[limathy]

hi, recently purchased the STX, and was intending on using RCA output to an amp powering bookshelf speakers.

Just wondering what volume in the STX control panel would be best for optimum sound quality? 50%? 100%?

sorry if its an easy question. my first step out of portable audio

 

[JackeShan]

Actually I was wondering the same... I usually keep it on 70% but right now on 100% and don't notice any difference in sound quality.

 

[germanium]

optimum is always 100% with digital software volume controls as there is no truncation of the samples at this setting. That being said it is not alway practical to use that setting. If you use the STX's headphone amp in most cases you won't be able to without possible hearing damage in most cases.

If you use Windows Vista or Windows Seven go to the sound properties for the speaker out & set to 24 bit 44.1KHz for CD audio then go to Xonar audio control panel & set the sample rate to 48KHZ or higher. This will give the best results for the sound out. The xonar cards do not do as well if you try to just output the 44.1KHz signal (more jitter as a result of no clock crystal for that sample rate). Letting the card do the sample rate conversion is best as then it can also reduce jitter & the sample rate converter on the card is very high quality.

By extending the bit depth to 24 bit samples on 16 bit sampled music you eliminate any truncation errors at any reasonable volume setting ensuring top quality reproduction of said files with 0 truncation errors down to -48db attenuation. By that point the truncation errors are below the noise level of the opamps (-144db compred to the opamps -124db niether of which are audible without extreme boosting of the gain of the following amp). This way you will get the best that CD quality files have to offer.

 

[mamba315]

Quote:

Originally Posted by germanium /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you use Windows Vista or Windows Seven go to the sound properties for the speaker out & set to 24 bit 44.1KHz for CD audio then go to Xonar audio control panel & set the sample rate to 48KHZ or higher. This will give the best results for the sound out. The xonar cards do not do as well if you try to just output the 44.1KHz signal (more jitter as a result of no clock crystal for that sample rate). Letting the card do the sample rate conversion is best as then it can also reduce jitter & the sample rate converter on the card is very high quality. By extending the bit depth to 24 bit samples on 16 bit sampled music you eliminate any truncation errors at any reasonable volume setting ensuring top quality reproduction of said files with 0 truncation errors down to -48db attenuation. By that point the truncation errors are below the noise level of the opamps (-144db compred to the opamps -124db niether of which are audible without extreme boosting of the gain of the following amp). This way you will get the best that CD quality files have to offer.

Can this be done on Windows XP as well?

 

[germanium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mamba315 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Can this be done on Windows XP as well?

I don't think so. The K-mixer in Windows XP usually resamples to 48KHz unless you are using ASIO drivers for recording purposes or listening through a program that supports ASIO in which case no resamping is done.You also don't have any control over bit depth in Windows XP itself. Windows XP resampler does a poor job compared to Windows Vista or Seven but the card probably does an even better job of resampling which is why you want to leave it at 44.1KHz until it reaches the card then upsample it there.

 

[wali]

Quote:

Originally Posted by germanium /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you use Windows Vista or Windows Seven go to the sound properties for the speaker out & set to 24 bit 44.1KHz for CD audio then go to Xonar audio control panel & set the sample rate to 48KHZ or higher. This will give the best results for the sound out. The xonar cards do not do as well if you try to just output the 44.1KHz signal (more jitter as a result of no clock crystal for that sample rate). Letting the card do the sample rate conversion is best as then it can also reduce jitter & the sample rate converter on the card is very high quality.

this is interesting. is this why the xonar driver default sampling rate is 96khz?

this is applicable for headphone out as well?

 

[limathy]

thanks very much, this has been very helpful,
just a question if using asio on foobar, does it need to be set at 24bit as well?

and a less important question, does anyone know what the DSP "hifi" actually does?

 

[ROBSCIX]

Yes, Hifi, just disables all processing...No EQ, reverb..etc. Just straight signal.

 

[limathy]

thanks very much. any other tweaks (software wise) ? loving my STX at the moment/

 

[ROBSCIX]

Many use opamps to change the signature more to their liking or make the card a better match for their personal gear.