[lag0a]

If you want to test the sounds coming from your computer try hearing what it sounds like lets say at 1 ghz and 1.1 volt using x1 CPU core vs higher ghz and high voltage CPU even more than one core. You will know how your music can sound from just changing that then you know it isn't even close to bitperfect or what music should sound.

 

[somestranger26]

Something is seriously wrong with your power supply (or maybe motherboard) if it doesn't sound like music should sound.
 
Also, modern CPUs undervolt to 1.1/1.2V when not being utilized heavily (most of the time).

 

[Baird GoW]

Hi there folks!
Just so y'all know I have seven 1.5TB hard Drives in Raid 6 and I hear nothing even when transferring terabytes of information.
Also I may upgrade my sas to sata connectors to right angle ones as I hear right angle sata cables make a large difference in sound stage.
O geez... looks like I need to downgrade my pc from a sexto-core to a single core processor. Must it also be clocked at exactly 1ghz?

 

[lag0a]

Have you compared the difference? Can you confirm it sounds the same? I didn't say anything about the power supply, the motherboard, and how music should sound according to your response. I know some CPUs have different power states or power stages at idle and low CPU usage. I don't know what you're trying to say and I'm guessing you're responding to my post.
 
Also I've discovered indepth lately that different parts of a DAC have software modes and the built in software may have more tweaking options than hardware mode that most people use in their DAC. I think these software modes are mainly in the digital stage and possibly only boards with jumpers or settings on them used for hardware mode. Each spdif tranceiver, asrc spdif, and dac may be accessed in software mode. 
 
http://hifiduino.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/sabre32-dac-i2s-further-experiments/

 
Quote:

Something is seriously wrong with your power supply (or maybe motherboard) if it doesn't sound like music should sound.
 
Also, modern CPUs undervolt to 1.1/1.2V when not being utilized heavily (most of the time).

 

[somestranger26]

I noticed a difference when I upgraded to my current power supply, but never a difference swapping components, such as going from one hard drive to six or upgrading my graphics card. Have you compared a good power supply to a bad power supply, rather than simply assuming that your underclock/volt will make a difference regardless of power supply quality?
 
You definitely did mention "what music should sound" and the motherboard/power supply are implicit problems, because if you have a good psu and mobo you shouldn't hear a difference undervolting your CPU. Also, undervolting and underclocking is quite unnecessary seeing as foobar2000 uses 1% of my CPU... enabling it to be underclocked and undervolted automatically.
 
Quote:

/img/forum/go_quote.gif

If you want to test the sounds coming from your computer try hearing what it sounds like lets say at 1 ghz and 1.1 volt using x1 CPU core vs higher ghz and high voltage CPU even more than one core. You will know how your music can sound from just changing that then you know it isn't even close to bitperfect or what music should sound.

Quote:

Have you compared the difference? Can you confirm it sounds the same? I didn't say anything about the power supply, the motherboard, and how music should sound according to your response. I know some CPUs have different power states or power stages at idle and low CPU usage. I don't know what you're trying to say and I'm guessing you're responding to my post.
 
Quote:

Something is seriously wrong with your power supply (or maybe motherboard) if it doesn't sound like music should sound.
 
Also, modern CPUs undervolt to 1.1/1.2V when not being utilized heavily (most of the time).

 

[leeperry]

 

 
My USB power was perfectly fine with the Hiface

A famous mod for the Hiface is to ditch the USB power, and use batteries instead....everyone's claimed hearing a major SQ improvement. A Corsair PSU is cheap nowadays, but keep thinking that they were all using noname PSU's if you like. It's got nothing to do w/ the PSU results on a test bench, it's got to do w/ sharing noisy components on the same PSU rail.

 

[Trapper32]

Most of the noisy components are on the 12 volt rail aren't they and the usb the 5v..so they aren't sharing the same rail...  Keep thinking all computers are the same if you want to.
Quote:

 

 
My USB power was perfectly fine with the Hiface

A famous mod for the Hiface is to ditch the USB power, and use batteries instead....everyone's claimed hearing a major SQ improvement. A Corsair PSU is cheap nowadays, but keep thinking that they were all using noname PSU's if you like. It's got nothing to do w/ the PSU results on a test bench, it's got to do w/ sharing noisy components on the same PSU rail.

 

[zenpunk]

Just record a 3mn track of silence in audacity and play it through your headphone with all volumes maxed out and listen to all those "dirty" power rails and "noisy" components....
OOoops! Can't hear a thing! ...
You can repeat the test with the different inputs of your dac and while copying large files between hard drives or having your video card doing intensive rendering to test it out. With my system I get nada, completely black background however hard I try.

 

[leeperry]

 

Most of the noisy components are on the 12 volt rail aren't they and the usb the 5v..so they aren't sharing the same rail

 

 
HDD's ruin the 5V ripple, and all components flush to the ground...which ends up dirty as hell. Breaking news, I know.
 

Just record a 3mn track of silence in audacity and play it through your headphone with all volumes maxed out and listen to all those "dirty" power rails and "noisy" components....
OOoops! Can't hear a thing! ...
You can repeat the test with the different inputs of your dac and while copying large files between hard drives or having your video card doing intensive rendering to test it out. With my system I get nada, completely black background however hard I try.

Oh yah, we should all go back to Realtek's.

