The thing to remember with PCI-e soundcards is their designs are often kludged PCI to PCI-e designs. In that their original design and spec was for PCI but then they were adapted to work for PCI-e. This is passing though.

The thing is the junk they filter or absorb may not be in an audible band but whilst you cant tell if its helping, it may help something else in the system to get a cleaner signal. The more junk you can filter out the better all round.

I've been using ferrites inside my PCs for years. I have ferrites on all the power leads going in the HDDs and DVD drive and also a large one clamped around the main power lead just before the plug into the motherboard. Also smaller ferrites on all the auxilliary power leads to the...

I would expect it to have a Zune 'family' sound but just curious to know if it keeps that or has upped the ante so to speak.

Thanks for that. So folks...how does it sound?

As I've gone through several articles and a few reviews to no avail I thought I'd ask a basic question. Is the sound quality up to expectations? Is it better than expected? Its just that no one seems to have stopped messing around with the UI and software and actually plugged any...

Quote: Originally Posted by Lil' Knight iFixit just did a tear-down for the Nano G5. Hopefully they will do the same with the iTouch G3 soon. Still curious which DAC Apple uses for this one. When you see it taken apart like that it really does just look like $20 worth of bits.

Quote: Originally Posted by brotherlen I'm a photographer, and I don't even need this many craptastic cameras. Yes indeed, give me ONE proper camera rather than these crappy many megapixel wonders with tiny plastic 10cent lenses. Why do they bother???? What moron falls for...

Definate example of 'dropping the ball' here. The competition has caught up big time. Maybe we have reached the end of what you can feasibly put into units of this size and power. As mentioned previously, its now down to pure SQ to set yourself apart from the rest of the pack.

Quote: Originally Posted by goody the zune looks awesome !! i live in the uk.anybody willing to buy me one when it comes out or know any stores that ship to uk.. I'm sure zunethings.co.uk would sort you out in time. I'll be waiting to see what the Zii brings rather then the...

Quote: Originally Posted by rgbyhkr No surprise there. In order to gain market share, they need mass appeal. Higher emphasis on sound quality won't get them there. They are pushing Zune Pass hard and they likely don't see a mass market need to go beyond 192 WMA. Jeff Yeah when...

I appreciate our new MS rep is trying to find out more about the sonic potentials of a product he has been working on. That is to be applauded. However, it appears this kind of research might have been more beneficial say a year ago? Bit late now really. It does concern me that the other...

Quote: Originally Posted by eroarex i believe i've read somewhere that ms is going to release this zune worldwide although ms is a little bit late after cowon, sony, and apple Hmmm trouble is how is the HD radio (thats its named after) going to work outside the US? We all...

Thanks for the responses guys, some stuff to think about there. As for budget well I think we can be reasonably generous here but not extreme. This will not be for primary use.

I've been corresponding with a friend in Australia regarding headphones. Seems he's after some advice so I mentioned you good fellows being the font of all thats head-fi. Here is the note he sent me - "I've never much enjoyed headphones, even the expensive electrotatic variety, as the...

So any of you golden eared folks been able to pass the test so to speak? Or are you just arguing over it?

Why on earth would a firm bother to fit a different plug to the industry standard MOLEX connector that must cost less than a penny? Most bizarre. I reckon a ****-up on the production line.

I too was always under the impression that ASIO latency was more a technical/performance issue for the CPU/audio gear rather than a 'sound quality' feature. For playback it shouldnt really matter whether you set it to 5ms or 500ms. But hey if you think it works then good for you. Nice one.

2GB with Vista64 is more than enough for good normal performance. Sits happily in less than 700MB on my PC (I think W7 64 sits in around 560MB). If you build a scrappy install then it may cause problems but chances are they wont be ram related. However, I agree as 4GB ram sets are cheap and...

Oh and dbPoweramp works fine.

I've been using 64bit for over 18 months now and havent found one item of hardware or software that I currently use that wont work. The only one bit of software that doesnt work is Master of Orion 2 and that was for Win95 so I'll let that one go.

Yep still using my 'proper' Plextor drive with all the added extras. I looked them up recently and they are just re-named Sony/NEC drives now (have been for a while). Hardly worth the large premium for the name. I know the original Plextors were other manufacturers drives but at least they...

With Clips so cheap...why bother? If it lasts a year or 18 months thats great. Then get another one or whatever replaced it. Its so small an inch of sellotape every couple of weeks would do. If it cost $150+ I'd understand.

However, chances you'll notice the difference for almost twice the time/effort - Pretty much nil.

Been playing with the Custom setting. Its 'variable' to say the least. All level you adjust any one of them one click up or down and the sound goes to hell. Not very sophisticated is it? Then for £25 what is?