I've been wondering this for a while now...
When using a PC as a source:

1) What should the volume be set to? (feeding a Creek OBH-11 from a Terratec EWX 24/96 output)

2) How should the CD-Rom audio be played back... digital cable to the soundcard? Analogue cable to the soundcard? Tick window's "Enable digital CD audio for this CD-ROM device"? Is there a difference at all?

Cheers

well, if your computer can handle digital audio extraction from the CD-Rom, the Analog Cable is unnecessary, it just streams the data through the IDE cable.



[size=medium]!!1066 TEN SIXTY-SIX!! WOOHOO!![/size]

The "Enable digital CD audio" should be the best option, as nothing has to go through a cable... using the CDROM's analog out to the soundcard would be the worst option.

BTW, do you have the non-SE version of the OBH-11... if so, have you seen my tests using a linear regulated wall wart with this amp? It's a huge improvement.

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Yup fewtch, I have the non-se OBH-11, and I've read your tread. Though I'm waiting 'til next month's update to get that, better interconnects and new cables for my Sennheiser HD580s (stupid fragile thing broke).
Thanks for the suggestion!

As for the other question... what should the soundcard volume be set at? Maximum? 50%?

Ymer: 1) Unless you run into distortion problems, the volume should be maxed out on the sound card in order to achieve maximum signal to noise ratio.

2) As mentioned by fewtch, analog connection is worst, because the analog outputs of cd/dvd-rom-drives or -burners are generally not that good - and the probaility of catching unwanted interference through the analog cable is rather high as well. So you should chose the digital connection, instead - it cannot harm to have the cable for ttl-s/p-dif conneted (maybe except from very few extremely strange emi problems, maybe...), even if you decide to use digital audio extraction (= get the audio data over the ide cable) in your operating system.

The advantage of using the s/p-dif-connection is that the drive can go into audio mode for cd playback and thus deliver the audio signal without further cpu interaction, whereas digital audio extraction (dae) will cause a small cpu load. And just in case you plan to experiment with other operating systems, it's good to have the digital connection prepared anyway, because not every os features system-wide dae-support.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

I would not set the volume to maximum. I believe doing so would runs the drivers and all too close to their thresholds. I think you souldn't go much above about the 85% mark. of course nothing is written in stone. I just believe that much louder and you'll run into all kinds of problems that won't be obvious distortion. Intermodulation issues come to mind the most.

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Good point, but no problem for Ymer's Terratec - it has quite a bit of headroom. Whereas a few of the cheap divx dvd players I've compared a few weeks ago (as my last article for the magazine I was employed at, until I quit recently...) indeed suffered from the problem: At maximum line level (~ 2.3 V for these), a few models were already showing some 10 - 30 % THD (!) with typical line loads...

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

when I used my Z-560's by their lonesome I had the volume set to 50% because the volume control was too sensitive in the area, and it let me jack it up where it wasn't as sensitive.

Yeah, that's where I got the 50% idea from. I have a silly pair of Klipsch Promedia 2.1s and that's what I use.