Pictures of your computer rigs! Post them here!

[Dawnrazor]

I think it would be. You can try the link I posted from focusrite. Its all undoable stuff if it affects the non audio parts. But best to just get a computer for audio. Some philes are using a tricked out pc to feed the toned down audio pc.

If you are into gaming specs you may be over clocking. If your mobo lets you try under clocking and under volting and see how that changes the sound.

Also some players just sound better IME. Try hysolid and see what you think.

Warning: you may find yourself doing registry hacks for better sound one day

forgot to mention that I bought a new pc to run my audio and it sounded terrible. Then I did the tweaks in that link and it sounded much better....Said another way, you could come to my great sounding system and in a few minutes make it sound terrible.

 

[Marmite]

This is why it needs to be dedicated to audio only. Work config is very different than what is needed for audio. If you dedicate it is possible these days to run the (fanless) pc off a linear psu.

Agree about isolating the dac though optical and usb don't seem to be a panacea, and software and windows settings all affect it. My preferred method to get the dac outside the computer is ethernet (not dlna) and even then the computer makes a huge difference in the sound.

Focusrite has a good guide to get most of the improvements you can get and if you just threw in the os and attached a usb dac and loaded a player and think it sounds great, it can be better and this guide is great:

https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207355205-Optimising-your-PC-for-Audio-on-Windows-10

The biggest single thing I did that improved audio quality from my PC was to run everything through WASAPI rather than the Windows mixer. Not even mentioned on the Focusrite page.

 

[freesole]

The biggest single thing I did that improved audio quality from my PC was to run everything through WASAPI rather than the Windows mixer. Not even mentioned on the Focusrite page.

How did you do this and what improvements did you hear? Any drawbacks?

 

[Dawnrazor]

The biggest single thing I did that improved audio quality from my PC was to run everything through WASAPI rather than the Windows mixer. Not even mentioned on the Focusrite page.

Of course not. They are a pro audio company. All Pro interfaces use ASIO. Which IMHO is better than WASAPI. But yes I agree kmixer is bad. ASIO was invented by Steinberg to get the computer to sound good...

 

[Marmite]

How did you do this and what improvements did you hear? Any drawbacks?

I use Music Bee as my music player. You can route through WASAPI in the Player settings. You can also enable this if you use VLC and some other media players.

I suggest you A/B it. For me the difference was easily heard. The top end became less splashy and the bottom end became more controlled.

 

[Zenvota]

I think it would be. You can try the link I posted from focusrite. Its all undoable stuff if it affects the non audio parts. But best to just get a computer for audio. Some philes are using a tricked out pc to feed the toned down audio pc.

If you are into gaming specs you may be over clocking. If your mobo lets you try under clocking and under volting and see how that changes the sound.

Also some players just sound better IME. Try hysolid and see what you think.

Warning: you may find yourself doing registry hacks for better sound one day

forgot to mention that I bought a new pc to run my audio and it sounded terrible. Then I did the tweaks in that link and it sounded much better....Said another way, you could come to my great sounding system and in a few minutes make it sound terrible.

I dont do any overclocking to keep temps at a nice range but alot of these components ramp themselves up pretty fast anyway, and I need that power ;] when I say gaming pc I just mean a giant efficient power supply(1200w 95% efficient) with stable power, a big gpu for video rendering(4k upscaling frame blending supersampling, sometimes motion interpolation for stupid 12fps cgi animes...), and a powerful cpu for all the audio processes, decoding(7.1 lossless mixes), realtime binaural rendering(out of your head), equalization(equalizer apo), and duplication(voicemeter) to a tactile transducer system.

The fidelity with a good dac and amp(Audio-GD), digital conditioning(uptone iso regen, uptone ultracap lps, quadrapole ac and dc cabling), and power conditioning(topaz ultra-isolator) is staggering, without any pc related optimizations, but I am curious if theres anything I could do to improve the performance of OOYH on that end, Ill read through that guide.

