A USB DAC would introduce extra processor load on the system, I'm trying to avoid that. The main purpose of this is to electrically isolate the headphones from the main system, to hopefully get rid of the noise of HDD seeks, chassis fan speed changes, and (I kid you not) the occasional overheard...

Hi all, been a while since I've posted here. I've done some poking around in the Computer Audio forum, but haven't found any good info on cheap (<$100) DAC boxes. I'm looking for something that takes TOSLINK or SPDIF input, and outputs to 1/8" or 1/4" stereo mini. Any thoughts? Edit: I should...

Two questions, somewhat related: 1) My HD280s, which I have absolutely loved, are beginning to show their age. My head is rather large to begin with, and the brittle plastic used with the headband has cracked and broken, to the point where it's being held together by copious amounts of duct...

Quote: Originally Posted by brospin Thanks for all the contributions! Is direct ripping with iTunes form CD to AAC not recommended? Is quality significantly higher when ripping into wav with EAC and then compressing with either an external encoder or with iTunes? It depends...

It's snake oil, plain and simple. Nothing--let me say that again, nothing--can restore data discarded by a psychoacoustic compressor (a la MP3, AAC, OGG, et al). The best this thing can do is apply an eq filter to the outgoing audio stream to try to mask some of the more common artifacts. Do...

Pardon if I sound horribly noobish for asking, but aren't MP3Gain and iTunes's Sound Check performing basically the same function (gain adjustment to avoid clipping)? If that's the case, then you need only enable Sound Check to get the benefits of gain adjustment.

Thanks Sockman, I found the same info elsewhere. As it turns out, it is indeed compliant with the Intel standard for audio header connectors. Who knew?

This is a fairly esoteric question, but I figure someone in here might have experience with this. I'm trying to hook up the front audio ports on my case to the audio header pins on the AV-710, but I've run into a bit of a snag. The wires coming from the header, rather than being locked into...

Quote: Originally Posted by Helter Skelter And formal computer training is overrated. I'm all about hands-on doing stuff for yourself rather than being taught that someone's personal preference is always the "right" way to do something. Agreed. I learned 95% of what I know about...

Ok, just installed the newest VIA Envy drivers, b/c I heard they finally fixed the volume bug. Problem is, kernel streaming and ASIO4All now refuse to function. Period. Have tried multiple un- and re-installs of the drivers, as well as ASIO4All, but no dice. Has anyone else had this kind of...

Quote: Originally Posted by alexanderino MPC (Musepack) is not lossless. -- Jason Point taken.

Quote: Originally Posted by Asmo I use foobar because I love tabbed playlists for managing music, and you can simply use the plugin for foobar that mimics itunes interface. I use foobar because it provides more power, technically, and UI over my music. There's a plugin for this...

Quote: Originally Posted by DukeTogo There is also a generic ASIO device which maybe can help you if you want it... I have no idea, not played with it: http://michael.tippach.bei.t-online....all/intro.html Um, according to the text on the ASIO4All site, the t-online.de address...

Gordian Knot rip pack [doom9.net] is a good one-stop-shop for DVD-ripping. The included Robot4Rip frontend makes it damn simple--choose the program chain you want, choose a target folder, choose an audio output format, and hit the go button. It doesn't always do the conversion properly, but it...

Are the HDDs IDE(wide, ribbon-style cable) or SATA (thin, flat cable)? SATA HDDs have a much lower power-draw (250mV, as opposed to 5V for IDE drives). Removing extra components is a good way to lessen the strain on the PSU, but in your case, I'd say you should get a good aftermarket PSU to...

Quote: Originally Posted by uzziah thanks. i thought that's what you meant. yes, i have virus protection. advice much appreciated also, off topic, but....... i "loaded optimized defaults" in bios. is that right? or should i "load fail-safe defualts". i'm not having any instability. no...

Quote: Originally Posted by uzziah what is the "sytem tray" ? thanks for the advice, i'll put it to good use Look in the lower-right corner of the screen. See that box with the clock and some eensy icons? That's the systray. You can right-click the icons (and the clock...

192khz? Is there anything out there source-wise that uses such a sickeningly high sample rate, or is this just upsampling to smooth out less-than-ideal source files? AFAIK, the AV-710 maxes out at 96khz, which sounds very nice to my ears.

Quote: Originally Posted by uzziah darn it, there's that high pitched whine again. i mean, it's intolerable. i think you all know the sound i'm talking about. right on the edge of hearing. it sounds horrible. i raise the pixel count, and it goes away, but i don't want to have to do that...

TCP/IP-enabled audio devices (think AirPort Express and the wired equivalents) recieve the files as a digital bitstream, so kmixer wouldn't even enter into the equation there. USB-DAC's look like external sound-cards to Windows, so kmixer will step in, unless you use KS or ASIO with your...

Quote: Originally Posted by Asmo My mistake, you only need to flash the chaintech to the prodigy if you want bit perfect output from applications that do NOT use kernel streaming, sorry. Would this include applications that use ASIO? AFAIK, ASIO is supposed to produce the same...

Quote: Originally Posted by johnnysize I will say for serious gaming there is absolutely nothing better than headphones. I play counter-strike online and the only way to get pinpoint accuracy is with headphones. Its crucial if you are being silent and listening to someones footsteps so...

Quote: Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver There is a way to convert Apple Lossless files back into WAV files using iTunes. I did exactly that with some of my songs which I forgot to identify/title correctly. Simply convert the Apple Lossless selections to WAV using the WAV converter (you...

quick fix: in the field that lists the server url, change it from http://freedb.freedb.org:80/~cddb/cddb.cgi to http://uk.freedb.org:80/~cddb/cddb.cgi Basically, the redirect-server, named "freedb" on freedb.org s*its itself every so often. The "uk" mirror-server on freedb.org, by...

I vote for depends on the cans. With my RatShack Pro35A's (made by Koss, not sure whether they're analogous to PortaPros or not), the bass was OK un-EQ-ed, but nothing to write home about. EQ made a muddy mess of the bass on both the RatShacks and my Sony MDR-CD180s (Sony bashers can shut up...