Rebuilding my Setup, need some advice.

[Audio Jester]

I have become quite disgruntled with my current setup, and with good cause.

I have an old clapper of a PC that sounds like a Blackhawk on NOS, sporting a Soundblaster Live Value (I think it was built in 98, great vintage). From here on it is fine for the moment (Corda Arietta >>> D2000's).

This is the dilemma... I have been wanting to go down the PC audio track, but quite frankly it feels like an uphill battle to me (particularly as I just bought a X-Fi, but it refuses to work on my OS). So I am starting to think that A good transport will do me justice. The thing is that I am not made of money, and I also do not want to make my Arietta redundant (just yet).

So what do you think? How have people found rigs that use CDs vs ones that use Hard drives?
The bottom line is sound quality. Any suggestions?

 

[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Audio Jester /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have become quite disgruntled with my current setup, and with good cause. I have an old clapper of a PC that sounds like a Blackhawk on NOS, sporting a Soundblaster Live Value (I think it was built in 98, great vintage). From here on it is fine for the moment (Corda Arietta >>> D2000's). This is the dilemma... I have been wanting to go down the PC audio track, but quite frankly it feels like an uphill battle to me (particularly as I just bought a X-Fi, but it refuses to work on my OS). So I am starting to think that A good transport will do me justice. The thing is that I am not made of money, and I also do not want to make my Arietta redundant (just yet). So what do you think? How have people found rigs that use CDs vs ones that use Hard drives? The bottom line is sound quality. Any suggestions?

Are you talking x-fi and Vista?
I heard the drivers are still not up to notch.

Both can sound good. But i have the idea that a computer based rig is limited of scaling. I have the feeling that a non computer rig can scale higher, if you want to.

If you want a good transport, look for second hand top cdplayers or in the 800 dollar region, say rega apollo or the likes.

Both can sound good, but you are limited of what you can do with a computer rig. For the other systems, the sky is the limit. if you have a good card, a good dac, you can have avery nice sounding system. Convience is that you don't have to switch cd's and if you use flac, you don't have any negative effects but will have more space for music on your drives.

My home system is better with quite a margin compared to the pc setup. Since you can tweak and add more to the system; high end cables, modded amp and good transport. But, it will cost you more.

P.s.
nice picture of your kitty!

 

[Audio Jester]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tourmaline /img/forum/go_quote.gif Are you talking x-fi and Vista? I heard the drivers are still not up to notch. P.s. nice picture of your kitty!

Actually I am talking about Win2K and X-fi.....I am a bit pissed with the situation, because my operating system is working really well at the moment (touch wood), and I simply have not needed to upgrade to XP ...or worse....Vista (bleh).

Thanks for the comment on the Avatar, my cat sends his regards.

Anyhow, continuing the conversation. The problem is this.... I have had enough of hiss in my music and computer hassles. My friend has this old Marantz Hifi and it totally kicks the @#$! out of my setup. The other problem is that I really want to make the most of my Arietta and coming up with a solution with that in it is difficult. I guess I should just get a USB dac and get it over with.... but I have no idea how much difference that will make and if it is worth the money.

A difference worth the money is when I upgraded from my 595's to my D2000's.

 

[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Audio Jester /img/forum/go_quote.gif Actually I am talking about Win2K and X-fi.....I am a bit pissed with the situation, because my operating system is working really well at the moment (touch wood), and I simply have not needed to upgrade to XP ...or worse....Vista (bleh). Thanks for the comment on the Avatar, my cat sends his regards. Anyhow, continuing the conversation. The problem is this.... I have had enough of hiss in my music and computer hassles. My friend has this old Marantz Hifi and it totally kicks the @#$! out of my setup. The other problem is that I really want to make the most of my Arietta and coming up with a solution with that in it is difficult. I guess I should just get a USB dac and get it over with.... but I have no idea how much difference that will make and if it is worth the money. A difference worth the money is when I upgraded from my 595's to my D2000's.

Why don't you try a "cheap" usb dac and see what it does for your system?!
You can always resell it on headfi with few losses.

As i said earlier, i have the fealing that stand alone hifi does scale better! There is a limit to the pc hifi you can do with it. You can mod your dac, amp and cdplayer. With pc this is limited.

I bet your cat purrs when listening to your headphone.

 

[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Audio Jester /img/forum/go_quote.gif Actually I am talking about Win2K and X-fi.....I am a bit pissed with the situation, because my operating system is working really well at the moment (touch wood), and I simply have not needed to upgrade to XP ...or worse....Vista (bleh). Thanks for the comment on the Avatar, my cat sends his regards. Anyhow, continuing the conversation. The problem is this.... I have had enough of hiss in my music and computer hassles. My friend has this old Marantz Hifi and it totally kicks the @#$! out of my setup. The other problem is that I really want to make the most of my Arietta and coming up with a solution with that in it is difficult. I guess I should just get a USB dac and get it over with.... but I have no idea how much difference that will make and if it is worth the money. A difference worth the money is when I upgraded from my 595's to my D2000's.

Actually, xp is better then win2k. You can setup xp to look the same as win2k. You can turn off all eyecandy and stuff, eating less resources as well.

Where win2k had some instabilites, win xp is totally stable.

I hear alot that the creative drivers are bad. Thus far on xp my card is running just fine.