 

[Dawnrazor]

I dont do any overclocking to keep temps at a nice range but alot of these components ramp themselves up pretty fast anyway, and I need that power ;] when I say gaming pc I just mean a giant efficient power supply(1200w 95% efficient) with stable power, a big gpu for video rendering(4k upscaling frame blending supersampling, sometimes motion interpolation for stupid 12fps cgi animes...), and a powerful cpu for all the audio processes, decoding(7.1 lossless mixes), realtime binaural rendering(out of your head), equalization(equalizer apo), and duplication(voicemeter) to a tactile transducer system.

The fidelity with a good dac and amp(Audio-GD), digital conditioning(uptone iso regen, uptone ultracap lps, quadrapole ac and dc cabling), and power conditioning(topaz ultra-isolator) is staggering, without any pc related optimizations, but I am curious if theres anything I could do to improve the performance of OOYH on that end, Ill read through that guide.

I get it man. I was once doing real time digital crossovers and no way you can have a system related issue then...

There are usb settings that can really help so yeah check out that guide. And there are others 2 out there. The idea is to do something! I bet OOYH will work great with some of those settings. I wanted to do OOYH but he never came out with ASIO last I checked. Not sure I could do it now anyhow....

Let us know how it goes.

 

[The Socialist Nerd]

The revised version with my temporary PC (Fractal Design) and iPad switched through an Onkyo receiver that I got today. Works flawlessly and sounds good but still need to find a solid headphone amp to run from the back.

 

[kid vic]

This is why it needs to be dedicated to audio only. Work config is very different than what is needed for audio. If you dedicate it is possible these days to run the (fanless) pc off a linear psu.

Agree about isolating the dac though optical and usb don't seem to be a panacea, and software and windows settings all affect it. My preferred method to get the dac outside the computer is ethernet (not dlna) and even then the computer makes a huge difference in the sound.

Focusrite has a good guide to get most of the improvements you can get and if you just threw in the os and attached a usb dac and loaded a player and think it sounds great, it can be better and this guide is great:

https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207355205-Optimising-your-PC-for-Audio-on-Windows-10

I did most of the stuff in this link and it did in some ways improve the sound (better seperation and a slight detail increase) but it also made it more unforgiving and slightly jagged/sharp in the treble region. Interesting to say the least.

 

[Dawnrazor]

I did most of the stuff in this link and it did in some ways improve the sound (better seperation and a slight detail increase) but it also made it more unforgiving and slightly jagged/sharp in the treble region. Interesting to say the least.

Cool that you tried it an yes those settings will change the sound. Can you try turning off the internet connections and anitvirus and seeing what that does to the sound? Also things like blutooth and even turning off the display all have impacts.

 

[kid vic]

Cool that you tried it an yes those settings will change the sound. Can you try turning off the internet connections and anitvirus and seeing what that does to the sound? Also things like blutooth and even turning off the display all have impacts.

I dont think my mobo does bluetooth, I'm not chuffed enough to want to turn anti-virus off and a stream from online more often than not so internet will definitely stay on.

 

[Dawnrazor]

I dont think my mobo does bluetooth, I'm not chuffed enough to want to turn anti-virus off and a stream from online more often than not so internet will definitely stay on.

It was more just a test than a longterm solution. Trying to see where the treble issues are. There may be internet/ router settings and or antivirus, etc.

The idea is that setting impact the sound and finding out which ones could allow some solutions.

 

[lcasadonte]

My newly assembled mobile rig (minus the utopias + tia fourtes). Intel Nuc I5, Cradlepoint cellular router/hotspot, chord h2 and a microrendu. Audio bliss everywhere.

 

[kid vic]

It was more just a test than a longterm solution. Trying to see where the treble issues are. There may be internet/ router settings and or antivirus, etc.

The idea is that setting impact the sound and finding out which ones could allow some solutions.

The treble of this dac has always been a little rough for me and it is an older dac as well so more than likely it is the culprit.

 

[Mojo777]