Most interested to hear the Lampizator sometime. I have had the occasional chat with Poland but never the experience of hearing it. His website is fascinating of course. By the way, I use an Esoteric as a back up transport. I moved to digital last year. Although highly sceptical (having been an independent transport user for years) I have to admit the reproduction is certainly more resolved. Let me know when you are in Bangalore and we can have a listen.
On transports
- Thread starter jai1611
- Start date
Staxxx, what's the configuration you use for digital ?..also your Dac. Anything which can beat an esoteric would be really good
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grubyhalo
New Member
Could you forward the info. to me as well, if you wouldn't mind. I am intrigued...
I'm interested too (as I'm sure many are)... so might be better to post here. PM is fine too!
ranjeetrain
New Member
To me, in this age, using a Transport (with a capital 'T') is a crime.
Any computer, put together keeping in mind "audio duty" will run neck to neck with any transport costing any amount of money.
But then, it's not suitable for people who are not satisfied with cheap solution.
Any computer, put together keeping in mind "audio duty" will run neck to neck with any transport costing any amount of money.
But then, it's not suitable for people who are not satisfied with cheap solution.
tirthankar
Active Member
Are you saying this for cd playback? Or playback of ripped lossless files from hard disk vs cd played on transport?
ranjeetrain
New Member
Sorry about the lack of clarity in my post.
Yes, that comment implies media locally available on the storage. Source of these media could be anything, downloaded in hires from legit sources, ripped by oneself using a good optical drive using a good software etc.
Yes, that comment implies media locally available on the storage. Source of these media could be anything, downloaded in hires from legit sources, ripped by oneself using a good optical drive using a good software etc.
I was a big sceptic to start with and am now a convert. I agree that my ripped CDs sound very good (certainly as good as my CDs) and the high resolution files that I have bought sound superb. But I will confess that the media player I use is more expensive that my Esoteric CD player and I play WAV64 lossless files. And note that I still use very good DACs. My musical tastes (although it has very little relevance to this discussion, is Western Classical and Jazz).
ajaydiarsa
New Member
I have just bought Advance acoustics .. sounds far far better than Marantz CD6000 KI sign .. Also not that expensive. Someone who is looking for entry level must try.
There's a caveat here: a computer used as a transport NEEDS a good sound card and a good DAC to sound good. Of course a dedicated transport also needs a good DAC.
If I were to do it afresh from the ground up, a computer + good sound card + good DAC makes greater sense because it has the flexibility to play higher than-CD-resolution files.
Thad E Ginathom
Well-Known Member
and/or.
A really good sound card would imply good analogue out.A DAC connected to a PC, really, is a sound card, cut down to do only half the job.
Anyway, no argument with the fact that the point at which data becomes analogue signals is the most vital link in the chain.
Very few audiophile grade soundcards in the market (especially something that does not cost the moon). The Asus Xonar ST/STX is the only viable budget choice and while I do use it I still prefer an external DAC. I've not extensively tested between the Asus and an ordinary soundcard or the default digital out on the mobo (all for a digital out to an external DAC)... but audiophiles believe even for a digital out an audiophile grade soundcard is required.... something that's hard to digest for someone like me who is coming from a PC background.
IMHO the computer is essential not just for music but also movies. My HTPC trumps over my PS3 and also many Blu-ray players I've tested/demoed. Add to it the advantages of a NAS or multi TB internal storage and it should be game, set & match.
Gerry_the_Merry
Well-Known Member
Starxxx. Which media player please?
Sound cards that utilize PLL from a single crystal are "noisy" electronically. Hence audiophiles prefer sound cards that feature two crystals - one for 44.1/88.2/176.4kHz and another for 48/96/192kHz. This allows the sound cards to generate their clock by simple frequency division.
HTH
--G0bble
reignofchaos
Well-Known Member
The quality of the crystal also matters along with both the crystals existing.
ranjeetrain
New Member
Totally agree! Most sound cards leave a lot to be desired when compared to exotic audiophile gear. But then, come a few notches down and they give mid-level audio gear a good run for their money.
Digital audio was kept like a secret. Till around 2000, audio manufacturers rode on the digital-unawareness and managed to charge exorbitant sums for mediocre gear digital gear. It wasn't until entry level players (Baresford, Cambridge Audio, Benchmark, NAD) came with budget-priced products that these companies started to think of offering their products at more earthly prices.
Today's high end sound cards are better than many multigrand DACs of yesteryears. And they run neck to neck with equivalent products from audio manufacturers 1.5 - 2 - 3x the price. The challenge in dealing with digital audio is to get rid of the electrical noise. And with digital technology having outpaced the Moore's law, it's only a wee bit harder than kid's play.
The red book format asks for a data rate of 1,411.2 kbit/s. Today's computing devices can supply that amount of data even when processor is running red hot with 80% utilization. The only thing that can interrupt a computing device from supplying data at such a low rate as required by the red book standard is a system deadlock. Unless a computing devices gets engaged in in a deadlock somehow, supplying the data at the 1,411.2 kbit/s is a piece of cake, even when processors are really really busy. Afterall, today's peripherals are capable of multi-million bits of data read out.
The next dreaded challenge (and one which the audio manufacturers are still riding on), is of uncertainty about the continuity of data supply. But then, if there is a problem, there are solutions. Nothing, absolutely nothing, stops manufacturers from building a small memory buffer and have a clock reclock the incoming data reading from the memory buffer. In laymen's terms, does our life stop when there is no water in the government water pipes? No, we have learned to work it around. We store water locally in over the head or underground water tanks. That way we don't have to depend on government water supply. Audio manufacturers who consider jitter THE PROBLEM in digital audio, should learn from water supply system. People don't depend on government supply lines, they just draw locally and fill their storage when water is available. Getting the data out of a computer's chasis is the same. Its no big deal if the computer cannot supply data constantly. There are many workarounds. And that is not even keeping in mind that a computing system runs on a way way faster clock rate and the clocks they use internally is hundreds times faster than those used in CD players.
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