Suprised... New case - better sound

[Regus]

Ok, I think this is wierd...

I replaced my old cheapo, junk Q-Tec case with a new coolermaster cavalier because I was tired of looking at that ugly beige case in my living room.

And I expected nothing but an improvement in the apearance...

Then I connected the E-MU 1212M to my amp (old NAD C320 - still waiting for my SR-71 to arrive) and from there to my Sennheiser HD650 and played some Sarah Brightman.

Man was I in for a suprise...

The music seems much more lively and present, more warm and musical. I would say about 0.5 on the official night and day scale

I had been a little disapointed with my HD650s but figured the NAD just didn't drive them properly and hoped they would improve once the SR-71 arrived.

My best guess is that the PSU that came with the cavalier is better than the one with the Q-Tec (which I am quite sure is the case considdering the price tag on each of them).

We have all heard that cleaner power means better sound and I figured that it was probably greatly exaggerated...

And if someone can provide me with a better suggestion before I start considdering a power conditioner... Me and my wallet would much apreaciate it

Things I am aware I did:

- power off the NAD while moving the stuff from case to case I'd say 30-45 minutes

- New PSU

- New Case

- The bios was reset, don't know why...

I think that is all...

Now I really don't feel like moving everything back just to test for placebo and other possible causes.

...

I was even thinking of getting another set of headphones for punk and the likes because while classical and vocal music sounded good on the HD650 Punk sounded really uninvolving, heck my ER4S did a better job with that...

While writing this I have just been listening to Jackalopes and I have got to say that for Punk it is 1.5 n&d units.

My mood just rose about 10 degrees... this is great

 

[Alu]

That's really interesting I have to say. Could you tell me if you rose the number of watts in the psu?

But cleaner power is indeed a big factor in audio, since it's the electricity that is being transformed into audio in the end to put it really simple.

 

[pbirkett]

Q-Tec power supplies are absolute sh!t. Its no wonder it sings better with a better PSU. I noticed a slight improvement between my old Q-Technology PSU (note that this is NOT a Q-Tec) and my current Zalman power supply with my old EWX soundcard.

 

[Regus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alu That's really interesting I have to say. Could you tell me if you rose the number of watts in the psu?

They are both rated for 300W...

However, ratings and reality do not always correspond and I would not be suprised if the cooler master (the new one) has better real world performance.

On the other hand there is nothing really power hungry in the case
Duron 1.2 GHz
Matrox G450
Maxtor 40 GB Fluid HDD
DVD-ROM
E-MU 1212M

EDIT:

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbirkett Q-Tec power supplies are absolute sh!t. Its no wonder it sings better with a better PSU. I noticed a slight improvement between my old Q-Technology PSU (note that this is NOT a Q-Tec) and my current Zalman power supply with my old EWX soundcard.

I always figured Q-Tec to be rather poor quaility but i didn't think the difference would be this huge

 

[pbirkett]

A cheap power supply is less stable and noisier than an expensive one. And the better quality power you can provide your soundcard, the better the signal it will produce.

There are many folks who advocate aftermarket power supplies for amps (such as for example, the Gilmore Lite PSU), and even CD players (Naim's CAP PSU's for example), so why shouldnt you provide a good PSU for your soundcard?

Edited to add: You are indeed correct with your assumption that a decent power supply gives better real world power delivery too. I can guarantee my 400 watt Zalmann gives a more stable current than the 550 watt Q-Tec, even though on paper the Q-Tec appears more powerful. Q-Tec actually give a peak performance rating on their PSU's and this is usually much higher than the sustainable performance is in reality.

 

[Alu]

I currently have a q-tec 550w. Are they really that terrible? I was planning on replacing it by http://www.thermaltake.com/purepower...fanlesspfc.htm anyways, but I wasn't aware of q-tec being that miserable

.

 

[pbirkett]

The thing is, if the PC works then most people regard the PSU as being unimportant. Its one of those things that just works quietly in the background and never really gets given much thought, but a good PSU will make your system run more stable (important if you have a modern gfx card like a GF6800GT) and everything will be given cleaner power.

For running a basic machine to surf and do the odd spreadsheet they are probably fine, but for demanding stuff I would always recommend buying a high quality PSU.

 

[Alu]

That thread sure did help me decide on some things much easier. One think one knows some stuff about ones own pc, but then worlds start to crumble. *dramatization* And as I said before, this was/is a really interesting thread to read.

 

[Regus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbirkett There are many folks who advocate aftermarket power supplies for amps (such as for example, the Gilmore Lite PSU), and even CD players (Naim's CAP PSU's for example), so why shouldnt you provide a good PSU for your soundcard?

There are people on this forum recommending you make copies of your CDs for improved sound...

Some times it is hard to figure out what is snake oil and what is real if you catch my drift

...

WOW! I feel like I have just moved from down the street and into the The Chicago Concert Hall listening to Barenboim directing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture... WOW!!

Let this be a lesson to all us fools thinking one PSU is probably not much better than another...

Don't drive your Jaguar off road and don't run your 1212M off of a Q-Tec PSU

 

[Annihilator]

does anyone know if enermax psus are high quality? i have a 330w enermax in my pc

 

[Glassman]

there is even measurable improvement when changing PSUs, a friend of mine exchanged his PSU and measured 2dB better SNR ratios on the same configuration, just different PSU.. and the previous PSU was Fortron..

 

[Alu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glassman there is even measurable improvement when changing PSUs, a friend of mine exchanged his PSU and measured 2dB better SNR ratios on the same configuration, just different PSU.. and the previous PSU was Fortron..

That is even more impressive...really...but what should one look after when buying a psu? I mean, you can't really talk of many different factors to take into consideration, can you? I'd really love to know.

 

[Regus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glassman there is even measurable improvement when changing PSUs, a friend of mine exchanged his PSU and measured 2dB better SNR ratios on the same configuration, just different PSU.. and the previous PSU was Fortron..

That sounds a lot more like what I would have expected, some improvement, but not like this - I think this new PSU is the best upgrade I have made to my system yet... Deffinatly far more audible than replacing my TerraTec
DMX XFire 1024 with the E-MU 1212M.

 

[aphex944]

Manufacturer specs don't really tell you too much. A few computer hardware sites out there measure the power supplies they review properly. They test things like stability, AC ripple, noise, etc. Software monitoring programs generally aren't very accurate, so it takes some hardware to do it the right way.

I switched from an Antec 350w to a FSP(Fortron) 400w power supply, and definitely noticed a difference with my Sonica. I think it'd definitely be worth doing a power supply "round up" and testing many different brands to see which gives the best performance for audio devices.

 

[Glassman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aphex944 I think it'd definitely be worth doing a power supply "round up" and testing many different brands to see which gives the best performance for audio devices.

yup, I was suggesting doing that before, I think it would be really worthwhile.. and head-fi is definitely not a small site so we might be lucky talking manufacturers into providing us with samples..