Bitperfect motherboard...Realtek ALC880 pleasant suprise.

[bandit1200]

A nice suprise after putting together a new desktop for my home office.

The motherboard I used is an MSI K8NGM2-L from newegg -- an economy AMD 939 board with built in video, audio, etc. The board uses the RealTek ALC880 chipset for audio, which is apparently compliant with the Intel HD Audio spec.

After building the computer, installing XP Pro and the latest drivers, I hooked up the spdif out to a home theater receiver. The driver can be set to output at 44.1, 48, or 96. I set it at 44.1.

Using both iTunes and WMP11, I played a dts .wav test file to test for bitperfect output. With all the volume controls at max, no EQ, the receiver detected and decoded the file as dts no problem. What a nice suprise. As soon as I lower the volume at all, it loosess sync and all I hear is static, which, according to my internet sources, means that its bitperfect when the volume is all the way up.

Simple and easy, no configuration pains, no asio, kernal mode, etc, just bitperfect straight out of itunes as long as the volume is at max.

By the way, when I fire up a dvd, the spdif automatically changes and sends the 5.1 stream. Pretty slick.

Anyway, I thought I'd share. There seem to be a bunch of motherboards out there that use the realtek HD audio chipset. Mine was less than $100 with case and power supply. (FWIW, the analog 7.1 outputs are pretty noisy on this board, so SPDIF is the way to go.)

I think this is a nice simple solution for someone building a dedicated computer for audio especially if you have a nice outboard dac or HT receiver.

-Bandit.

Current office computer setup: Realtek 880 --> SPDIF --> Denon AVR-1706 --> Infinity Primus 150x2 + PS8 sub.

 

[thomaspf]

I posted a similar experience a while ago including the realtek chip on my Acer TM8200 laptop

However, be careful with updating the audio driver. I found that newer drivers fromt eh Realtek WEB site are no longer bit perfect.

I don't know why that is and whether this is just certain releases. Which driver version are you using?

Cheers

Thomas

 

[bandit1200]

It looks like the driver I'm using is 5.10.00.5319 -- I can't remember if I have upgraded it since testing the dts .wav file.

-Bandit

 

[jmmtn4aj]

Bitperfect out of iTunes? I think it still goes through kmixer, SPDIF or not..

 

[bandit1200]

Yeah, that's the cool thing. It still uses kmixer. I'll leave it to folks who understand how the HD audio driver subsystem in XP works to explain why it works, but it seems to. Its almost as if with volume at max, no other systems sounds playing, kmixer just passes the signal through at 44.1 untouched.

-Bandit.

 

[vYu223]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bandit1200 /img/forum/go_quote.gif It looks like the driver I'm using is 5.10.00.5319 -- I can't remember if I have upgraded it since testing the dts .wav file. -Bandit

How do I check for my version? I recently got a new computer and was delighted to find "Digital Audio" on the back of the computer, although I don't really have an idea what that means (on the lower right hand corner of my screen, in the tray, there's an icon with the description, "Realtek HD Audio Manager")!

 

[bandit1200]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vYu223 /img/forum/go_quote.gif How do I check for my version?

Launch the realtek HD audio manager and click the "I" button in the lower left corner. That's where I found mine.

-Bandit.

 

[bandit1200]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomaspf /img/forum/go_quote.gif However, be careful with updating the audio driver. I found that newer drivers fromt eh Realtek WEB site are no longer bit perfect.

Well...I retested it and it no longer works. I guess upgrading the driver screwed it up. That sucks. So what driver are you using?

-Bandit

 

[vYu223]

For me:

Audio Driver Version: 5.10.00.5268

Audio Codec: ALC883


Must downgrade to bit-perfect version!!! (>.<)

EDIT: So I guess that downloading from this page is a big no-no?: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&GetDown=false

EDIT 2: I got this new computer recently for a very generous price... I don't want to lose this nice bit-perfect surprise! I really hope this problem gets resolved... I'm wondering if Realtek would be offering old driver versions...

EDIT 3: Errm, Bandit - maybe it's possible that you accidentally bypassed the windows K-Mixer the first time, then accidentally did NOT bypass it the second time? Maybe it's not the problem with the driver? Try testing the whole thing out again.

 

[bandit1200]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vYu223 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Errm, Bandit - maybe it's possible that you accidentally bypassed the windows K-Mixer the first time, then accidentally did NOT bypass it the second time? Maybe it's not the problem with the driver? Try testing the whole thing out again.

