[realityclouded]

Please describe your current computer audio setup, what you think of it, and plans for improvement. I'm sure everyone's curious.

1. What is your current setup.
2. What do you think about it?
3. What plans do you have for improvement?

Let's please not turn this into a "how can I improve my setup" thread. I'd like to keep this strictly to "this is what I have, and this is what I'm planning to do" thread. Thanks.

What I have:

Windows XP
1.7Ghz Athlon (XP1700+)
Sound Blaster Live (for games)
Earmax Pro
Senn HD650, Grado RS-1
About 400 of my CDs already ripped.

Line out from my Sound Blaster Live to my Earmax Pro. HD650 or RS-1 depending on what I'm listening to and my mood.

File formats include FLAC, Ogg, and mp3 for all my ripped cds. I rip to three formats because:

- FLAC for hifi playback.
- mp3 for portable device playback.
- Ogg for future portable device playback.


Satisfaction:

Audio is currently disappointing, but... Having 100% of my music instantly accessible, and the ability to mix/match playlists across ALL my music is very convenient. No hunting for or swapping CDs. I could probably queue up my entire collection and have a 12 day long playlist:

45 mins * 400 CDs = 18,000 minutes
18000 mins / 24 hours = 12.5 days

And instead of having my CD collection take up space in the open, they are now neatly stuffed way back into the closet.

Improvement

Today I'm purchasing an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card for $150 at b&H to complement my Sound Blaster Live, until the next big upgrade.

Next big upgrade:
The M-Audio card is just a short term thing. 6-12 months from now, or whenever my bank account recovers from my recent headphone expenses

I'm looking to replace the M-Audio with a combination of something like the RME 96/8 PAD + TubeDac or similar. I'm still researching that upgrade.

I'm actually using my DVD player as a source instead of my computer right now, but tonight that will change.

So... What does everyone else have and what are your plans for improvement?

 

[UberNewb]

My computers aren't used for anything as far as music goes but casual MP3 listening, but here goes...

Ordering tomorrow... a new computer... including...

Antec LanBoy Case
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Processor
Epox 8RDA+3 Motherboard
512MB Corsair PC-3200 RAM
BFG FX5900 Video Card
Dell 1800FP 18" LCD

I know, it's not top of the line by any means. Considering it will only be used to play Counter Strike, The Sims (my wife loves those games,) and to surf the web it is going to be great. I do PLENTY of "work" on computers at my job that I have no desire to accomplish any work on my computer at home.

The lightweight, small LanBoy case and the LCD are going to be nice too... considering I drag my machine around to play Counter Strike at LAN parties. And yes, it is going to be tastefully "pimped out" with blue LED fans, blue cold cathode lights, UV reactive round cables, etc. Gotta look good for the LAN parties!

 

[EyEPoD]

My Computer is @ my apartment near school. I go home usually usually 2 days a week (as its near where I work) so I keep my really good home setup in a nice isolated spot away from the parties and crazy roomates.

However, I decided lately that I still need a good setup for my apartment where is spend 90% of my time. The computer seemed like a logical choice for a source.

Current Specs:
Intel P4c @ 3.0Ghz Stock
Intel Canterwood MB
1024MB Corsair PC 3200 TwinX Matched Pair
Geforce FX 5900 Ultra Factory OC'd @ 500/900
Audigy 2 Platinum EX
(2) Seagate 15k.3 73gig SCSI Drives
Adaptec 2200s SCSI Raid Card w/ 64MB Onbaord Memory
Plextor Premium CD-RW
Sony DRU-500A DVD-+RW
PCP&C 510w SE PSU
Switchech 4000 Heasink w/ TMD & Arctic Silver III
Coolermaster ATC 410 Aluminum Rackmountable Case

Thats alot of info, I know, but I just took it a little furtcher with my incoming computer audio setup.

On the way:
RME Pad (2ndary soundcard)
Headroom MAX w/ Stepped
Senn HD600 w/ Equinox

I also ordered some dynamat and some new fans to quiet everything down a bit. This should give me pretty good sound, without drawing any added attention (no racks, flashy cables, etc).

 

[slunk007]

This is what I have:

CPU: Athlon XP2400+
MOBO: ASUS A7N8X
RAM: 1 GB of DDR333
HD: 80GB WD 7200RPM
Audio: Audigy2 Platinum
PS: Antec 380W True Power
Video: Asus V9280 GeForce4 TI4200 128MB DDR 8x AGP
Mouse: Logitech MX700 (The best mouse. Period.)

