[sonci]

If you haven't,
give this http://photos.imageevent.com/cics/v0...rts%20v0.3.pdf, a shot.

Well, I read it once and first, I thought it was better to buy a 10k CD player, then do those tricks,
but, then I tried to play around and I must admit, its genius somehow,
Unfortunately I don't know the author
It's pretty detailed, and its simple,
I didn't removed the cd player or my keyboard, just focused on windows tweaking, and it was fun to run Foobar Realtime with no other application runing paralel,
of course you have to sacrifice other pc functions,
strictly audio,
I thought that with double or quad core processors we don't need this tweak
but its wrong
I could'nt play Foo with buffer length 100ms and ASIO latency 2ms, without hearing pops or clicks, but now I can,
you can argue that we dont need that latency for playback, still I think some of those tricks are usefull for PC audiophillia,
Do I hear any difference in SQ? I dont know for sure,
What do you think?

 

[Anonanimal]

This is an interesting read- thank you for linking it!

 

[xnor]

The intro is informative but the rest...

Like I expected there are no real explanations why most of the suggested changes would change anything or cause change for the better. There are also no references or anything..

You don't even need ASIO (on Vista/7) for "bit-perfect" playback if you disable the sound effects and set the appropriate sample rate in the mixer properties.

Reducing buffer length is what you do not want for playback, no need to argue about that.

"setting display mode to 8-bit yields best audio performance" ... I'm speechless.
And it seems that some "suggestions" simply seem to be ripped-off from terrible sites like this.



Like in my ASIO thread this quote fits here pretty well too:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phelonious Ponk /img/forum/go_quote.gif ... Applying the tweaky, hobbyist's anti-science of analog audiophile nervosa to digital data. It makes no sense here; ...

 

[Gilly]

Very interesting, although maybe the measures are a little extreme, the information regarding CPU frequency effecting the quality with EMI radiation all makes sense.

I would take some of the "optimizations" with a pinch of salt, I guess if you want perfection they every little helps, if you want to build a dedicated PC for listening to music then it seems like a nice guide to follow

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xnor /img/forum/go_quote.gif it seems that some "suggestions" simply seem to be ripped-off from terrible sites like this.

it's the same author, Sherlock

 

[Shike]

The article feels one step away from suggesting someone shove a $1K wood block under their PC.

I wouldn't bother with a lot of it.

 

[sonci]

One thing for sure, the guy who wrote that, knows a lot about windows,
because the steps works,
There are "few" things that I dont get, but most, all make sense,
you have to use xp because has less services than vista,
you reduce every energy consuming feature, even 32bit color video,
remove cables, Lan, etc, basically you have only a slow processor and an audio card, just like a CD player
If expensive CD transports use low latency playback, and resamples, maybe its good, considering we dont have the right Headphones/Speakers to judge,

I'm going to leave my PC this way, its faster anyway, even for internet browsing,


btw, is there any way to configure Kernell Streaming latency, just as for ASIO?

 

[chipzahoy]

I own a gaming/HTPC, a laptop for work, and a dedicated audio PC. The gaming/HTPC is the most "advanced" in pure computer terms, with Q9550, 4G RAM, GTX280, 800W PS, and huge hard drives.

My audio PC, on the other hand, follows cics' guide almost to the letter (with additional advanced mods). It contains humble components ranging from the relatively new E7200 to "NOS" 256MB Kingston RAM.

Yes, I admit that I LOL'ed when I first saw the list of recommended components. Well, guess what, I LOL'ed even harder after I built the PC out of curiosity. The nickles and dimes spent on the PC (only counting the "computer" parts, of course) turned out to be the best audio investment I've ever made. My $$$ CDP went on the market within one week after the completion of my "cics" audio PC.

Oh, and for those curious... using the same soundcard/DAC setup, my dedicated audio PC sounds significant better than the gaming/HTPC. Okay, "significantly better" is a gross understatement. Imagine playing Crysis on my gaming rig and the audio PC (assuming I can run it on a machine with 256MB RAM). That's the kind of difference I've experienced. Except the audio PC wins, of course

 

[xnor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif it's the same author, Sherlock

hehehe, good to know, thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shike /img/forum/go_quote.gif The article feels one step away from suggesting someone shove a $1K wood block under their PC. I wouldn't bother with a lot of it.

x2

<3 Shike

btw, Austrian beer is very very good

@sonci: Well, I (and a lot of other people) also know a lot about Windows or computers in general, yet we don't come up with such suggestions.

I mean, yeah if you feel like crippling your computer to the point where all it can do is to play some music... why not?

 

[leeperry]

yeah it's a great tutorial, just don't follow him in his extreme madness(who wants to convert his FLAC library to 24/192 WAV files, hahaha)...but he gives fantastic advices to kill all the crapola running hidden in the back

too bad he didn't mention "Win32PrioritySeparation", but well you can't quite put it all in one PDF.

 

[tosehee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif yeah it's a great tutorial, just don't follow him in his extreme madness(who wants to convert his FLAC library to 24/192 WAV files, hahaha)...but he gives fantastic advices to kill all the crapola running hidden in the back too bad he didn't mention "Win32PrioritySeparation", but well you can't quite put it all in one PDF.

If one has a spare pc with low profile, i guess you can use it to this extreme. Some infos are actually quite useful like the disabling the ones that you are not using, use the lowest latency, and etc.

 

[Shike]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonci /img/forum/go_quote.gif . . . considering we dont have the right Headphones/Speakers to judge . . .

Speak for yourself

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

This is exactly like $1k wood blocks under your CD player, mixed liberally with a mis-guided attempt to apply the "simplicity is best"/"wire with gain" analog theory do digital data. There is no logical, scientific reason to believe any of this makes any difference, and no independent measurement or testing to demonstrate its value. When some of these guys come up with independent blind listening tests confirming that people can actually hear a difference, they will have risen above the foo of magic feet and cd mats. Until then, get all of the analog out of the computer's box with a good DAC, and enjoy the music.

P

 

[sonci]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shike /img/forum/go_quote.gif Speak for yourself

HA-HA, Good for you!

Probably, most of people here use PC audio, and just dont care about expensive CD player or amplifiers,
but, if you try to remove the cover of an Arcam or Naim, yo'll see strange cables, shields, grills, etc, even my modest Denon CD player, have 3 barriers between PSU and the board, also the option for turning off the small lcd screen, during playback, for risk of "interferences".

It cannot be all, snake oil

 

[leeperry]

a defragmenting HDD adds massive ripple to the PSU 12V rail, thoppa measured that...so getting rid of HDD's serves at least one purpose, and the less ripple on the PSU the clearer the sound.

but jitter from HDD's, I don't buy this