[AmanGeorge]

I was bored and decided to change my setup slightly for fun. My normal setup is Laptop -> Creative X-Fi Extreme Soundcard (optical out) -> Stock PS Audio DLIII DAC -> Head-Direct EF1 amp -> Headphones. I decided to try listening to a CD, and hooked up my DVD player's coax out to the DLIII, and A/Bed the same song from my CD and my computer. Lo and behold, the CD had a noticeably blacker background, better detail retrieval, and better dynamics. And this is through a cheap DVD player as a transport.

Am I doomed to having to listen to CDs instead of my laptop to maximize my experience?

 

[Ntropic]

Try skipping the X-Fi. If your DAC has USB input, try that.

ASIO helps as well, to some degree. Ultimately, there shouldn't be too much difference...

 

[KingStyles]

Are you playing the cd from the cd drive or did you rip it to the hard drive.? That can make a difference. Also what program did you use to play the cd on your computer? Also, what os are you using?

 

[AmanGeorge]

I was playing the CD from the DVD drive versus the same tracks ripped to my hard drive with Exact Audio Copy. Maybe I should try listening to the CD played from my laptop vs. the ripped file and take the DVD out of the equation.

I'll try the DAC via USB, but I remember early on thinking that it didn't sound as good as the optical.

 

[atothex]

You mean "straight from laptop sound card just can't cut it." Try Squeezebox as transport. USB->SPDIF doesn't quite do it either, from what people tell me. A good USB DAC should do the trick; I've heard good things about the Ayre. Of course, for that kind of cash, one can simply build a silent desktop server and transport to a nice vintage DAC. So yeah, Squeezebox it.

 

[AmanGeorge]

Yeah, unfortunately there just aren't that many good USB DACs out there - most DACs that have USB just do USB -> SPDIF (with a few exceptions, of course, but there aren't many options).

 

[AmanGeorge]

Is the X-Fi soundcard the limiting factor? Would this experience be different going straight out from, say, a Macbook's optical out?

 

[atothex]

It may be different if one is worse than the other; as for which is better, I have no idea. It's clearly a transport/jitter issue, though.

BTW does your Mac have Firewire? There's actually some pretty decent Firewire DACs available, mostly pro stuff.

 

[Bredin]

Lol! Posted in the wrong thread.

 

[bixby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmanGeorge /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is the X-Fi soundcard the limiting factor? Would this experience be different going straight out from, say, a Macbook's optical out?

It could be. I compared the coax out of a 0404PCI card on my pc running Foobar with WAV to AIFF on my Macbook running optical out. Pretty darn close with the advantage going to the mac. So I think it may be in your interest to get a better soundcard or if you want real easy and great sounding, do what I did, switch to a MAC. And you can choose from lots of very good DACs that have optical inputs and not have to rely on a perhaps poorly executed USB implementation.

 

[fjf]

I doubt the optical out is the problem. Maybe the OP is using lossy with a low bitrate, or his computer is re-sampling at 48 KHz. Try using lossless and find out if you are outputting 44.1 KHz. An optical out from a computer sounds as good as any optical out. Digital data is digital data, if your software is not messing out with the data.

 

[Honkymagoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjf /img/forum/go_quote.gif I doubt the optical out is the problem. Maybe the OP is using lossy with a low bitrate, or his computer is re-sampling at 48 KHz. Try using lossless and find out if you are outputting 44.1 KHz. An optical out from a computer sounds as good as any optical out. Digital data is digital data, if your software is not messing out with the data.

So is 44.1 preferred over 48?

 

[iriverdude]

If playing CD's which are 44.1khz, yes.

 

[audioengr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmanGeorge /img/forum/go_quote.gif I was playing the CD from the DVD drive versus the same tracks ripped to my hard drive with Exact Audio Copy. Maybe I should try listening to the CD played from my laptop vs. the ripped file and take the DVD out of the equation. I'll try the DAC via USB, but I remember early on thinking that it didn't sound as good as the optical.

The best method I have found for ripping is dbpoweramp and Accurate-Rip. Beats EAC. Bit-perfect is not the whole story. the Offset must be dead-on.

More details here:
dbpoweramp pro and Teac drive for ripping

Player S/W is critical too. iTunes with Amarra on a Mac is the best current playback S/W IMO.

Finally, your hardware: converter, cables and DAC must be up to snuff.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

 

[parrot5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmanGeorge /img/forum/go_quote.gif I was bored and decided to change my setup slightly for fun. My normal setup is Laptop -> Creative X-Fi Extreme Soundcard (optical out) -> Stock PS Audio DLIII DAC -> Head-Direct EF1 amp -> Headphones. I decided to try listening to a CD, and hooked up my DVD player's coax out to the DLIII, and A/Bed the same song from my CD and my computer. Lo and behold, the CD had a noticeably blacker background, better detail retrieval, and better dynamics. And this is through a cheap DVD player as a transport. Am I doomed to having to listen to CDs instead of my laptop to maximize my experience?

On the contrary, when I tried to use a DVD player to replace my computer source, the output was hazy and a tad muddy. Maybe time to upgrade your computer as source?