Foobar2000
--Alt-Preset-Standard MP3s


This is what I want:

M-Audiophile Delta410 (not easily available in Canada for a reasonable price)
or
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 (I can go and pick one up today if I had the cash... $204 CDN)

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally posted by realityclouded No hunting for or swapping CDs. I could probably queue up my entire collection and have a two year long playlist: 45 mins * 400 CDs = 18,000 minutes 18000 mins / 24 hours = 750 days 750 days / 365 = 2.05 years

Next time use the computer's calculator

18000 minutes = 300 hours = 12.5 days

I can't write what I have yet. I'm reconfiguring as we speak.

 

[hottyson]

1. What is your current setup?
Windows XP Pro
AMD XP1700+
M-audio Sonica

2. What do you think about it?
I think my computer fan is too loud. The noise limits me to only use Sennheiser HD-280 to block out the fan noise.

3. What plans do you have for improvement?
I want to ditch the whole system.
I will then replace it with two systems.
First, create a touch screen jukebox with an older computer.
Second, purchase a quiet and portable notebook. (iBook?)

 

[realityclouded]

Quote:

Originally posted by lan Next time use the computer's calculator 18000 minutes = 300 hours = 12.5 days

Oops. Still recovering from last night.

Quote:

Originally posted by lan I can't write what I have yet. I'm reconfiguring as we speak.

I just brought home my new M-Audio Audiophile 2496. I'm just minutes away from popping it in. Looking forward to reading about your setup.

 

[mulveling]

What I have:

Computer Hardware:
- Coolermaster ATC 710 case (big, beautiful, built like a tank)
- Antec TruePower 380 Watt PS (quiet and powerful)
- P4 2.26 overclocked to 2.4 (because Dscaler eats CPU)
- Asus P4B533 motherbboard (Q-fan makes even the stock intel fan run quiet)
- Radeon 9600 fanless video card
- 2 Seagate Barracuda 60 gb 7500 rpm drives (very quiet)
- RME Digi 96/8 PAD sound card
- TB Santa Cruz sound card (for games)

Software:
- Win2K
- Dscaler (watching DVD's and TV)
- Foobar2000 (playing .ape files)
- Monkey's audio
- EAC
(that's really about it. No software bloat here

)

Downstream Audio equipment:
ZuCable Pivot -> Gilmore V2 amp -> Senn HD600's

Satisfaction:
Not totally satisfied with audio, but only because the RME is not a good match for my downstream audio equimpment and audio tastes. It is a high quality detailed source and noise/interference are not a problem with the card. It's just that I happen to need a very warm and musical source. I am happy with the quietness of my PC. And not that it's what you asked, but I'm also thrilled with my PC as a video processor and display device for anime DVD's

Improvement:
Don't know for now, currently I'm thrilled with my set-top dvd player (panasonic rp91) for redbook CD's. I hate to use the term, but it has at least some "synergy" with my other audio components. In the future I may look for either a high quality card with a warm sound (if that exists) or a warm sounding dac with the RME as a transport. It really would be nice to have all my cd's in .ape format on a hard drive.

 

[Ctn]

I've lost faith in computer audio...

 

[pbirkett]

Computer Hardware...
Athlon XP1800+
All YS-Tech Quiet 80mm fans throughout
Vantec Fan controller
120Gb Hard drive
512Mb RAM
Terratec EWX 24/96

Software
Windows XP Pro
Foobar 2000
Exact Audio Copy
Files: MP3 usually @ 192 or greater, MPC Q6

Audio
Musical Fidelity X-Can v3
Sony MDR-CD3000

Satisfaction
Pretty satisfied in all honesty, I feared the Terratec card would not be a good enough source for the Sony's, but it really sounds quite excellent, and dare I say even a synergy going on. The amp is in the process of being upgraded though, but thats nothing to do with the computer itself.

Improvements
Want a 2600+ CPU and an extra 512Mb of RAM, a DVD writer, although thats little to do with the audio. As I am fairly happy, I would only upgrade if I was guaranteed an improvement, which I feel may only be done with an expensive DAC. Thankfully I feel my EWX to be a relatively forgiving source, lively but warm and punchy, I dont anticipate it being cheap to give myself a worthwhile improvement.

 

[JeffL]

What I have

Athlon XP 2100+ @ 1.859Ghz
512MB RAM
XP Pro
M-Audio Sonica
2x 80gig in Raid 0
Leadtek Winfast Deluxe TV Tuner/FM Radio
ATI Radeon 9500 > 9700 Softmod @ 376.5/300
11 fans, 4 exhaust, 5 intake, 1 chipset coolor, Thermaltake 8SE HSF (I like good white noise to cancel out other noises-and it isn't anywhere near as loud as you'd think

)

My Sonica is currently hooked up to a Sharp SA-120, but tomorrow when my Marantz 2230B arrives, it will be running off of that and powering my Beyers.

