[Trogdor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chri5peed Did you see my PC specs? I have a AMD64 3700+ with 2GBs of RAM in dual-channel.

What the heck are you doing to cause blips when playing then? Jesus....are sure its not how you ripped it?

 

[mlarn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyamaiata I have a G4 Mini. The consensus is pretty much that the DAC is worth the upgrade for the price. I think I'm doing good at choosing this DAC. For those of you who are recomending other DACs, could you specify prices, manufacturer website and where to buy? Thanks.

I am very interested in the Silverstone EB01 as well, and if you get it you have to post your impressions! Ive looked around quite a bit, and while this has not gotten a ton of attetion, what has been said seems to be good. The threads you posted earlier definately make it seem like it is worth the price, and while the MicoDAC is better reviewed it doesn't seem like it is on a scale of 3X better (as the 3X price difference would suggest). In other words, it seems like the Silverstone is much more than 1/3 of the MicroDac. What I haven't seen, unfortunately, is a comparison between this and the Fubar II or other similar-priced amps. This would be most helpful, but I think most around here have left these budget sources long ago

 

[Chri5peed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trogdor What the heck are you doing to cause blips when playing then? Jesus....are sure its not how you ripped it?

Definitely not. I ripped my CDs with EAC w/AccurateRip and in Secure Mode if it wasn't in the AR database. Using AccurateRip successfully proves my drive is correctly setup and working.

 

[raduray]

Anyone try the Edirol UA-1EX? It can be had for $69 shipped and uses RCA output connectors.
Radu

 

[CookieFactory]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chri5peed Definitely not. I ripped my CDs with EAC w/AccurateRip and in Secure Mode if it wasn't in the AR database. Using AccurateRip successfully proves my drive is correctly setup and working.

Turn off Cool N Quiet in your BIOS. You owe me $20 if that solves it!

 

[Chri5peed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CookieFactory Turn off Cool N Quiet in your BIOS. You owe me $20 if that solves it!

How on earth do you know I've got that? Isn't that a function of my motherboard? Hang on, no its not, its a function of my CPU...

Next time I log on I'll go into the BIOS, I think I read thats a function you need to turn on yourself, as it has side-effects.


Just been reading, you have to download drivers to use it and have a suitable mobo, I have a high-spec ASUS-board, so I could do it...

 

[Trogdor]

CookieFactory is theorizing tat your CPU is speedstepping down or your perhaps (I'm not familiar with this feature) that your hard disk is spinning down and this is causing the blips since clock speed is one governor and disk performance is another. I reall don't think though once your in th emiddle of playing music, you should have problems.

 

[sonofdbn]

Chri5peed, what software are you using to play your files? I use foobar2000 and changed from kernel streaming to ASIO a few minutes ago to see what it was like. Ironically, I've heard a few dropouts while reading this thread (don't recall getting ANY dropouts with kernel streaming). I'm using an oldish Thinkpad X40 which certainly doesn't have the horsepower of your PC.

It's entirely possible that I haven't configured ASIO optimally - perhaps I need to increase the buffer. Wonder if your problems are related to your software player and/or drivers?

 

[Chri5peed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonofdbn Chri5peed, what software are you using to play your files? I use foobar2000 and changed from kernel streaming to ASIO a few minutes ago to see what it was like. Ironically, I've heard a few dropouts while reading this thread (don't recall getting ANY dropouts with kernel streaming). I'm using an oldish Thinkpad X40 which certainly doesn't have the horsepower of your PC.

Its odd now I think of it. I had just ignored it, but it shouldn't happen at all I guess.

My sig says I'm using foobar. Never used any other player to see if thats the problem?
I'm using a HDD with a 16MB Cache, and foobar is in the same partition as my music folder.

Is there some sort of buffer in foobar I could enlarge?

 

[Cyrilix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chri5peed I'm talking about jumps of about a millisecond and in 100 songs I could expect maybe 3 or 4? So its not a problem in the slightest. Actually is there a program which detects system processes running, so you can turn off extraneous ones?

All my jumps, which I call pauses, when I try to manually scroll to a different part of a track, is caused by slow hard drive access.

If you only have one hard drive, then that may be an issue, as your hard drive is being used for all windows processes, everything else you're doing, downloading torrents, etc. (torrents make your HD work pretty hard). The best thing to do is to get two hard drives, one for storage so you access storage all on one HD, and one for system/programs.

 

[Chri5peed]

The jumps when they occur, happen when I go to a new webpage or refresh an old one. I thought doing stuff on the internet was completely seperate to normal PC-use?

 

[Cyrilix]

Well, that's rare for me. It's usually when I do more intensive hard drive functions that make it pause. Web browsing, however, is not completely separate from your HD. Your HD needs to cache pictures and files, as well as reuse them. It also depends on what sites you visit, heavily graphical / high bandwidth sites or simple sites like www.google.ca.

 

[sonofdbn]

Chri5peed, what are you using in foobar? ASIO or kernel streaming or something else? Both ASIO and kernel streaming have buffer options you can set. (I don't think your hard disk buffer is too critical here.)

One slim possibility is that you have Windows set up to play a sound when you do various things in Internet Explorer, and playing that sound (or trying to play it) is affecting your audio output. That won't/shouldn't happen if foobar is using an output type which bypasses the Windows sound system (which is why I asked about what you're using in foobar). You can easily remove those sounds via Control Panel / Sounds and Audio Devices.

My experience is like Cyrilix's, at least under kernel streaming. I don't recall getting any dropouts while the music is playing if all I'm doing is something like browsing, and laptop hard disks are typically slower than desktop ones.

 

[Chri5peed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonofdbn Chri5peed, what are you using in foobar? ASIO or kernel streaming or something else? Both ASIO and kernel streaming have buffer options you can set. (I don't think your hard disk buffer is too critical here.)

Not using Kernal streaming or ASIO, from what I've read its not suited for my needs at all?
So when I get my MicroDAC using the Optical-out of my soundcard, this will have no effect on these jumps?

Am I right in thinking when I use the DAC the only volume control I'll have is the knob on my amp?

 

[sonofdbn]

I'll ask again: what are you using in foobar?

And what are your needs? Assuming you're looking for bit-perfect output (and not everyone thinks this is necessary) my understanding is that ASIO or kernel streaming are usually required. On the other hand, your Juli soundcard might have drivers which obviate the need to do this. I found this thread quite useful. Of course, you shouldn't believe everything you read on some Internet forum

I suspect you will still have the same problems when you get your Micro-DAC unless you change something on the software side.