[Brian loves music]

Just wanna say I'm loving my laptop (winamp) > EMU 0404 usb > HD595 setup. Compared the sound quality of my eme 0404 with my integrated laptop soundcard this afternoon and the only way I can describe it is that my laptop soundcard made my hd 595 sound more thin and less impactfull (but very good nonetheless). Really really loving my emu 0404, gives my hd595 even more clarity (I can't imagine having any more) and makes them really warm and fun. Although the increase in SQ was considerablly less than the jump i recently made from HD212 Pros and hd595s, i'm really glad i got the emu 0404 usb (over the total bithead and emu 0202).

Electronica, acoustic, vocals are where these puppies shine. Don't listen to much metal, but sounds fine on them too. The only downside (if you could even call it one) is that poorly produced/recorded tracks that don't have much soundstage aren't as fun to listen to anymore now that i'm used to these open/dynamic cans.

A few questions to get the thread going:

Anyone else use this combo regularly?

Anyone mess around the EQ settings? Winamp EQ doesn't work (i think cause of the emu 0404 asio software). I usually use Direct Sound cause I can't tell the difference (should I?) Is there a winamp plugin that 1) lets me use the equalizer and 2) has some good presets for audiohpile phones

I've got about 90 hours total of burn in on these hd 595s and (60 or so with the emu 0404)...should i expect more imporvment?


The only real drawback, is that the emu 0404 usb takes up about 35% cpu usage (a little more with ASIO) so when I'm surfing the web i get cracks in pops which I can usualy ignore. Not a big deal cause I don't usualy listen to music in the background...i'm defintely an active listener. Last night I listened to Personal Pitch in the dark at around 2am...crazy fun.

thANK yOU!!!!!!!!!!

 

[andre.beat]

I'm also using that same setup and loving it. Just need to save some more money to buy a tube amp (probably a DV 336) and then I'll reach nirvana (at least I hope so

).

About the pops and cracks I guess you should blame it on your computer, probably not powerful enough.



And that's a 24bit/96khz flac file playing over ASIO.

 

[milkweg]

That's the same setup I use except I use digital connection to my X-Fi via coax. That resolves any cpu usage isssue of USB and lets me use the X-Fi equalizer too. X-Fi ASIO uses less cpu resources than EMU provided one too but EMU ASIO driver has lower latency which only matters if you are doing pro recording. For those bad recordings look into using foobar with channel mixer and dolbyHP plugin DSP's. Or just use a crossfeed plugin. Channel mixer with dolbyhp is more impressive and tinker friendly though.

 

[Brian loves music]

Quote:

Originally Posted by andre.beat /img/forum/go_quote.gif And that's a 24bit/96khz flac file playing over ASIO.

where'd you get a 24bit/98khz flac of pink floyd? Do you find it makes much a difference from regular 16bit/44khz EAC flacs?

Does resampling the 16/24 flac files i have using emu 0404 improve sound quality much?. I've heard 16 vs 24 bit only displaysn notices at extreme volumes.

 

[Brian loves music]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkweg /img/forum/go_quote.gif That's the same setup I use except I use digital connection to my X-Fi via coax. That resolves any cpu usage isssue of USB and lets me use the X-Fi equalizer too. X-Fi ASIO uses less cpu resources than EMU provided one too but EMU ASIO driver has lower latency which only matters if you are doing pro recording. For those bad recordings look into using foobar with channel mixer and dolbyHP plugin DSP's. Or just use a crossfeed plugin. Channel mixer with dolbyhp is more impressive and tinker friendly though.

Unfortunately i don't have a digital (audio) out on my laptop. My headphone jack is broke on my headphones if that matters.

Did you have problems with cpu usage (cracks and pops) before?

Anyway to use a channell mixer in winamp? I've heard DSP are really bad. I don't use a media library so it might be hard to program certain songs to use dsp. Whats a crossfeed plugin...another dsp?