Satisfaction

So far I am damn pleased! Everything sounds really sweet, and actually I am kinda impressed with the Sharp receiver I picked up. The bass from my Beyers is REALLY present now, and I thought that the CMOY I had was decent...despite its clipping.

Improvement

Well, the LedTek TV Tuner requires a card with a line input, meaning I can't watch TV through my Sonica's output, without the use of a program Called Audio Repeater. It takes the line in from the onboard (crappy) sound card on the motherboard, digitizes it, and outputs it to the Sonica. Unfortunately, it is a PITA to have to launch this program, in addition to the PVR software for the tuner, so my next purchase as far as sources go will be an Audiophile 2496. The Sonica will be either sold, or I will use it on my laptop.

As far as an amp, I am not sure. I just got my SA120, and my 2230B to power my Beyers, so nothing any time soon.

My computer on the other hand needs a definite boost in hard disk space. I would optimally like to pick up some 160GB 7200RPM drives and Raid 0 them. And some 17" flat panels would be nice. I also could do with a faster CPU since I like to churn SETI units, and for video encoding.

 

[aphex944]

Computer specs:

DFI NFII Ultra-AL nForce2 Ultra 400 motherboard
Athlon XP 1700+(w/ Taisol HSF)
2 256mb Kingston PC2100 DIMMs(Dual-chan mode)
Seagate 7200rpm 80GB SATA HDD
Asus CD-S520, LG GCE-8320, Pioneer DVD-120
Chaintech GeForceFX 5600 XT 128mb
Antec TruePower 350W PSU
1 case exhaust fan

Running Win2k SP4..

I use a M-Audio Sonica(with Black Gate output caps) for music playback. Onboard audio for games. Sonica outputs to my MOSFET headphone amp, as well as my LM1876 amplifier for my BIC DV62 speakers.

The Sonica sounds great to me especially with the different caps. I haven't heard any other high quality audio setups for PCs so I don't know how it compares. To my standalone Marantz, it definitely holds it's own. No complaints, can't get any simpler really.

I use EAC to rip my CDs, and encode most of it using MPC --q7. For favorite recordings, I use Monkey's Audio lossless compression. I output at 24-bit, no resampling and no other DSPs.

The only other thing I'd like to do is implement better power filtering in the Sonica. Still, I'm happy with it as it is now.

 

[srwatters]

IBM T41 Pentium M 1.7GHz (Centrino w/1MB L2 Cache)
WinXP Pro
iTunes
M-Audio Transit
Mobile Fidelity X-ACT DAC
McIntosh C712 (soon to be replaced with a LaRocco PPA)
Sennheiser HD-600

I've ripped 3185 songs for 31.12GB at 320kbs AAC, but that get's downloaded to the iPod. I use a Plexor PX-708UF connected via USB2.0 to play redbook CDs. The TosLink between the Transit and DAC keeps it quiet. It's no SACD system, but makes me happy.

 

[Elec]

AthlonXP "Barton" 2500+ @ 2.1GHz (needs more juice for 2.2, gets real hot)
Thermalright SK-7 heatsink w/80mm Vantec Tornado fan
Epox 8RDA+ nForce2 mainboard
2x256MB GeIL PC3200 Ultra
GeForce 4 Ti4200 128MB video
Audigy2 OEM
D-Link wifi card
10gig, 40gig 7200rpm HDDs
48X TDK VeloCD burner
2X Hitachi DVD-ROM (2x is the speed, somebody once thought I had 2 DVD drives and couldn't figure out why - it's 6 years old but it's a hoss)
WinXP Pro (won a copy at a .NET event)
other peripherals

blue/silver Raidmax window case
blue rounded IDE cables, red UV reactive 3-pin cables, 2x80mm blue UV LED fans, 12" blue cold cathode, silver bezel Sunbeam Rheobus with red/blue LEDs

My audio setup right now is the analog out of the Audigy2 into my old Total Airhead (2AA style), and then into either my Senn HD545s or Ety 4Ps. Sounds ok but not the most impressive rig. It's convenient for listening to compressed audio and DVDs with Dolby Headphone. I use Musepack (and have since it was called MP+) with the -xtreme switch to archive my CDs (space does matter, see my HDDs above). So far I've been only modestly impressed with the Etys and I suspect my source/amp have something to do with that. The TA has a pretty high noise floor and the Audigy2 is clearly not as good as a standalone non-PC source. I'm tempted to swap out the Audigy2's opamps with AD8620s, except that I haven't found enough info out there to know what the hell I'm doing

Otherwise who knows, maybe a better card with digital out and a standalone DAC are in the far future.

