[Red Dragon]

About a year ago I wanted to make the audio coming from my computer sound good.

At first I bought a Modi Multibit. For some reason, that sound liked crap with my system. So I sent it back for a refund.

Then I bought a ZXR soundcard. That also sounded like crap on my system.

Then I bought Burson V5i Opamps and put them into my ZXR. After that, it not longer sound liked crap, but it also didn't sound great. Instead, it sounded alright.

Now, about a year later, using that same ZXR with Burson V5i Opamps, it started to sound like crap. Whenever anyone is singing or talking (be it in youtube videos, movie files, video games, FLAC files, MP3 files, or anything else), it sounds almost as if they have a lisp. The "s" sounds have become very pronounced and seem overlong.

This happens when playing audio through my JBL LSR 30X speakers.

It also happens when playing audio through my Sennheiser 598 C headphones. In that case, the audio is even worse. It sounds more shallow and hollowed-out.

I bought some Sennheiser 6XX Headphones, and they also sound like crap when I plug them into my ZXR. The lisp-type problem is still there, the shallowness problem is still there, and all of the instruments in music sound like they are blurring together in a muddy, indistinct haze. I'm not an audiophile so I don't know the correct way to describe what I'm hearing. But all I know is for sure is the 6XX surely shouldn't be sounding as crappy as they do for me.

So...now I don't know what to do about this. I never could figure out the reason why my Modi Multibit sounded like crap on my system.

And I also doubt I'll be able to figure out why my ZXR now sounds like crap.

And I also have no idea how to fix this problem so that I stop having crap audio.

I'm thinking to upgrade to a SMSL SU-8 DAC and THX 789 amp, and connecting to them from the daughterboard of my ZXR card.

But...I feel like I'm gambling here. Knowing my luck, I'll buy those products, and connect them, and my audio will still sound like crap, and I'll have no idea why or how to fix it.

So, can you please give me advice as to what I can do about this problem?

Is buying the products I mentioned likely to fix my audio problems?

Will connecting to those products from the daughterboard for the ZXR possibly cause them to sound like crap too, presuming my ZXR is the reason for why I currently have crap audio?

Is there any way I can be guaranteed finally to achieve good audio quality, and not have to gamble on a wish & a prayer that maybe the new products I buy might happen to sound as good as they do for other people? In other words, I am loathe to spend several hundreds of more dollars on new gear only to then still be stuck at square one and still having crap audio after I install it.

What would you do in my situation in order to achieve good audio quality once and for all?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Did you disable the motherboard's on-board audio, in the BIOS, when you installed the SB-ZxR?

Try using the free program Foobar2000, with WASAPI installed, use it to play music files, see if there is a difference.

If you want something to replace the SB-ZxR.
Audio-GD NFB-11.28 DAC/amp, currently on sale.
http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/Headphoneamp/NFN1128/NFB1128EN.htm

 

[Red Dragon]

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, I had disabled my motherboard's onboard audio.

As for the Foobar suggestion, the thing is, I need my audio to sound good in video games, youtube videos, movie files, etc. So even if it sounded good within Foobar only, that wouldn't be sufficient for me.

I checked some online comments about the NVF-11.28 vs. the SMSL SU-8. At least one person who had both was saying the SU-8 sounds a lot better.

It seems like no one online will be able to give me a definitive answer as to what products would certainly solve my perpetual problems of receiving bad audio, so I guess I'll have to roll the dice and go a' gambling again.

Based on what I've read online, the best bets within my budget seem to be for me to buy the SU-8 and the THX 789. So I'll try to buy those and then connect one of them to the daughterboard of my ZXR. And also I want to connect them to my LSR 30X speakers using balanced XLR cables.

In order to make that work, I have some questions:

1. What is a full list of the exact cables I'll need in order to connect all those things?...including which ends of each cable that I'll need as male and/or female. (I know almost nothing about cables).

2. Can the S/PDIF jack on my ZXR daughterboard connect with either a Toslink cable or a Coaxial cable? Or do I have to use Toslink? I'm looking at the ZXR manual right now and it describes the S/PDIF as "Optical S/PDIF In Jack" and "Optical S/PDIF Out Jack." And it also says "connects to playback devices with optical connectors." The manual doesn't say the word "Coaxial" anywhere though.