I tried reinstalling the original drivers (that came with the motherboard)....no joy. As far as bypassing, I'm not sure how to do that, or how I could have accidentally. Out of my depth.

I guess its possible that rolling back the driver doesn't work because of something the later driver installed (like an updated windows component) that doesn't get removed with an uninstal. I just don't know.

Here I was thinking I had an easy way around all that kernal mode, asio junk. I guess the gods of Micros*ft are laughing at me. I surrender.

I'm going to reinstall the latest driver and call it quits until someone figures it out. It still sounds pretty good to me.

-Bandit.

 

[vYu223]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bandit1200 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I tried reinstalling the original drivers (that came with the motherboard)....no joy. As far as bypassing, I'm not sure how to do that, or how I could have accidentally. Out of my depth. I guess its possible that rolling back the driver doesn't work because of something the later driver installed (like an updated windows component) that doesn't get removed with an uninstal. I just don't know. Here I was thinking I had an easy way around all that kernal mode, asio junk. I guess the gods of Micros*ft are laughing at me. I surrender. I'm going to reinstall the latest driver and call it quits until someone figures it out. It still sounds pretty good to me. -Bandit.

Damnit, I can't settle for "just good enough." I'll try to do more research on this. But I'm still a newbie. We need help! How do you test if your setup is bit-perfect? What equipment do I need? So far, I only have the computer... that's a start.

EDIT: Bandit, can you do all of us a HUGE favor and reformat your machine? Or possibly zero-fill your harddrives? THEN when you install Windows again, everything should be back to the way it was.

Also, what computer did you get? Where did you buy it? What are the specs (the stickers on the box)? For the specs, DO NOT use dxdiag or any other specs that can be found using the software in the computer. That is because your setup is not bit-perfect anymore, so if you search for you specs using software in your computer, you will pick up the non-bit-perfect specs. Please post the specs that are on the stickers on the case of your computer or on the box that your computer came in.

 

[thomaspf]

Hi,

sorry my normal test machine is now running Vista but I just checked on my laptop. It still works (listening to Stings Fragile in DTS right now) bit perfect and the driver version is 5.10.0.5221.

Please remember to set your system sounds to No otherwise it kicks out of it whenever there is any other sound. I also found the Realtek control panel to provide strange behavior so I would avoid it.

My player is Jriver Media Center with Waveout selected as the playback method. This does not work if I select DirectSound.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[vYu223]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomaspf /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi, sorry my normal test machine is now running Vista but I just checked on my laptop. It still works (listening to Stings Fragile in DTS right now) bit perfect and the driver version is 5.10.0.5221. Please remember to set your system sounds to No otherwise it kicks out of it whenever there is any other sound. I also found the Realtek control panel to provide strange behavior so I would avoid it. My player is Jriver Media Center with Waveout selected as the playback method. This does not work if I select DirectSound. Cheers Thomas

How did you know that it was bit-perfect (what method did you use?)?

What is DTS? Is it Digital Theater Sound? What does it do?

Thanks!

 

[thomaspf]

A practical test for bit perfect playback can be conducted with DTS encoded WAV files. These tracks come as downloads or on DTS CDs and appear to contain standard 16bit /44.1Khz stereo material. When you play this on a CD player or undecoded on the PC the output will only be a loud hissing sound.

However, when you feed the signal over a digital link to a surround sound receiver it will detect that this data is in fact a DTS stream and will decode it into a 5.1 signal. This only works if the bits are not being modified by the OS or the sound card in any way but a re passed through bit perfect.

One reliable online source for DTS files in this format is the swedish radio

http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/mall/index.asp?programid=2445

I have a Sting CD in DTS format in my library and use that as my test track.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[vYu223]

Wait, so let me get this straight: So this bit-perfect digital audio thing... what is it used for? Is it only for home theaters and stuff like that? Or can I use it for listening to music through my headphones? I ask this question because I intend on listening to bit-perfect audio through my headphones (soon getting a pair of ER-4P... hopefully). Will this work? So what equipment do I need? What kind of cable/connector/"digital link" connects to the "digital audio" port on the back of the computer? Where can I buy this connector and for how much? Are there differing connector of this type varying in quality? What else do I need other than my computer and the "digital link" connector?

Is it TosLink? TosLink or "mini TosLink"? Is it something like this?: http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/a...nk_cables.html

So the connector/cable connects from the digital audio out in the back of the computer to...? What does it connect to? Sorry for so many questions...