 

[andre.beat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian loves music /img/forum/go_quote.gif where'd you get a 24bit/98khz flac of pink floyd? Do you find it makes much a difference from regular 16bit/44khz EAC flacs? Does resampling the 16/24 flac files i have using emu 0404 improve sound quality much?. I've heard 16 vs 24 bit only displaysn notices at extreme volumes.

It's a vinyl rip it actually sounds quite good. Ripped by a friend of mine from a half-speed mastered vinyl

 

[EnOYiN]

It's Windows which is causing the clicks and cracks when browsing the internet. For some reason there is a connection between some internet applications and sound. Cracks will mainly be caused by Java or Flash applications in your browser. Try going to some kind of lyrics site some time. (which I am sure will have some kind of advertisement which is made with either Java or Flash) I am experiencing the same thing at times.

There is nothing you can really do about it. I am not sure whether this is only a USB problem or whether it will still be audible when using coax or optical. I'll give it a try just now.

Edit: A crossfeed plug-in will compensate for the extreme separation headphones offer. I think this one is pretty good.(for a software crossfeed) Jan Meier has a part on his website which explains about the effects of crossfeed. Some of the better hardware crossfeeds have been made by Jan Meier and Headroom.

 

[Brian loves music]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EnOYiN /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's Windows which is causing the clicks and cracks when browsing the internet. For some reason there is a connection between some internet applications and sound. Cracks will mainly be caused by Java or Flash applications in your browser. Try going to some kind of lyrics site some time. (which I am sure will have some kind of advertisement which is made with either Java or Flash) I am experiencing the same thing at times. There is nothing you can really do about it. I am not sure whether this is only a USB problem or whether it will still be audible when using coax or optical. I'll give it a try just now. Edit: A crossfeed plug-in will compensate for the extreme separation headphones offer. I think this one is pretty good.(for a software crossfeed) Jan Meier has a part on his website which explains about the effects of crossfeed. Some of the better hardware crossfeeds have been made by Jan Meier and Headroom.

perhaps should have been more detailed in my description...it only pops and crackles when the page is loading. If there is flas apps, youtube videos loading or active i won't get pops..just when its loadaing and i see an empy page or the task bar says 'loading...' Even worse when trying to resample things from 44hz to 128 with emu 0404 control pannel

 

[milkweg]

Is your HDD set up correctly? If you don't have UDMA5 or 6 enabled you can get these kinds of issues.

 

[Brian loves music]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkweg /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is your HDD set up correctly? If you don't have UDMA5 or 6 enabled you can get these kinds of issues.

excuse my nubish ways, but how would i check...i just looked under my c drives properties and couldn't find anything. cpu usage is at an average at 35% when listening with winamp (i use DS cause i can't tell a difference and asio makes it go up to about 50). When ever i open a page it goes up to 100 percent for a bit.

thanks for all the help

 

[Bizzel]

Try increasing winamp's priority from within task manager. View the running programs, right click winamp and choose "go to process". Right click again and set that process to above normal. See if that helps. Never set it to realtime.

 

[Alleyman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian loves music /img/forum/go_quote.gif excuse my nubish ways, but how would i check...i just looked under my c drives properties and couldn't find anything. cpu usage is at an average at 35% when listening with winamp (i use DS cause i can't tell a difference and asio makes it go up to about 50). When ever i open a page it goes up to 100 percent for a bit. thanks for all the help

You can check the hard drive mode by following these steps:

Right click "My computer" > select Properties > Select Hardware tab > Click on the "Device Manager" button

Double click Primary IDE channel under IDE/ATAPI controllers > select Advanced settings tab

If you dont see DMA mode 5 or higher then your hard drive might not be performing at its maximum (given that its capable of performing at those levels)

 

[Brian loves music]

thanks for all the ideas guys. but given it a higher priority via the task manger makes it skip tons (even with outragously high buffer rates)

I checked and I have up to date hd drivers...so that's out too.

The poping is really not bad at all. Although it would be nice to fix, i've already gotten used to it. And most importantly I can't still listen to entire albums with perfect audio quality while not surfing the web.

But of course any other ideas are much appreciated.