Connecting PC Soundcard to Pre-amp

bigaudiofanatic

I just tried media monkey not a fan, plus it was not made for ipod like itunes was. Nice card BTW

vc69

mmadden28 wrote: »

Personally I don't want the noise of a PC anywhere near my listening area.

Mine is very quiet. I special built this box for multi-media and as such, noise is not an issue. It's whisper quiet and way better than say a PS3. The only thing I can ever hear is the drives spin up and even that is negligible.

mmadden28

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

I just tried media monkey not a fan, plus it was not made for ipod like itunes was. Nice card BTW

It sync's with iPods too. As does Winamp. Just making suggestions. I haven't yet settled on my choice application yet. I've been bouncing between Itunes, Winamp and MediaMonkey.

Besides, in this case the OP doesn't appear to be concerned about syncing with an iPod but more for just having a library available.

mmadden28

greg2350 wrote: »

I have been putting my music on hardrive for about 7 years now somewhere around 2,000 albums. I have tried many different sound cards including all the high end creative cards. roughly about 10 cards until I purchased the m-audio delta 1010lt card I could not beleive the improvement of SQ. I finally achieved the SQ from mp3 format I was looking for its a bit pricey but well worth it.
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Delta1010LT.html

If I were going to use my computer as the direct source (other than via Squeezebox), I would rather spends a few bucks on an external USB DAC, then invest in a pricey sound card that could potentially be obsolete sooner rather than later and thus be useless, especially for resale value.

The Cambridge DACMagic has gotten rave reviews, for about $400 its reasonable. Or the Benchmark USB DACs, of course they are over $1200, but....And they can be used as straight up DACs if you so choose--nothing is tied to the computer.

I'm considering trying out the DacMagic anyway even if I don't hook my computer up to it.
I'm also consdering one of the NAS (Network attached Storage) drives to serve my music, virtually eliminating the computer altogether. And it would be portable (well more than a PC would be unless you're using a laptop)

Then again, if I were to spend any amount of crazy money, I wouldn't be ripping to MP3 at all, but to FLAC (etc). Hard drive space is cheaper than the cost to get a sound card to make the MP3s sound better.

bigaudiofanatic

mmadden28 wrote: »

It sync's with iPods too. As does Winamp. Just making suggestions. I haven't yet settled on my choice application yet. I've been bouncing between Itunes, Winamp and MediaMonkey.

Besides, in this case the OP doesn't appear to be concerned about syncing with an iPod but more for just having a library available.

No I know it will work with syncing to the ipod just I do not like how the interface is and do not get me started on winamp.

sTiLlLeArNiNg

To get good sound from a PC i think it really depend's mostly on the card used. Creative sound card's are not very good IMO, i do have one audigy2 ZS in my older box but it fall's very short compared to my Xonar.

A better solution would be Asus, Maudio or turtle beach (think that's the name) Most of the better card's come with good software (i have only used factory supplied proggies 'till now) but as has been pointed out there are other solution's available.

inspiredsports

There's a lot more great info above since I logged out last night!

One item I would like to confirm is that it was said "Apple Lossless" is identical to "FLAC"

Would someone with both types of software be willing to rip a song from a CD to both FLAC and Apple Lossless formats, and then compare the file sizes to see if they are the same?

mmadden28

I doubt they are compressed with the same algorithms, thus not identicle, but both would result in a Lossless compressed file-essentially the same desired end result. I would venture a guess and bet that they come out to different file sizes although probably close, and guarantee that the file checksums will be different.

Just like WinRar and Winzip aren't the same, or necessarily compatible, the end result is essentially the same. And with WinZip and WinRar, you can compress at different compression levels which can result in different size compressed files yet still decompress to the same original file.

LessisNevermore

inspiredsports wrote: »

There's a lot more great info above since I logged out last night!

One item I would like to confirm is that it was said "Apple Lossless" is identical to "FLAC"

Would someone with both types of software be willing to rip a song from a CD to both FLAC and Apple Lossless formats, and then compare the file sizes to see if they are the same?

I used MM to rip a FLAC track at the highest compression setting (8), and iTunes' ALAC default (no option to change?).

ALAC=18.2MB
FLAC=17.8MB

sTiLlLeArNiNg

Anyone else think the soundcard itself attribute's to better SQ? Or does the card only become a factor during playback?

inspiredsports

LessisNevermore wrote: »

I used MM to rip a FLAC track at the highest compression setting (8), and iTunes' ALAC default (no option to change?).

ALAC=18.2MB
FLAC=17.8MB

I sure appreciate your doing that! What I am trying to do is keep from investing in new software if iTunes can get me by for a while, and it seems that it is great solution, especially when considering the price.

inspiredsports

sTiLlLeArNiNg wrote: »

Anyone else think the soundcard itself attribute's to better SQ? Or does the card only become a factor during playback?

Do you mean is the sound card in the loop when ripping ???

I think you could rip a CD to MP3 with the sound card completely removed from the system, so my opinion would be that the sound card could only contribute to sound quality during playback.

inspiredsports

OK, I've temporarily refrained from putting big bucks into a cable.

(Remember, what started this whole "MP3 thing" was on Saturday I found a short 3.5mm to Stereo RCA adapter cable while searching through one of my parts bins. I ran it to my Yaqin tube buffer because I needed a "double female" something or other so I could then reach my pre-amp that is 15' across the room using a mid-grade A/V RCA cable that covered the rest of the distance).

The 20' ($21.99 delivered) closeout Monster Cable I bought Sunday from eBay arrived today. I did some listening and it is in fact much better than the ultra-low quality 5' 3.5mm to dual RCA that I had found in my parts bin.

After just substituting out the adapter cable, I moved on to step 2, comparing various bit rate files (128, 192, 256 and lossless which ranged from 694 to as high as 876bps) on songs I imported into iTunes from CD.

Now we're talking! The lossless versions start to approach what I would call high fidelity. As the group said, LOSSLESS IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO.

The next step was to replace the mid-grade A/V RCA cable because the 20' Monster is long enough to get the laptop signal to my audio rack. Now I can get bck to using MIT Shotgun 2 IC's from the Yaqin to my preamp.

VERY GOOD SOUND! The soundstage expanded beyond the left and right speaker borders by several feet and depth is improved. Vocals and instrument imaging is much more tightly focused. I can live with this as it's much closer to what I'm used to from CD and TT sources.

I will give the Monster Cable a good listen for a couple of weeks, and then obtain the PS audio cable for comparison.

Honestly, while lossless versus compressed made very big improvement in sound quality, the biggest leap was the re-introduction of the MIT IC's to the path. My guess/preconceived notion is that replacing the Monster Cable with PS Audio cable will not make as large a contribution, but I will report back in a few weeks.

fbm211

The op-amps are even replaceable"for preferred analog sound color.

Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe: Asus HTPC sound card does Everything....
Link>>http://www.silentpcreview.com/Xonar_HDAV

Anyone have this one??? How do you like it?? Im considering it.