Quote: Originally Posted by MaloS Otherwise there would be NO DIFFERENCE between my Stello DAC and an EMM Labs CDP. Are you implying that the difference in the digital path of these devices produces more effect on analog output than the difference in analog paths? (Schematic...

Quote: Originally Posted by webbie64 Level 5 encodes and decodes faster That's not true; decoding (i.e. playback) speed does not depend on compression level. Interesting writing otherwise

Thanks!

Quote: Originally Posted by Sir Nobax k let me rephrase this: DUH!! I have sigs turned off, and I forgot that X-fi is not even in my sig any more KT88, Xonar has Burr-Brown DACs, right? EDIT: Answering my own question, Yes, according to the 2nd picture on this page.

Quote: Originally Posted by Sir Nobax CREATIVE SUCKS ! *...looks at sig* Aw, crap. CREATIVE IS THE BEST ! ! WHooooO! I assume you mean my sig? I don't use X-fi for music, for reasons I described above.

Quote: Originally Posted by CTY I would like to understand why using DirectSound or any other Kmixer related output method degrades the sound quality. If there are no other applications playing audio at the same time, there should happen no mixing and the audio stream should just be...

Quote: 2 - The ASUS driver has a place to select the sample rate of the card. If you use it in 44.1KHz the 22.05KHz is the limit. I know Quote: 1 - maybe the RMAA is set to check only 20-20 (as I do in some cases) Well, seeing that it's on EVERY graph, either they...

One thing you have to keep in mind is that there is a strong anti-creative sentiment among computer audiophiles Also, most creative haters probably never heard the Elite Pro, only the lesser models (elite pro has flagship Cirrus Logic DACs, different board layout and IIRC better opamps as...

Quote: RMAA results are utterly worthless and has absolutely no correlation with human hearing. evaluations must be based on subjective impressions sort of like the reviews we have on head-fi. Of what use are your subjective impressions to me, given that "everybody's ears are...

Quote: Originally Posted by vcoheda why do major amp manufacturers (RSA, HeadRoom, Single Power, HeadAmp) always demo their equipment at meets using CD players instead of computer based setups? Despite being knowledgeable in their field, some people may be afraid of computers...

For example: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._1_4_Male.html Unless you want to pay out of your nose for magic cables There are tons of cheaper ones, like HOSA, and more expensive ones like Monster (say away) or Mogami. Just google for TRS-RCA cable.

Quote: Originally Posted by silverfox Sorry, I was unclear. I meant better than the modded X-Fi, which has the same DAC X-fi uses a mid-range 8ch Cirrus Logic DAC, while Prelude has 4x2ch AKM4396 (AKM's flagship) feeding its 7.1 channels.

^ Joke post?

You need an amp. Senns 595 are 60 ohm and demand a lot of current. Straight out of Julia, I don't think they'll sound good and there is a chance of damaging the card. Consider E-Mu 0404 usb. Link to a review is in my sig. I think Gatticus is using it with HD 595, search for his impressions.

Quote: Originally Posted by 003 Ok thats a really bad idea... that the same thing as hooking up a pair of headphones to a line out. Thats right up there with hooking up a turntable without an RIAA equalization stage Not really. The scope of problems that you get from...

Quote: Originally Posted by 003 BTW you can't use just an adapter with it -- there is no built in amp, at all. Juli@ can drive high-impedance cans like Senns, it has enough juice for that. The SQ will probably be nothing to write home about, and max volume may not satisfy...

Julia is better when it comes to sound quality. Maya has a built-in headphone amp, though (there is no headphone jack on Julia, period--you need HP-RCA or HP-XLR adapter). If you have, or planning to have, a headphone amp, go for Julia.

Most modern DACs, even though they are marked as "192 KHz", actually have problems when fed a 192 KHz signal. If you must upsample for whatever reason, go up to 88.2 or 96 KHz.

No, it's just the length of a buffer foobar keeps in RAM. Basically, if you apply some aftereffect, e.g. EQ, it will only manifest after 1 sec (since foobar has 1000 ms of music prepared in advance of what is playing at the moment, and what's already in the buffer will not get EQ'd...

I think I read somewhere that data is sent to the soundcard in 32-bit format anyway. What you are setting is basically where the padding occurs: in foobar or in the driver/OS. I guess foobar is less likely to muck up data, so just do it in foobar. Don't quote me on this, though--I don't remember...

Are you using the "regular" mode or the high-def output? If the latter, you need to plug speakers in the black port on the card, the one next to optical if I recall correctly.

Quote: Originally Posted by cyanidebm received my emu 0404 usb Friday, is the monitor knob supposed to go around 360 degrees? thanks! Yes. It's not used during normal USB operation though.

Normally the frequency response of a peace of equipment is given as (for example) 20 Hz - 20 KHz +/- 3dB, which means that there is a 3 dB roll-off on both ends. If an amp's -3 dB points are e.g. at 10 Hz and 100 KHz, then the audible range will be extremely linear, with no roll-off. As for...

I think it's a synchronization problem. Are you connecting 0404 through USB or S/PDIF? Also, if you are using foobar, try increasing the buffer size and upping the thread priority (File -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Playback -> Thread Priority, set it to 1).

Quote: Originally Posted by DarkAngel 2)If I am just using to listen to music on computer with headphones is the E-Mu 0202 the same sound quality for less money? 0202 uses not-quite-top-of-the-line Cirrus Logic DAC, while 0404 has AKM flagship. Specs-wise, the chip in 0202 is not...