PC For Music listening

[tharun]

Hi
I have another doubt., What if i use a ordinary sound card say for Rs.3000/- and then use a external DAC like the Bresford or CA DAC Magic. My Sister is having a PC which she is not using now. Its with Pentium 4 Processor and Intel chipset board., can i use this along with a sound card and external DAC. the RAM is 512 and the HDD is 80GB.

 

[spirovious]

Hi
I have another doubt., What if i use a ordinary sound card say for Rs.3000/- and then use a external DAC like the Bresford or CA DAC Magic. My Sister is having a PC which she is not using now. Its with Pentium 4 Processor and Intel chipset board., can i use this along with a sound card and external DAC. the RAM is 512 and the HDD is 80GB.

As long as you use digital out of cheap SC,no prob with SQ through DAC.

 

[reignofchaos]

Well just a finding - I switched from the EMU ASIO driver to ASIO4ALL and I just cant believe the insane difference in audio quality. Its like I upgraded from a mid-fi to hi-fi transport - totally unbelievable :yahoo:

 

[jaudere]

Hello friends,

I have a problem, which may not be relevant to this thread. I agree that PC sound cards produce excellent results but what bothers me is the hum (the fan sound)which the CPU produces. it is quite annoying for me as usually listen to music at low volumes. is there any way to rectify this?

please help me out. i have Nvidia graphics card with DVI out but rarely use it as the CPU sound is unacceptable even during movies.

 

[kaushik]

Hello friends,
(the fan sound)which the CPU produces. it is quite annoying for me as usually listen to music at low volumes. is there any way to rectify this?

This is not true with all PCs,this is due to the cheper fans that people use (unknowingly , so called intel originals,coming with processor seal box).

Fans coming with INTEL marked logo with CPU are 'noisy' many times,may be because for loose CPUs the fans that come bundled are chinese fakes.

My office PCs by HP are so silent,AMD processor based ,you have to put your ear next to cabinet , so surely the assembled PC builders are cheated .

There are fans by coolermaster designed to give 12db noise[on paper],any one has ever used them ?

 

[suprateep]

Hello friends,

I have a problem, which may not be relevant to this thread. I agree that PC sound cards produce excellent results but what bothers me is the hum (the fan sound)which the CPU produces. it is quite annoying for me as usually listen to music at low volumes. is there any way to rectify this?

please help me out. i have Nvidia graphics card with DVI out but rarely use it as the CPU sound is unacceptable even during movies.

scythe schuriken is the answer.......you can get it online from quietpc.com

 

[suprateep]

alternately you can try sourcing from lynx chandigarh - its mentioned on their website - but they never respond to mails anyway.

 

[tharun]

Well just a finding - I switched from the EMU ASIO driver to ASIO4ALL and I just cant believe the insane difference in audio quality. Its like I upgraded from a mid-fi to hi-fi transport - totally unbelievable :yahoo:

Hi ROC

Can i use this ASIO4ALL along with my sytem which is Pentium 4 , Intel chipset mother board, 80GB HDD and 512 MB RAM. What is the cost of ASIO4ALL

thanks
Tharun Balakrishnan.

 

[suprateep]

Hi ROC

Can i use this ASIO4ALL along with my sytem which is Pentium 4 , Intel chipset mother board, 80GB HDD and 512 MB RAM. What is the cost of ASIO4ALL

thanks
Tharun Balakrishnan.

bhai asio4all is a free driver that can be downloaded off the net. Google it and download it.

After installation - see if the SW you are using (like winamp/foobar/CPlay) are showing the ASIO4ALL driver in the output selection box. Select it and configure it (uncheck all sources except the output channel you want to use).

I suggest you do not use CPLAY as its processor intensive and stick to winamp/foobar etc for playback.

BTW i hope you intend to play flac - and not mp3s (though quality change over mp3s using asio4all is pretty noticeable).

BTW hope the asio4all supports your soundcard - i think you are using the onboard soundcard. Asio4all supports most chipsets including some realtek chipsets as well.

Godspeedhyeah:

 

[spirovious]

Hi Suprateep,

One thing I wld like to share,ASIO4all is not supported by winamp,foobar,MP directly.
I downloaded corresponding plugins for players,installed ,then only I cld get ASIO opt in all players.

WMP worked for a while,but hanged & refused to start.Only after restart.
I removed setting,now OK.

Is there any other direct opt to config ASIO other than I mentioned?