 

[ninjikiran]

On my current machine I have not heard any kind of noise or nastiness using my sound cards output in analog and digital as well.  (This was not true on my older computers)
 
Though I would be more worried about the noise a computer makes more than its PSU.  Considering you can supply USB-->Spdif converters with an external power supply with those fancy ADUM units if the situation ever arises its a fixable problem.  If your happy with how everything is in your system, its best just go with what you feel best.
 
As for leeperry, his brain is galvonically isolated on every level  
 
@Leeperry
Your sarcasm sometimes confuses me
Quote:

Just record a 3mn track of silence in audacity and play it through your headphone with all volumes maxed out and listen to all those "dirty" power rails and "noisy" components....
OOoops! Can't hear a thing! ...
You can repeat the test with the different inputs of your dac and while copying large files between hard drives or having your video card doing intensive rendering to test it out. With my system I get nada, completely black background however hard I try.

 

[Trapper32]

Quote:

 

Most of the noisy components are on the 12 volt rail aren't they and the usb the 5v..so they aren't sharing the same rail

 

 
HDD's ruin the 5V ripple, and all components flush to the ground...which ends up dirty as hell. Breaking news, I know.
 

Just record a 3mn track of silence in audacity and play it through your headphone with all volumes maxed out and listen to all those "dirty" power rails and "noisy" components....
OOoops! Can't hear a thing! ...
You can repeat the test with the different inputs of your dac and while copying large files between hard drives or having your video card doing intensive rendering to test it out. With my system I get nada, completely black background however hard I try.

Oh yah, we should all go back to Realtek's.

SSD's?  External drives?  all psu's or only certain ones?  every motherboard?  every video card?  etc etc   Its easy to generalize without providing proof.  There's just too many variables to make a blanket statement regarding all computers... breaking news flash.

 

[udailey]

I dont know if anyone has looked at the internals of a Audio-GD device, but I get the funny feeling that he feels power supplies are extremely important to sound quality. He also has separate power supplies for each important piece of the device. A digital signal isnt actually zeros and ones at all. Its voltage fluctuations. We code in a zero and the computer generates a voltage that it interprets as a zero... so if you have a dirty supply I can imagine some misinterpretation going on from computer to DAC.

 

[Trapper32]

Quote:

I dont know if anyone has looked at the internals of a Audio-GD device, but I get the funny feeling that he feels power supplies are extremely important to sound quality. He also has separate power supplies for each important piece of the device. A digital signal isnt actually zeros and ones at all. Its voltage fluctuations. We code in a zero and the computer generates a voltage that it interprets as a zero... so if you have a dirty supply I can imagine some misinterpretation going on from computer to DAC.

Indeed, most of the Audio_GD gear has substantial power supplies built into the gear and is undoubtedly one of the reasons why they sound so good.  The fact that Kingwa feels that USB power for his Digital Interface "can work well " and only provides a power supply as an option however, should tell you something. .  In any event, more than a few head-fiers are entirely satisfied with their "dirty" usb power feeding their DI.

 

[lag0a]

When a head-fier believes in buying any electronic equipment and there is nothing to mod or nothing worth modding then you know what they will settle for. Some people won't settle for anything because they know it will improve their sound quality so its up to what you wish to believe.

 
Quote:

Quote:

I dont know if anyone has looked at the internals of a Audio-GD device, but I get the funny feeling that he feels power supplies are extremely important to sound quality. He also has separate power supplies for each important piece of the device. A digital signal isnt actually zeros and ones at all. Its voltage fluctuations. We code in a zero and the computer generates a voltage that it interprets as a zero... so if you have a dirty supply I can imagine some misinterpretation going on from computer to DAC.

Indeed, most of the Audio_GD gear has substantial power supplies built into the gear and is undoubtedly one of the reasons why they sound so good.  The fact that Kingwa feels that USB power for his Digital Interface "can work well " and only provides a power supply as an option however, should tell you something. .  In any event, more than a few head-fiers are entirely satisfied with their "dirty" usb power feeding their DI.

 

[leeperry]

 

When a head-fier believes in buying any electronic equipment and there is nothing to mod or nothing worth modding then you know what they will settle for. Some people won't settle for anything because they know it will improve their sound quality so its up to what you wish to believe.
 

I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly, but there's many real world measurements to back up my statements. I already posted a few and you might as well look up thoppa's tests results on the forum and on diyparadise.com.
 
As been said, Kingwa is well aware of how important a good PSU is..and most everyone who tried the DI+PSU combo stated that the SQ improvement was drastic. Audio is nasty coz you can never know what you're missing, simply rest assured that they're always something better sounding out there...there is no such thing as 100% perfect SQ. Someone used to a Realtek will be as happy as an OCD'ed guy using more expensive audio gear, they simply have different standards...because one has heard better gear than the other.
 
Ignorance is bliss. You can find zillions positive feedbacks on the DT770/Pro80....seriously? for $179? same goes for the Denon d2k IMO. everyone who tried the jkeny hiface went nuts, do you think they all fell for placebo? Give them back a stock hiface and they'll hate it, even though they used to like it before.
 
A cleaner and isolated power signal goes a long way...the dirtier it is, the more edgy/harsh/colored the sound will be. And the only way to find out is by hearing it w/ your own ears.