Quote: A/B'ing a Lame APS encoded MP3 and a FLAC encoded file is difficult. Recorded hand clapping is the easiest one to A/B due to MP3's pre-echo. I haven't visited Hydrogen Audio in a long time, but back in the LAME 3.90 days there would be lots of A/B testers for MP3 vs Lossless. They...

IMO, almost all iem's need some type of plug modification for the proper fit. Or foamies you replace every couple of months . All the rubber plugs that shipped with my E2c didn't fit my ear canal. I custom fabbed Sony ones to fit. From my experience, for a standard iem bud, Sony has the softest...

Here's some pics and explanation. You assume all responsibility if you decide to do this mod.   It's pretty self explanatory.I would work on a large white towel so the small parts don't get lost. Remove the small screw on the back-side of the hinge. It's thread-locked on, so make extra sure...

Quote: The sound is full, more balanced. Most notable change was that female vocals sound more natural. Bass response is still less than my KSC-35s and about the same as HD280 Pro (although not as deep as the 280s). Let me also add that taking apart the swing mechanism illustrates the...

Last night I received a pair of AT's EW9 clip-on ear phones. I would rate their stock fit as C- and comfort at a B. SQ-wise it excels in detail, but lacks in bass. It's a design issue due to the swinging hinge. There is not enough tension to keep the ear phones snug against your ear, they flop...

Two weeks ago I had my clip+ and KSC35's stolen at the gym. Since then I've been looking for alternatives. I liked the ksc35s, but their fit while running never felt right.     With that information in mind, I set out to find a pair of ear buds weighing in less than 20g, non-sealed (i.e. not...

Second on SE530, but may be hard to find under 250.

There's an old post on DIY audio that discusses this. The clock on the original 1001/1002 PS1 can be tweaked and made into a low-jitter transport. The pleasing sound people describe about the 1001/1002 is due to the DAC output implementation producing even-order distortion. This type of sound is...

Great thread, it provides lots of good technical information and informed viewpoints. Through reading this thread, ignoring the banter and other analogies, I agree with Crowbar's underlying opinion of reaching beyond mediocrity. This type of mindset can help break glass ceilings in a given...

Quote: Originally Posted by donws Does anyone know which USB or PCI cards have the lowest jitter coax or optical outputs? I'm currently using a Juli@ in one computer, but in that case the Juli@'s internal DAC is feeding a multizone amp for a whole-house audio setup. For my...

Ok, here is my upsampling result comaprison. Output is a Creative X-fi optical digital out (bit-matched playback, except for "X-Fi Audio Resample" device result) at 16-bit, 48khz. I played the 44.1 khz RMAA test file in Foobar using ASIO output, and used the SSRC and PPHS plugin to upsample to...

Quote: Originally Posted by chesebert not true, no brick filter is perfect, by up sample you are much more likely to arrive at the ideal sine wave. if the brick filter is perfect you wouldn't need to up sample. Chesebert, This is a good article talking about brick wall...

One more thing to quote, this time from Foobar's own FAQ: Quote: *Q: What resampler settings should I use? * A: First, you shouldn’t use resampler at all, unless you can tell the difference between resampling being enabled and disabled; resampler is a resource hog and the differences...

Quote: Originally Posted by Comfy Some people here are seemingly confusing Foobar's native SSRC and the third party plugin SRC (Secret Rabbit Code), the latter being a much better resampling plugin. I get excellent results with the Secret Rabbit Code plugin (at 24/96 or 24/88.2), but...

Quote: Originally Posted by kipman725 well shamefully I'm using sis onboard sound here untill I have the money to buy a soundcard here so it may be somekind of hardware issue I'm having here. definatly a huge differance though, If everyone else is hearing practicaly nothing then it must...

Quote: Originally Posted by kipman725 right using my setup which is pretty crappy apart from my headphones upsampling sounded alot better (more detail and the sound and individual instruments were more difined and easier to position and I could hear some background noises I never could...

This is a good cross-reference thread that got started: http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=212337

This may give more insight as to why, in my opinion, upsampling has been marketed as better sound quality: Mosts DVD players use a clock of 27mhz or 54mhz, both of which are not a compatible clock frequency for 44.1khz audio. To solve this issue, some companies use a cheap PLL to allow...

Quote: Originally Posted by audioengr I dont agree. When transients are clipped due to insufficient sample-rate, good upsampling algorithms can add the missing samples back-in, providing more dynamics and clarity to the transients. I and my customers have done lots of listening tests...

I have never seen any evidence proving upsampling/resampling does anything beside provide a compatible sample rate and bit depth for your sound card. Resampling arised from the incompatible sample rates between Redbook CD and DAT (Redbook being 44.1khz, DAT being 48khz.)...

Quote: Originally Posted by yellafella321 Here it is, same as the title, what does jitter sound like, and how do you identify it. Here's the closest test I've found to "hear" jitter: http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=136421

I don't understand, did they redo the original 1212m? Or does Dailytech not realize how long the 1212m has been out?

Quote: Originally Posted by 003 The E-MU drivers are hell. The big upside to the Juli@ is it's digital out -- which is exactly as good as the Lynx Two, so it would be the best choice when you get an external DAC, which you eventually will. Also just because a sound card has a better...

If you do gaming, you're best choice is the X-fi. I have te Xtrememusic myself, and find the drivers to be sketchy. For instance, I had issue with my 0404 and X-fi in the pc at the same time. Ended up having to take out the 0404 because I need the SRC in the X-fi for the audio work I do.

Quote: Originally Posted by TheBicFlic I am a newb to audiophile, so please bare with me. For a long time I made the terrible mistake of buying music off the iTunes store and uploading all my CDs and the CDs I borrowed to iTunes. Now that I am interested in using Foobar, am I screwed...