[dotashope]

Hi all, 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!

 

[sajunky]

Sorry I can't say about WA6 nor Deckard, but your Rega Planet is very old. You should get better sound from PC for this reason.

Please don't blame me for the above if wrong, but maybe I can help with PC setup. Your sound card in the laptop is not involved at all over USB connection, you do a digital transfer to a DAC in a Deckard. Hope this short explanation is sufficient.

Now you need to focus on the following:

1. Get a right CD source. You need a comparable source, Spotify is not. Either play a disk from the internal CD-ROM, or rip a CD to the hard drive in a losless WAV or FLAC format.

2. Install drivers which came with Deckard, they will give a link to the website.

3. Decide on a media player. Use only a player that claim "bit perfect" USB transfers. I use a free Foobar2000.

4. I assume it is Windows OS. Configure your player to use WASAPI Exclusive or ASIO output. For WASAPI you also need to enable WASAPI exclusive mode in Windows sound properties. If you don't, everything will go through the Direct Sound mixer and sound will be degradated.

It may be more questions later, it should be good for a start.

 

[dotashope]

Hi sajunky, thanks a lot for your help. I've learned that with a dac the sound card is irrelevant in the system earlier during research. I'm not planning to play cds on my laptop cuz its too much work and the desk space is limited. Do you have any suggestions for any players for music or movie etc on Win10? I guess playing cds on the laptop does reduce some variables but it also introduces new variations of the situation. I had the driver installed for Deckard. Definitely thx for your help!

 

[sajunky]

I am using Foobar2000, it works on Win10. I don't understand variables. If you don't have a CD-ROM device, you can play ripped files. Most of downloadable music is in a FLAC format. Follow guides how to configue Foobar2000. WASAPI and ASIO support is by additional plugins, you have to download and install separately.

 

[dotashope]

I was just thinking using an external reader to play the cds, which would be add to variables in the situation. I'm going to try Tidal and Qobuz and see if it brings any improvements. Or maybe it is just the nature of Deckard to sound mushy.

 

[sajunky]

I would rather take few CD's or loseless files and start with your player configuration. You didn't say what player you use, so I bet, it is not the one with bit-perfect output.

 

[dotashope]

I haven't tried the lossless files yet, and you are right I don't have a bit-perfect player, I'll look into one tho. Thanks a lot for the help!