Need help with my laptop setup
Apr 12, 2020 at 10:11 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 10

dotashope

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Hi all, sorry I posted this thread in the wrong section before(full sized headphone amps). I currently have 2 setups. One is my laptop connected to Audeze Deckard with the USB connection. Another is Rega Planet CD Player with Woo Audio WA6. I noticed a significant difference between them. The laptop setup sounds a lot mushier. Does it have anything to do with my sound card in the laptop? Also I used Spotify as source of music. I'm planning to extend my JDL Lab Objective2 amp with OL DAC and Subjective3 equilizer. Does the equilizer help getting the crisp sound I want with my laptop? Thanks!
 
Apr 12, 2020 at 10:34 AM Post #2 of 10
If your using usb out from your laptop, it’s sending a digital signal to whatever you plug it into. You are then using the dac that is in the unit it is plugged into. So you aren’t using the sound card in the laptop.
I use a Fiio k3 plugged into my laptop. It improved the sound tremendously. I also use the boom 3d eq app. That only furthered the quality of the sound I get. I’d say that an eq would help, but I think you’d get a bigger improvement from a external dac like the k3 or a hip dac or something like that.
 
Apr 12, 2020 at 10:44 AM Post #3 of 10
Could it be the difference in the lossless audio from the CD player vs. the 320kbs lossy audio from Spotify? It might be worth doing a free trial of Amazon Music HD, Deezer HIFi, etc and see if playback of lossless FLAC files help.
 
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Apr 12, 2020 at 12:10 PM Post #4 of 10
If I understand your post correctly, you're using different sources (CD vs Spotify) and you're also using different amps (Audeze Deckard vs Woo Audio WA6). Is that correct? If so the difference could be either the different amps you're using or the different sources. Your sound card wouldn't make a difference since you're USB, but if there's more than one variable changing between your different setups it's hard to say what the issue is.
 
Apr 12, 2020 at 12:26 PM Post #5 of 10
Could it be the difference in the lossless audio from the CD player vs. the 320kbs lossy audio from Spotify? It might be worth doing a free trial of Amazon Music HD, Deezer HIFi, etc and see if playback of lossless FLAC files help.

^ This is most likely.

As others have also stated, your laptop's sound card is NOT present in either of your scenarios.
 
Apr 12, 2020 at 2:29 PM Post #6 of 10
Thanks for your replies! I've learned that the sound card is irrelevant in this situation. I'll try to look for a better source and switch things up a bit too see. There are too many variables in these two cases. I'm getting the OL DAC and the EQ from Mayflower to pair with my O2 amp, I'll see how it turns out. Thanks guys!
 
Apr 12, 2020 at 4:12 PM Post #8 of 10
You could try the Amazon Music HD as I think they have a 30 day free trial to see if it makes a difference or you could even swap your amp to your CD player if you wanted to as well.

I think Deezer and Tidal both do free trials as well and all 3 offer lossless FLAC files which “should be“ bit for bit the same as a CD.
 
Apr 12, 2020 at 10:54 PM Post #10 of 10
Hi all, sorry I posted this thread in the wrong section before(full sized headphone amps). I currently have 2 setups. One is my laptop connected to Audeze Deckard with the USB connection. Another is Rega Planet CD Player with Woo Audio WA6. I noticed a significant difference between them. The laptop setup sounds a lot mushier. Does it have anything to do with my sound card in the laptop? Also I used Spotify as source of music. I'm planning to extend my JDL Lab Objective2 amp with OL DAC and Subjective3 equilizer. Does the equilizer help getting the crisp sound I want with my laptop? Thanks!

Your amplifier is probably the main factor there, assuming you're using just one headphone on both.

If you're using at several headphones which vary in impedance, driver type, and sensitivity but the laptoDeckard is still mushier, it could be the laptop. Just not the "soundcard."


Does it have anything to do with my sound card in the laptop?

Unless you have a gaming laptop built like a desktop where the soundcard is on a daughterboard and thus both hardware and software (ie like how Asus Xonar has a similar interface on laptops as on soundcards for desktops, or how MSI Nahimic is kind of the same on motherboards and laptops) of that soundcard is bypassed by using USB, there might be some kind of software running in the background. I had a Lenovo ultrabook that has bass boost software running along with Dolby Headphone.


Also I used Spotify as source of music.

I use Spotify for albums I haven't purchased yet and across several phones and laptops software like that thing in my Lenovo Ultrabook or using Samsung's integrated DSP or Neutralizer global EQ app has a bigger impact. Erase all such software or run the same DSP settings etc via USB and the sound is pretty much identical.

If Spotify is audibly the issue it's not "mushy," but "thinner." If anything some FLAC albums can sound mushier in some headphones if the low end is boosted.


I'm planning to extend my JDL Lab Objective2 amp with OL DAC and Subjective3 equilizer. Does the equilizer help getting the crisp sound I want with my laptop? Thanks!
I'm getting the OL DAC and the EQ from Mayflower to pair with my O2 amp, I'll see how it turns out. Thanks guys!

It can, but if you think about that analogue EQ vs digital parametric EQ, the difference is like saturation/carpet bombing vs Tomahawk, so prepare for say steaming meat goo in a Dresden bunker instead of maybe some janitors the spy thought wouldn't be working that night or guards whose roving times aren't fixed.
 

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