[MagusG]

IE. High grade power supply(seasonic), low guage power cord(read: fat), something such as a One AC power conditioner, nothing off the wall expensive, but perhaps enough to make a difference? This and some dampening from vibrations could make a positive difference in the sound, no?
-Mag

 

[Mr.Radar]

Most (all?) computer power supplies are cheap switching designs. Higher quality PSUs can make a difference though. Iron_Dreamer reported an increase in sound quality (when he was using an internal soundcard's analog output, a 1212m I think) when he switched from an average quality PSU to a PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 510 Deluxe (the best computer PSU available). Almost all "brand-name" computers and most computer cases come with junk power supplies. [See below for an overview of good PSUs.] Power conditioning the incoming power could possibly help (especially on lower-quality PSUs without active PFC). If you believe in power cables (I've never heard an "audiophile" power cable myself, but anything is possible) then one of those may help as well, but the power still has to go through the wires in your computer, through the motherboard, and through the PCI slot before it gets to your soundcard.

Good quality PSUs are not determined by the number of watts they claim they have (most manufacturers claim numbers higher than their PSUs can put out under normal circumstances). A better indicator of PSU quality is the weight and brand-name. Good brands are Fortron (all their PSUs are underrated (watt-wise) and often have the best bang/buck, especially on their higher-wattage models), Antec (their TruePower series is pretty good, though not as beefy as Fortron, they have a large following in the computer modding scene), OCZ (they're a relatively new player, but their PSUs are very high quality, and are rated based on their true power output), ThermalTake (TT isn't as good as most of the others, but most of their high-end PSUs feature active PFC, a form of power conditioning, which may help sound quality), and of course PC Power & Cooling, whoes Turbo Cool 510 Deluxe model is considered to be the best PSU ever made, though it is very loud unless you swap the fan out for something quieter. EDIT: Oh yeah, Seasonic is pretty good, they're well known for their quiet PSUs, which are pretty good quality.

 

[blessingx]

Calling Dr. lan...

 

[mjg]

i love the arguments i have over power supplies with the overclocking modder types who claim enermax is the best bla bla.

I mention pc power and cooling, and they say they suck right off the bat.
Gotta love the general ignorance people have. I've owned and used pc power and cooling stuff for the last 6, 7 years

 

[lan]

If I were you, I'd get a better card like an emu 0404 before performing other tweaks on the system. Here's a tweak order I recommend.

1) Sound card upgrade
2) Power conditioner for amp
3) Power conditioner for computer. This should be separate from the one on the amp to avoid contamination. The computer makes a lot of noise.
4) Power cord for amp.
5) Power cord for computer.

Doing stuff from the top of the list makes the ones below easier to hear. Forgot one thing, the power supply of the actual computer. I guess that would be step ZERO but it's hard to swap and compare unless you had two identical systems. I would like to try a stock PSU and mobo vs. modded ones to see if there really are differences or not. Next time somebody wants me to build them a computer, I might upgrade mine at the same time in order to facilitate making two identical ones. Otherwise, I have no incentive to make two systems.

 

[Glassman]

power supply round-up is something I'd personaly like to see/do.. having Tangent's Measurement Preamp and 1212m I think we can talk about serious measurement rig, now grab another computer, get as much PSUs as you can and try them one by one in the same configuration, each time measuring ripple on various rails, +/- 12V and +5V foremost, because those three are used by soundcards.. measure idle, heavy CPU load, heavy harddisk use etc.. should be interesting.. wonder if manufacturers would be willing to supply us (Head-Fi) with a few of their PSUs for review purposes..

 

[lan]

Did you get the last board for the measurement preamp? Was there just a small run of this thing? This was the first time I heard of it. Seems like a cool little tool.

 

[luukas]

Ok, this might be a somewhat silly question, but would a UPS that has AVR help in this kind of situation? Of course most of them are rather noisy...

 

[Mr.Radar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjg i love the arguments i have over power supplies with the overclocking modder types who claim enermax is the best bla bla. I mention pc power and cooling, and they say they suck right off the bat. Gotta love the general ignorance people have. I've owned and used pc power and cooling stuff for the last 6, 7 years

Where do people claim that? Over at www.ocforums.com (where I learned about PSUs) they hardly ever reccomended Enermax because they're way overpriced, and PC Power & Cooling TC510 was always reccomended when people asked what the best PSU you can buy was.

BTW, in this comparison of a Turbo-Cool 510 vs a So-Called “550” it's an older Enermax they're comparing the TC510 to. The newer models are better, but are still not very good compared to others.

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luukas Ok, this might be a somewhat silly question, but would a UPS that has AVR help in this kind of situation? Of course most of them are rather noisy...

There are many UPSes, everybody's noise situation is different, so the results may differ. That's why this is a tweak as you gotta figure it out for yourself. It's not one of those things where the rules are set, you put it in and forget about it. Sometimes it's better to treat the noise from the offensive sources of noise. Sometimes closer to your audio equipment. Sometimes it's best not to have much or any conditioning. It's like food seasoning.

Hmm it's lunch time!

 

[MagusG]

Has anyone checked out Seasonic power supplies? SilentPCreview.com rates them top notch for silent PCs. They are very quiet and very efficient. I can only imagine that they have clean power output as well, especially if fed with a fat power cord and a ONE AC with the proper amp rating. Newegg now carries the full line of thier power supplies. The biggest catch is, they are a little more expensive, but thats not necessarily a bad thing.
-Mag

 

[madcow235]

You really can't beat the PCP&C PSU its just so nice and has almost no line ripple.

 

[Publius]

PCP&C supplies are loud. I bought a 300 in 1999 and it was loud. Other people have bought Turbo-Cools over the years and they have said they're loud. Not to knock their reliability at all - mine's been going strong for 5 years, and my dad's had one going for 6 - but for audio purposes they are not considered optimal at all IMHO. Some reverse engineering has also indicated that at least some of their models are rebrands of generic models.

I have been far, far more pleased with the Seasonic in my current computer in terms of noise than I ever have with my old system and its PCP&C. Yes, it's something of an apples-to-oranges comparison, since there were also differences in CPU and disk cooling, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to spot where the biggest difference of noise was coming from between the two systems....

 

[Mr.Radar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Publius PCP&C supplies are loud. I bought a 300 in 1999 and it was loud. Other people have bought Turbo-Cools over the years and they have said they're loud. Not to knock their reliability at all - mine's been going strong for 5 years, and my dad's had one going for 6 - but for audio purposes they are not considered optimal at all IMHO.

You can open them up and swap the fan out for a quieter one like a Panaflo, although that voids the warentee (which is truely excellent at 5 years). I think you can also request when you order it that they swap the fan out for you (with one of thier Silencer (or whatever it's called) fans).

Quote:

Some reverse engineering has also indicated that at least some of their models are rebrands of generic models.

Some of their older models were built by Fortron, however I believe they now do all their work "in-house".

 

[masteraleph]

I can add another one- SilenX. Basically Fortrons modded to be quieter.