[lan]

I've been constantly upgrading nearly every aspect of my system and I'm at the point where I felt the transport was really holding me back. I couldn't really modify anything anymore and I don't believe in extreme mods when simple ones accross the whole chain make more of a difference.

I'm rather sensitive to harsh highs and I still have felt it in my system. And it doesn't matter than I use external DACs since it's still passed on from the soundcard transport. The powersupply is usually suspect in these cases. Most systems just compensate the highs by smoothening them out or rolling them off in my evaluation. So one area I havn't covered is the actual power supply and motherboard.

I wish there would be some listening tests on a bunch of power supplies since they do sound different.

My selection for mobo is one which has good caps. I figure this would be good for the sound as well as overclocking. I ended choosing DFI NF4 Ultra-D as it uses ultra low impedance caps everywhere not just in critical places like CPU VRMs and memory.

I ended up choosing Seasonic S12 series for power supply. I like the twisted cables for EMI rejection, it's high efficiency, active pfc, quiet, and it didnt use half wave rectification.

Something that is interesting and new to me on these dual PCI-E mobos is the distribution of power. I notice a few sonic changes related to how how you plug in power to the various points on the mobo besides the ATX and 4pin 12V connector.

My system is sensitive so I wanted to try various combinations of things. I'm using XFX 6600 passive cooled video card. I changed caps to Sanyo Oscon SP for bypass of power and other caps. Soundcard is emu 1010 (with various caps changed) going to modded Headroom Overture DAC and modded power supply via a toslink and to amp and speakers for evaluation.

1) There are two PCI slots on this mobo. I prefer the one higher so far. This slot sounded more dynamic than the bottom slot but the other one has a more comfortable smooth sound. In my system at least, I only use the soundcard as my only PCI device. I don't know how multiple devices will interact.

2) Hooking up the auxilary power connection to the video card sounds better. This one took me by surprise. I'm using the continuation of the power lead coming from the video card which might have had cleaner power since it was now using OSCONs as bypass. I don't have anything hooked up to my other aux connection on the mobo since I don't have any more power supply leads close by.

3) On the 12/5V power wire, there are various plugs with varying distances. using the shorter distance between the molex on the video card and the floppy connection on the mobo for the video card sounded better.

4) I've upgraded the caps near my PCI slots to Sanyo OSCON. I have to wait till these burnin some more to evaluate the sound.

5) I changed the powercord on this system. I'm still evaluating the sound. The differernce doesn't seem to be as big as the above items. My P4 system uses a better cord and is more power hungry and it was more responsive to powercord change.

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I think that some next steps is making new molex power cable. I'd like to make them at specific lengths and have no molex breaks in the middle, use better wires, and power other things like harddrives in parallel instead of serial.

It'll be a long listening night. I'll just update this thread as it's like my notes.

 

[lan]

I moved my harddrive closer to use the extra molex to power the extra aux power connector. I find the sound quality improved again. Looks like these mobos like having everything powered up.

Next up. I'm going to test spread spectrum. I wonder if this sounds worst as it's like adding jitter to the clock.

 

[lan]

Well I decided not to fool with that spread spectrum stuff because they said it messes with stability and overclocking. I rather not mess with my speed since I need a bit of it.

Sound update. The edginess that existed in the beginning is going away.

 

[dano1122]

i think he's gone off the edge

 

[Shayla]

Spread spectrum is pretty safe to play with. It's purpose, if IIRC, is to reduce system noise from EMI. Give it a shot. I keep mine at 1%, but this is a little arbitrary.

I've also noticed that some motherboards introduce more noise than others. My albatross KX18D ProII made a decent amount of noice through my Audigy 2, but when it died and I had to use my girlfriend's old compaq P3 500, the background was dead silent. Go figure.

On a sidenote, my Abit NF7-S is quite as can be, too... with my A2 and DMX 6Fire LT.

 

[gevorg]

I don't understand, how can all these things affect digital out?

 

[Teerawit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gevorg I don't understand, how can all these things affect digital out?

Everything affects everything in an audio system

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teerawit Everything affects everything in an audio system

Pretty much

Noise and power quality affect jitter which changes the sound of a digital playback system. Im looking for a setup which doesn't have harsh highs.

I have a rather extreme system so it picks up easily on the difference of anything. Even my switches and wireless router are modded

Although it is hard to convince anyone any of this makes a difference, if you listened to my system, I could show you how anything makes a difference.

 

[gevorg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan Pretty much Noise and power quality affect jitter which changes the sound of a digital playback system. Im looking for a setup which doesn't have harsh highs. I have a rather extreme system so it picks up easily on the difference of anything. Even my switches and wireless router are modded Although it is hard to convince anyone any of this makes a difference, if you listened to my system, I could show you how anything makes a difference.

I see a bunch of stuff in your profile, but which exact configuration makes your system so sensitive that you can hear differences in jitter?

 

[ken36]

Wow. This is much more complex then I ever envisioned. I thought I was about to settle in and just listen to music.

 

[toor]

Even if all of these affected Jitter and you could hear the differences; I don't understand how that would translate in to harsh highs.

Also can you explain why something like a difference in PCI card position would make a difference? Does one get power before the other or something? Also are you playing CDs or digital files off your computer?

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gevorg I see a bunch of stuff in your profile, but which exact configuration makes your system so sensitive that you can hear differences in jitter?

Well I can hear changes all the configurations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken36 Wow. This is much more complex then I ever envisioned. I thought I was about to settle in and just listen to music.

This isn't more complex for most people since my changes aren't easily reproducable for most. I just have everything tweaked. Since my job is with computers, I need it in top condition and performance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by toor Even if all of these affected Jitter and you could hear the differences; I don't understand how that would translate in to harsh highs. Also can you explain why something like a difference in PCI card position would make a difference? Does one get power before the other or something? Also are you playing CDs or digital files off your computer?

These are just my experiences. I can't give you a technical explaination why there's such a difference in sound with different jitter.

And yes different positions of the PCI slots are physically different distances away. This maybe good or bad. You just have to try it out.

 

[gevorg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan Well I can hear changes all the configurations. This isn't more complex for most people since my changes aren't easily reproducable for most. I just have everything tweaked. Since my job is with computers, I need it in top condition and performance.

Very interesting. Can you give us some general tips/advices for computer hardware config to ensure the best digital out?

 

[recca]

If you have an external DAC, I recommend going for a USB -> SPDIF converter, especially if you can get it battery powered. It will take most of the signal outside of the case and probably help remove some of the HF nasties.

 

[sgrossklass]

Quote:

Originally Posted by recca If you have an external DAC, I recommend going for a USB -> SPDIF converter, especially if you can get it battery powered. It will take most of the signal outside of the case and probably help remove some of the HF nasties.

But then you'll get jitter due to the isochronous USB transfers...