Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › transport options
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

transport options

post #1 of 8
12/13/10 at 12:32pm
Thread Starter 

Hi there,

 

I've been lurking these forums recently because I wanted to get into hifi. I just purchased a pair of hd650 headphones with SAA equinox cables and new drivers in the classifields and I have ordered a burson audio ha-160d (edit: this is a new product from burson and it is a dac/preamp/headphone amp and is different from the HA160 which is only a headphone amp) which I hope will sound great! But I'm a little bit lost when it comes to transport. My computer is where i store all my music, mostly in lossless :) I was going to just plug a usb cable straight into my ha-160d from my pc, but I have been told I might get better quality if I use a spdif/coaxial cable instead, because usb cables can make the sound jittery (edit: when I say jittery, I do not mean as in it profoundly impacts the sound quality I am talking about a minor difference in audio quality, jittery is the word which someone else used to describe it). I do have a something in my PC which I think I could do this with, a PCIe creative sound blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio sound card.

 

So basically, do you think I would get better sound quality using a sound card with a coaxial cable into my ha-160d rather than a usb cable straight from my pc? If so, would my current sound card suffice? Or should I upgrade to a better sound card? Or should I consider getting a digital interface such as a musiland device which converts the usb signal from my pc into a clean spdif stream before going into my ha-160d?

 

Either way, is there much point in buying aftermarket usb/coaxial cables?

 

What about WASAPI and such? I was wondering how easy this is to set up.

 

Is there any point in upgrading my dvd drive on my computer which I use to rip my CD's?

 

Anyway, thanks for reading.


Edited by nat0 - 12/13/10 at 1:25pm
Reply
post #2 of 8
12/13/10 at 1:07pm

USB cables will not make your "sound jittery", but thanks for giving me a nice afternoon laugh, I really appreciate it, was having a bit of a long day. :)

 

The Xtreme Audio isn't an ideal transport, as it's not bit-perfect.

 

I think you actually are looking for more than a transport (carries digital audio signal from source to DAC), as you're missing a DAC.

 

Before looking at tweaks like aftermarket cables, first set up the main system.  You are going to want a transport and a DAC.  Personally, I'd recommend selling that Equinox cable and using the stock until you want to play with cables (a fun activity, though considerably less influential compared to quality components).  With the added budget from that Equinox, you can easily get a decent quality DAC and use either a USB transport or, my personal favorite, the EMU0404PCI (about $50 off eBay) or you can consider getting one of the new USB to S/PDIF converters popping up on the market, most at around $100-$150 price range.

 

Send the output digital audio stream to a DAC and then a normal pair of RCA cables to your amp. :)

 

There is no benefit of upgrading a DVD drive, though I do recommend using a program like EAC to get accurate rips that are verified against an internet database for integrity.

Reply
post #3 of 8
12/13/10 at 1:16pm
Thread Starter 

The HA-160D has an inbuilt DAC? You must have mistaken it for the HA-160.

Reply
post #4 of 8
12/13/10 at 1:24pm

Oh, in that case, just use USB.  If you want to use S/PDIF, either an external USB to S/PDIF converter will work or a sound card such as the EMU0404PCI, though both are quite redundant solutions as you can simply use the USB connection on the unit.  There are reasons to use S/PDIF instead of USB, but that's 100% dependent on implementation.

Reply
post #5 of 8
12/13/10 at 1:27pm
Thread Starter 

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by FallenAngel View Post

Oh, in that case, just use USB.  If you want to use S/PDIF, either an external USB to S/PDIF converter will work or a sound card such as the EMU0404PCI, though both are quite redundant solutions as you can simply use the USB connection on the unit.  There are reasons to use S/PDIF instead of USB, but that's 100% dependent on implementation.

 

Yeah I thought it would depend a lot upon the unit as to whether s/pdif instead of usb would be better. thanks for clearing this up. i'll just stick with the usb cable for starters and experiment later on. cheers.

 

What would be your reccomendation for software? I've heard ASIO with Foobar is good.


Edited by nat0 - 12/13/10 at 2:46pm
Reply
post #6 of 8
12/13/10 at 1:30pm
Thread Starter 

Hmm is it just me or is this forum interface hard to get use to?

Reply
post #7 of 8
12/13/10 at 1:36pm

It's not just you, the forum isn't as intuitive or user-friendly as some others...

Reply
post #8 of 8
12/13/10 at 3:03pm

Depends on operating system.  Windows XP : ASIO, Windows Vista or 7 : WASAPI.

Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Computer Audio
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › transport options