[momerath]

I listen to music on my computer all day. Most of it is .flac format electronica I ripped from my own cd collection. Can a computer with the right sound card/ DAC be a near-perfect source? At least good enough to not be the limiting factor with ER-4S's and a <$1000 amp?

I only use Linux, so I understand that rules out EMI cards- is that right?

I'm also looking for a portable amp, so the Headroom Total Bithead attractively covers both bases, but I'm hesitant to couple my DAC and amp since then I'd either need a new DAC with line-out to use a better amp, or use the TBH's headphone jack as line-out (no-no right?)

External and (semi-) portable would be preferred. Also, I'd rather not pay for lots of recording/ multichannel features as I really only intend to listen to 44.1K 16bit stereo.

Edit: I didnt realize the prices went quite so high. I'd like to know the best <$1000 and <$400 options as I'll probably get the latter first and I'll never spend more than a grand (I hope)

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Well the RME PAD (with no external DAC) is a good enough source for Edwood's K1000/Grace 901 setup (about $1700 worth).

The ultimate setup is likely RME PAD -> Glass Toslink -> Monarchy DIP -> high-end digital coax cable -> external DAC of your choice.

Be forwarned, however, we've already found the RME's internal DAC to be quite superior to the Grace 901's DAC, the Muse Model 2 and smART DI/O. So it would likely take a pretty high-end DAC to improve over the RME's DAC.

 

[momerath]

thanks Iron_Dreamer. That Modded RME Pad of yours certainly looks attractive with that reasoning

 

[Edwood]

You don't know the half of it.

I've been considering going with dual RME digi96/8 PAD's, one with a different flavor of OPamps. That way no need for a signal degrading switcher to switch between my two amps.

I was amazed at how easy it was to have two RME PAD's in one computer, and switch between the two. Just a click of a mouse.

Man, the AD797's really sounded nice with my SAC amp.

BTW, are there Linux drivers for the RME digi series? No Foobar for Linux, either......

-Ed

 

[CEO Matt]

Quote:

Originally posted by Edwood BTW, are there Linux drivers for the RME digi series? No Foobar for Linux, either...... -Ed

I can answer that one, there are, in the alsa-project and 2.6.x kernel. they use the name rme96. that works with every product in the Digi96 range, such as the Digi96/8 PAD and upto the Digi9652.

The biggest problem about linux right now is getting a program to upsample to 24bit/96khz. i'm too happy with windows/foobar2k to look into that one at the moment.

 

[momerath]

Why would you want to upsample? The only upsampling I've really had the chance to give a good listen to is 44.1K to 48.0K** and that sounds much worse. Of course, moving up more significantly just seems like it would sound better to me than the 44.1->48.0 upsample, but does it really sound better than an accurate reproduction of the 44.1 in the source material?


**48.0K was the only rate I could get my extigy to push over toslink until the very latest kernel ver/ alsa-libs I've tried (love-sources(Andrew Morton plus a bunch of even more experimental patches) 2.6.3-rc3 and 1.0.something). Actually I wasnt trying to fix this- I just noticed that all of the sudden my home system sounded 120% better and mplayer was reporting no upsample to 48.0K!

 

[momerath]

Quote:

No Foobar for Linux, either...... -Ed [/B]

I've read a little about Foobar (good name!) and it seems like the thing to use in winbloze, but what does it do that mplayer, xmms, etc dont? Particularly for someone who uses each cd he buys exactly once and thereafter listens to flac? I do have some mp3s and lots of video with mp3 sound tracks and I noticed a difference when I started using the MAD library (which can be used with practically any opensource media player) - is Foobar even better? If so, how?

-momerath

 

[CEO Matt]

Quote:

Originally posted by momerath I've read a little about Foobar (good name!) and it seems like the thing to use in winbloze, but what does it do that mplayer, xmms, etc dont?

it upsamples

seriously i've found a huge improvement going from standard 16/44.1 .flac's to an output of 24/96. Generally there is a noticable improvement as you oversample lossless files, even if they didn't start out recorded in 24bit/96khz to begin with.

The RME is a good card under linux, it's just that the software side is lacking the features to fully usalise it right now. (correct me if i'm wrong though).

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally posted by momerath Why would you want to upsample? The only upsampling I've really had the chance to give a good listen to is 44.1K to 48.0K** and that sounds much worse. Of course, moving up more significantly just seems like it would sound better to me than the 44.1->48.0 upsample, but does it really sound better than an accurate reproduction of the 44.1 in the source material? **48.0K was the only rate I could get my extigy to push over toslink until the very latest kernel ver/ alsa-libs I've tried (love-sources(Andrew Morton plus a bunch of even more experimental patches) 2.6.3-rc3 and 1.0.something). Actually I wasnt trying to fix this- I just noticed that all of the sudden my home system sounded 120% better and mplayer was reporting no upsample to 48.0K!

LOL, the problem is not with the upsampling itself, it's your soundcard.

-Ed

 

[commando]

This might be a silly question, but what's an RME PAD?

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

It is a pro-audio soundcard made by German company RME, the full model name is the Digi 96/8 PAD. It has become the popular high-end card around here since I bought one last year and started singing its' praises for sound quality, which demolished my modded DI/O. It has been highly discussed in this forum, so look up someof the old threads for more info.

 

[Jasper994]

It's a soundcard, do a search and you'll find a lot of threads about it.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Aaron, your PM box is full, I was trying to respond to your Norah PM's.

 

[commando]

I have a laptop at home so I have to use PC card, and at work I can't open my computer up

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Quote:

Originally posted by commando I have a laptop at home so I have to use PC card, and at work I can't open my computer up

Then you need an Echo Indigo.