Where is my bottleneck?

[91tyler]

I am thinking about upgrading something in my system and I don't know what to upgrade. This is my set up. Running Apple lossless files on JRiver Media Player 26 on my Lenovo laptop, going out USB into my Schiit Byfrost DAC, then out with some blue Jean RCA cables into my Woo Audio WA6-SE, then out into my HD-800's which have the SDR mod... and also I should have mentioned that there is some EQ going on in JRiver (Fab Filer Pro Q2) to help give the HD-800's what they're weak on.

Where should I put my money?! Thanks in advance for your input!

 

[surfgeorge]

I've tested the various inputs of my DAC (Coax, USB and Toslink) from various sources and found that the worst combination was USB from an HP laptop. A 2014 Macbook Pro was fine on USB, and the best was the optical output of the MBP.

Based on this you could look into the digital signal transmission into your DAC.
But hard to know how much you can gain without having a clean source at hand.

 

[Monsterzero]

The weakest link in your chain is using a laptop as the source. Get yourself a dedicated server or at the very least a fanless NUC

 

[91tyler]

The weakest link in your chain is using a laptop as the source. Get yourself a dedicated server or at the very least a fanless NUC

Do you mind giving me a brief summary of why that is better then a laptop, i’m not quizzing you I’m just curious. Also is it impacting my sound quality that my entire music library is stored on an external HDD instead of SDD?

 

[Monsterzero]

Do you mind giving me a brief summary of why that is better then a laptop, i’m not quizzing you I’m just curious. Also is it impacting my sound quality that my entire music library is stored on an external HDD instead of SDD?

In a nutshell, laptops/desktops are not optimized for music playback. With fans and background functions ging on, they tend to be noisy, even if you do not hear the noise.

What you will gain from a dedicated setup will be.

blacker background, which will improve macro and micro dynamics, imaging and staging. I would imagine with an HD800, these changes would be rather noticeable.

I use a set up from small Green Computer that I rather like. for further info, here's a good thread to read on the topic.

https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49382

 

[91tyler]

In a nutshell, laptops/desktops are not optimized for music playback. With fans and background functions ging on, they tend to be noisy, even if you do not hear the noise.

What you will gain from a dedicated setup will be.

blacker background, which will improve macro and micro dynamics, imaging and staging. I would imagine with an HD800, these changes would be rather noticeable.

Thanks a lot for your thoughts, that sounds worth the money. I will definitely look into it.

 

[earmonger]

Have you tried something other than the JRiver player -- using iTunes or something else? (Foobar2000, Vox, whatever other free music player you can use). The player should be sending lossless files to the DAC.

It shouldn't matter how your files are stored. They are ones and zeros. Unless something is wrong with your USB connections.

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

Laptop. (as mentioned by others), USB, electrical power, cables are areas that you can improve upon

But I think in your case (before changing your source) is ito mprove your connection quality to your DAC first(as mentioned by the first who responded). Try investing in a USB reclocker/regenerator or a good DDC (USB to spdif/aes/i2s) first.

If your fmusic files are not above 24/192, I recommend looking at a Singxer F-1 SPDIF converter. Not only it converts but cleans and reclocks your USB signals at non exorbitant price. You can still use it if you plan to change your source later (try looking on Allo Audio's USBridge Signature Player).

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I am thinking about upgrading something in my system and I don't know what to upgrade. This is my set up. Running Apple lossless files on JRiver Media Player 26 on my Lenovo laptop, going out USB into my Schiit Byfrost DAC, then out with some blue Jean RCA cables into my Woo Audio WA6-SE, then out into my HD-800's which have the SDR mod... and also I should have mentioned that there is some EQ going on in JRiver (Fab Filer Pro Q2) to help give the HD-800's what they're weak on.

Where should I put my money?! Thanks in advance for your input!

If you can hear your laptop's fans without music playing, then try to see if you can manually control the fans without it getting too hot (and then just replace the thermal paste later as it will dry out the hotter the CPU runs). If it gets too hot or you can't manually control the fan (even by reducing minimum and max power state on Windows), get liquid metal thermal interface and conformal coating. Warning:this can brick the laptop if you don't insulate all the other parts around the CPU (and GPU if it has a discrete unit).

 

[91tyler]

Laptop. (as mentioned by others), USB, electrical power, cables are areas that you can improve upon

But I think in your case (before changing your source) is ito mprove your connection quality to your DAC first(as mentioned by the first who responded). Try investing in a USB reclocker/regenerator or a good DDC (USB to spdif/aes/i2s) first.

If your fmusic files are not above 24/192, I recommend looking at a Singxer F-1 SPDIF converter. Not only it converts but cleans and reclocks your USB signals at non exorbitant price. You can still use it if you plan to change your source later (try looking on Allo Audio's USBridge Signature Player).

Electrical power like you mean a power conditioner?

Wow I am starting to realize how little I know, no idea what a usb reclocker/regenerator is or what a DDC is, I’ll have to look that stuff up and do some research. Thanks very much!

 

[91tyler]

If you can hear your laptop's fans without music playing, then try to see if you can manually control the fans without it getting too hot (and then just replace the thermal paste later as it will dry out the hotter the CPU runs). If it gets too hot or you can't manually control the fan (even by reducing minimum and max power state on Windows), get liquid metal thermal interface and conformal coating. Warning:this can brick the laptop if you don't insulate all the other parts around the CPU (and GPU if it has a discrete unit).

That all sounds risky, and probably a little over my head haha

 

[91tyler]

Have you tried something other than the JRiver player -- using iTunes or something else? (Foobar2000, Vox, whatever other free music player you can use). The player should be sending lossless files to the DAC.

It shouldn't matter how your files are stored. They are ones and zeros. Unless something is wrong with your USB connections.

JRiver is a high quality playback program, superior to iTunes even by my own ears, I have tried Foobar, I found it to be uninspiring and un-intuitive, I feel if I was a open source Linux type guy I would have liked it more. I payed real money for JRiver . I have payed for every other part of my set-up why would I be content to use free software. Is that snobby

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

Electrical power like you mean a power conditioner?

Yes.

Since all are elctrical equipments and data are electrical currents, having a good power conditioner will result a blacker background hence increase dynamics/resolution etc.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

That all sounds risky, and probably a little over my head haha

An easy alternative would be to move music listening to a fanless device like a tablet or a Raspberry Pi-based miniPC.

 

[emorrison33]

Why do you feel you need an upgrade? Are you not enjoying your music with your current setup? Rather than spending money, you don't really need to spend, enjoy what you have. I think the above suggestions (cables) would be a fairly inexpensive choice if you feel the need to upgrade. How much of a difference it will make has been debated endlessly on headfi.org. Maybe a dedicated source would be the way to go. I would even suggest a DAP (digital audio player). YOu could move some of your files onto it, and not have to worry about computer noise since they are specifically designed for playing music.