3. If I connect the SU-8 to the THX 789 with RCA cables, would that prevent my signal from being balanced? Do I therefore need to connect the SU-8 to the THX 789 with some kind of XLR balanced cables?

4. In my Windows control panel, it gives me the option to select "Digital Audio - S/PDIF / ZXR DbPro" as my playback device. Presuming I choose that option and then have the aforementioned gear connected, by what means do I tell my computer whether I want the sound to output through my speakers or my headphones? Is the "Speaker/Headphones" tab inside the Sound Blaster Pro Studio software, and the Speakers/Headphones switch within that tab, still going to work as a controller which determines to where my SU-8 DAC outputs its sound? If not, then what is the new way how I can do that?

 

[PurpleAngel]

The Foobar2000 is a way to test if the Windows OS is causing the audio problem,
as Foobar2000 With WASAPI, bypasses the Windows OS audio process, just to make sure if the audio problem is with the SB-ZxR or with the Windows OS.
So the Foobar was not really to fix the issue, it was just to test.

Which device (THX 789 or JBL) would you want to use for the balanced connection?
Then the other device gets the RCA (un-balanced) connection.

The SB-ZxR only comes with S/PDIF optical and does not have a S/PDIF coaxial output.

I would assume(?) the SU-9's remote can switch between the different inputs (USN, optical, coaxial).

The SU-8 would be used for switching between headphones and speakers, not the SB-ZxR.

 

[Red Dragon]

Which device (THX 789 or JBL) would you want to use for the balanced connection?
Then the other device gets the RCA (un-balanced) connection.

The SB-ZxR only comes with S/PDIF optical and does not have a S/PDIF coaxial output.

What if I want both the THX 789 and JBL to have a balanced connection at the same time? Can I do that?

If I want to add coaxial output to my PC, what is the best way to do that?

Yesterday I had an idea to test. I switched to my on-board Realtek and outputted the audio to my Kenwood XD-550 system. When I do that, the audio still sounds like everyone has a lisp, only it's even more noticeable as the sound quality is worse than it is when playing audio with the ZXR & JBL and/or with the ZXR & 6XX headphones.

So it makes me wonder if something in my computer might be sabotaging my sound? If so, how do I isolate that problem and fix it? I've asked questions like this before (when I was trying to figure out why my Modi Multibit sounded bad) but IIRC I only ever received nebulous answers that didn't actually give me practical specific instructions I could follow in order to find and solve the problem.

I'll try testing with that Foobar idea you mentioned.

EDIT: I just installed Foobar & Wasapi and I tried to test with it by playing some music files.

However, I could not make them play because every time I try to do so, Foobar pops up an error that says: "Unrecoverable playback error: Exclusive mode not allowed." How do I fix that?

Also, I don't know if I am supposed to choose "Wasapi: push" or "Wasapi: event" (but I receive the same error message in both cases).

EDIT #2: I got rid of the error message by changing my Windows OS sound settings to "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device."

 

[Red Dragon]

As far as I can tell, Fubar with WASAPI didn't make any difference to the audio quality. I assume that also does the same thing that the "Stereo Direct" function of the ZXR software does, which also didn't make any difference.

Given that the problem happens with both my ZXR and my onboard Realtek, I'm assuming that either something inside my computer's case, or my OS, is causing it.

Is there any chance that I might install an external DAC, and then the same problem of bad audio would still occur?

And I still have no idea what cables I need to buy if I want to connect my ZXR to an SU-8 DAC, and to an THX 789 amp, and also to JBL speakers, and to have every connection be balanced? I now realize I need an optical cable out of my SPDIF output, but other than, I don't know what else I need.

Another thing that confuses me, I found items like this on the internet:

https://www.amazon.ca/SPDIF-Optical-Plate-Cable-Bracket/dp/B01LWNKIKN/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1548343073&sr

...for SPDIF brackets which have an Optical out and an RCA out. But I want a device like that which has a Coaxial out, yet I can't find any. Why not? Do they exist? How else can I add Coaxial to my PC without buying a whole new soundcard? I don't need a soundcard; I just need a SPDIF bracket like the one I linked to, but that has Coaxial out on it.