otherwise there are USB DACs out there that are pretty good too, either way, you should be, at least, bypassing the kmixer, or setting up a similar way in vista (I forget the way to do it in vista).

I don't know if you already know all this stuff, but I thought I would write it in case.

Bookshelves aren't usually made with nearfield in mind, but sometimes it can work. I think you should try to spread them as far apart as reasonably possible and using lots of toe-in. That way, since the speakers were not designed for nearfield, you can still kindof get rid of the phase and driver integration problems of sitting too close.

zingo

Thanks for all the info. I'll look into a different digital out. I don't think I can do a lot until I move and get some more room for a different desk because I'm just too crowded, but I'll see what I can do.