 

[lan]

Computer (Player) Spec
Case: ATC-110-SX1. I love it. Spacious and acts like big heatsink.
CPU: P4 2.6C @ 3.41ghz (cooled via Alpha PAL8942 w/ Nidec fan)
Mobo: Abit IS7-E
Power Supply: Fortron FSP350-60PN w/ 120mm fan. I love this as it's quiet and has built in potentiometer for the fan.

Tekram DC390U3W SCSI controller
- Maxtor Atlas 10K III 18GB
- Minolta CD10 PCMCIA card reader

Seagate Barracuda IV 60GB
2 x 80GB Western Digital 800JB in external firewire case. (I turn these off when not needed to reduce noise inside and outside computer)

Panasonic SD card reader
Lexar CompactFlash card reader

Video card: Radeon 9800 Pro
CDRW: Yamaha CRW-F1E. Love the Audio Master Quality recording mode.
DVD-R/RAM - Panasonic LDF531 (forgot model as it's in external firewire case and is off now).

Sound cards:
- RME Digi96/8 PST (in lowest slot away from everything else)
- M-Audio Audiophile 24/96

Config

The RME PST -> (cheap optical) -> GWLabs DSP -> (AES/EBU) + coax (goes to 2 locations).

1) (AES/EBU) -> M-Audio CO3 -> (coax) -> RME PST
2) (coax) ART DI/O (modded MENSA)

The loop (1) keeps everything synced and the reclocking and jitter reduction makes it better than straight out the RME.

Power Conditioning

Don't expect the best sound with your audio stuff plugged into same surge protector as computer and without any power conditioning.

Duplex 1 (computer)
- UPS 1 on main system and power cords are shielded
- UPS 2 on accessories with EMI/RFI filter strips

Duplex 2 (audio)
- Outlet 1: Large isolation transformer (upgraded hospital grade outlets) for amp/sub.
- Outlet 2: Voltage regulator connects to 2 surge/RFI/EMI protectors
-- Belkin surgemaster 2 for CO3 by itself. Such transformers need to be isolated.
-- Monster Powerbar 1100. It has 2 separate sets of filters.
----- GWLabs DSP is one by itself and following is in the other set
----- MG Head in high current outlet
----- Isolation transformer #2 in another high current outlet. This also has hospital grade outlets. The DI/O is connecter to here. It's power supply has Bybee filter.

Software

The one and only foobar2000!

24bit padded to 32bit. I run convolver plugin with my own 32bit/96khz preset for equalization for headphone and room. I use FLAC and MPC (custom or Braindead).

Other systems
- The server is in another room. To keep it short. Dual PIII, 320GB.
- I use a PDA or my laptop to sometimes remote control.

Satisfaction
I am. Smooth as silk. Bass tighter than a virgin.

Clear as water.

Improvements
Oh man... where to even begin.

I'm waiting for 36GB 2nd generation Raptor to come out then I'll replace the Atlas 10KIII as it's a bit too loud on seeks and has a whine while spinning.

Radeon 9800 has a fan. I may replace it with some passive large copper heatsink.

Mod the RME PST. I'm thinking better power supply filtering.

Upgrade the cheap optical cable. Actually this upgrade is coming tomorrow. I'll be using 2 glass toslinks to/from the RME PST.

I'd like to move the CDRW out of the computer into another external firewire case. Or I may add another power supply to the computer. The NEC CDROM is so far neglected but that will go into another player computer. It will have 2 power supplies. The NEC will get linear regulated

. I'm thinking that the primary power supply should only power the motherboard, videocard, and soundcard. Let's leave the drives on another.

I'm going to build a Jon Risch filter / surge suppressor to replace the PC1100 or the surgemaster II.

Get a power conditioner for my projector/vhs/cable.

Going to add some filtering to the Isolation transformers.

I'd like to make next versions of my "advanced" powercords and interconnects.

Change my duplexes to silver cryoed. Maybe use ProGold/DeoxIt on a bunch of connections while I'm at it.

Move the computer stuff to another circuit.

Get some AudioPrism quietlines to create a "quietzone".

Mod my magnepans for biamping and use software based crossover.

Build some tube moboblocks.

The server needs more space.

The insanity continues..........