 

[suprateep]

Is there any other direct opt to config ASIO other than I mentioned?

Hey spiro - yes i forgot to mention that winamp requires an asio support plugin to configure asio4all. foobar for me detects it directly - in fact on my other system wit creative soundcard - both the SW show 2 asio drivers - one from asio4all one from kxaudio drivers. Works well.

BTW I would suggest the older versin (8 series) of foobar to use asio4all - or cplay completely to play FLAC etc. Winamp kills the sound even with direct out.

In order of quality (using asio drivers)
CPLAY + CMP>> Cplay>>foobar + ASIO~foobar+ wasapi~foobar+kernel streaming>>winamp+asio etc.

 

[spirovious]

using Foobar2000 version,you say 8 is better?

 

[suprateep]

using Foobar2000 version,you say 8 is better?

yes somehow the latest 0.9 series was a blunder I guess - they added more functionality but somehow the quality got jacked. See if you can find the older installers somewhere on the web. I have 0.8 installed somewhere IMHO is the best.

 

[spirovious]

yes somehow the latest 0.9 series was a blunder I guess - they added more functionality but somehow the quality got jacked. See if you can find the older installers somewhere on the web. I have 0.8 installed somewhere IMHO is the best.

I dnlded ,but it is not working with ASIO,I tried to plugins & dumped in component folder.I can see ASIO option,but it doent play file.

I m talking abt WMA which was playing in 0.9,not in 0.8

 

[alpha1]

yes somehow the latest 0.9 series was a blunder I guess - they added more functionality but somehow the quality got jacked. See if you can find the older installers somewhere on the web. I have 0.8 installed somewhere IMHO is the best.

Are you certain about that?
The developer of foobar himselves claim that there should be no difference in the sound quality whether you use version 0.8 or 0.9 (infact they claim that there shouldn't be any diff from winamp also).

All that has changed from 0.8 to 0.9 is that some un-necessary functionality has been removed (which modify sound), and visually it looks more appealing.
Other than that, its been regular bug fixing.

 

[anm]

Well, all developers claim, and they claim tall! Including myself.

The developer of foobar himselves claim

 

[suprateep]

Are you certain about that?
The developer of foobar himselves claim that there should be no difference in the sound quality whether you use version 0.8 or 0.9 (infact they claim that there shouldn't be any diff from winamp also).

All that has changed from 0.8 to 0.9 is that some un-necessary functionality has been removed (which modify sound), and visually it looks more appealing.
Other than that, its been regular bug fixing.

yah but personally i noted whatever i observed. Play the same file using iso and winamp - there is a difference- more open soundstage if not details. (blind test concluded multiple times).

 

[spirovious]

Suprateep@ Can you tell me which plugin/component reqd to play WMA in foobar08.3? 0.9 supports WMA
I cant see even volume tab?How to bring it on?

how to set ASIO in 08?I put some files into componet folder,I can see ASIO opt in 0.8,but when I choose it,no contol panal in windows(activates in 0.9),
No opt to config ASIO.

 

[suprateep]

Suprateep@ Can you tell me which plugin/component reqd to play WMA in foobar08.3? 0.9 supports WMA
I cant see even volume tab?How to bring it on?

how to set ASIO in 08?I put some files into componet folder,I can see ASIO opt in 0.8,but when I choose it,no contol panal in windows(activates in 0.9),
No opt to config ASIO.

maybe you can try uninstalling and reinstalling asio4all. For me doing that multiple times helped it to configure and run on winamp.

BTW I just noticed WMA that you are tryig to play. AFAIL WMA was not natively supported by older versions.

Right click on the top window shade and click on volume bar - it will show.

 

[iaudio]

Hi
I have another doubt., What if i use a ordinary sound card say for Rs.3000/- and then use a external DAC like the Bresford or CA DAC Magic. My Sister is having a PC which she is not using now. Its with Pentium 4 Processor and Intel chipset board., can i use this along with a sound card and external DAC. the RAM is 512 and the HDD is 80GB.

Tharun, I suggest you find out the model number of the motherboard. If it supports PCI express, then you can just take your sister's pc, plonk in Asus Xonar Essence Stx, and upgrade to a 500 gb motherboard and live happily ever after. Cost of upgrade:
Xonar Stx: 8.2k
500gb hdd: 4.5k
Total: 12.7k
Else if you want the digital out only, stick to a 1-2k sound card( from creative).