My New Computer music player

[sidvee]

Amazing work Sid - I hope the parts help you in improving sound quality in your setup.

Sid are you planning to keep the PPA or the Sotm? I'd gladly buy the other one from you .

Thanks ROC. Actually my plan is to keep both USB cards as I have 2 machines now and will use them both. However if I change my mind I will contact you.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[reignofchaos]

Thanks ROC. Actually my plan is to keep both USB cards as I have 2 machines now and will use them both. However if I change my mind I will contact you.
Cheers,
Sid

Sure - however please do post your opinions comparing both cards. I'm still in two minds on whether to buy the cheap modded ppa or spend 350$ for the SOTM.

 

[sidvee]

Yes sure will do.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[sidvee]

So about 15-18 hours on the setup. I do feel that the sound has become smoother, initially I felt the treble was harsher than normal - actually the treble was quite bad initially worse than my older music PC. Also instrument separation and soundstage depth seem to have improved slightly. So to me at-least there appears to be some benefit from burn in. Anyways the sound quality is quite good now, I am content.
Next, after a few weeks I will compare the 2 cards and post my impressions.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[Maxprocrj]

Thanks ROC. Actually my plan is to keep both USB cards as I have 2 machines now and will use them both. However if I change my mind I will contact you.
Cheers,
Sid

This is called- "Gaon basne se pahelai lootera hazzer":lol:
Don't take it personally pl

 

[sidvee]

This is called- "Gaon basne se pahelai lootera hazzer":lol:
Don't take it personally pl

No issues, but not sure If I understood the context entirely, my Hindi comprehension, unfortunately is not very advanced. Regardless, reason why I bought both cards is that there was quite an acrimonius discussion on computer audiophile over these two, with members for and against both. So I figured I will split the difference with both and use the best sounding in my main system and the other in the 2nd. Anyways compared to hi-fi audio components costs in acquiring computer sources are not that high so I am able to indulge and test on my own rather than rely on others. Also Paul Pang has a v3 and v4 card at $450 that reportedly has better clocks and other components and he advised that this card is significantly better, so I am tempted at this stage. I am contemplating that.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[Subha15011976]

Hallo@Sid you have done a great job with you PC audio thanx for sharing it with us but in your entire post you have not mentioned what audio player you use for playing music. Are U using ASIO audio driver with minimum Latency (1-5 ms)?

 

[koushik]

No issues, but not sure If I understood the context entirely, my Hindi comprehension, unfortunately is not very advanced.

From the hindi phrase that he used, I think Maxprocrj quoted you by mistake .. As far as I understood, he is talking about ROC, as he said he wants to buy one of the USB card

The phrase literally means, even before the village got settled, there are thousands of dacoit around :lol:

 

[sidvee]

Hallo@Sid you have done a great job with you PC audio thanx for sharing it with us but in your entire post you have not mentioned what audio player you use for playing music. Are U using ASIO audio driver with minimum Latency (1-5 ms)?

I am using Jriver mc19. Actually if you see the link in the very first post to my previous player all this info. is included.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[sidvee]

From the hindi phrase that he used, I think Maxprocrj quoted you by mistake .. As far as I understood, he is talking about ROC, as he said he wants to buy one of the USB card

The phrase literally means, even before the village got settled, there are thousands of dacoit around :lol:

Ok thanks now I understand the context.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[Subha15011976]

I am using Jriver mc19. Actually if you see the link in the very first post to my previous player all this info. is included.
Cheers,
Sid

Ok I got it. For an alternative option you can use 'Foobar2000' as your music player with the following components installed separately,
1) foo_out_asio ver. 2.1.2 (For ASIO Support),
2) foobar SoX Resampler Mod2 ver. 0.8.3 mod2 and
3) Foobar Kernel Streaming output ver. 1.2.2
First try with ASIO output, if it works fine but if you face any issue then try with Kernel Streaming output because whatever player you use to get better sound from Windows PC you have to bypass windows direct audio output. The best sound you will get from ASIO output because it has minimum latency period (1-5 ms) and if your DAC/PPA support you will get true 24bit/96Hz or 24bit/192Hz audio processing support. You will see a major improvement in your sound quality.

 

[sidvee]

Ok I got it. For an alternative option you can use 'Foobar2000' as your music player with the following components installed separately, .

I have compared Foobar and JRiver extensively. In the WASAPI mode Jriver sounds superior to me. As I mentioned earlier there is another player called HQ player that is supposed to superior to all other player out there. There is limited time free dowload so I will check it out.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[reignofchaos]

Sid did you setup your machine to be optimized for background services? One can also enable mmcss and high worker thread priority in advanced settings of foobar.

These things seem to improve foobar in my system.

I am also looking to get an Uptone audio regen which seems to massively improve audio quality. CA forums seem to be all gaga about this little device. Also its cheap enough compared to the rest of my digital front end so it feels like a safe buy.

 

[sidvee]

Sid did you setup your machine to be optimized for background services? One can also enable mmcss and high worker thread priority in advanced settings of foobar.

These things seem to improve foobar in my system.

I am also looking to get an Uptone audio regen which seems to massively improve audio quality. CA forums seem to be all gaga about this little device. Also its cheap enough compared to the rest of my digital front end so it feels like a safe buy.

I used Fidelizer, did not see much improvement in previous PC. Then I also did this
Optimising your PC for audio on Windows 7 | Focusrite
To be honest, at-least for both my music PC's, since all they have is Media player and nothing else I am really not noticing much difference with all these prioritising and resource allocation options/procedures - definitely not in Jriver. Perhaps my setup is not revealing enough.
Well Nikhil already has the uptone. One of these days I want to try it out on this setup. Have fingers crossed that it will help, but on the same token a few listeners in CA did not like the uptone. Personally I think having a usb card with external power, then an uptone with external power, then a USB/spdif converter with external power will be too much for the poor usb signal. Anyways will test it out. However you are right at $175 the uptone is not expensive at all though currently it is backed up by 2 months I think.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[Naturelover]

Hi Sid
Great learning experience for some of us like me.
Don't see the Impulso in your gear. Has it not arrived as yet?

 

[reignofchaos]

I used Fidelizer, did not see much improvement in previous PC. Then I also did this
Optimising your PC for audio on Windows 7 | Focusrite

Well Nikhil already has the uptone. One of these days I want to try it out on this setup. Have fingers crossed that it will help, but on the same token a few listeners in CA did not like the uptone. Personally I think having a usb card with external power, then an uptone with external power, then a USB/spdif converter with external power will be too much for the poor usb signal. Anyways will test it out. However you are right at $175 the uptone is not expensive at all though currently it is backed up by 2 months I think.
Cheers,
Sid

Aha I was not aware someone already has the uptone. Please do try it out sometime and let us know your impressions. Would be good if Nikhil shared his impressions as well.

 

[sidvee]

Hi Sid
Great learning experience for some of us like me.
Don't see the Impulso in your gear. Has it not arrived as yet?

Thanks Naturelover. Impulso arriving this week.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[sidvee]

Aha I was not aware someone already has the uptone. Please do try it out sometime and let us know your impressions. Would be good if Nikhil shared his impressions as well.

Sure will do. Nikhil is reading this thread, so I am sure he will post his impressions. His initial reaction was very positive.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[Nikhil]

Sure will do. Nikhil is reading this thread, so I am sure he will post his impressions. His initial reaction was very positive.
Cheers,
Sid

Thanks for the push guys. I was planning to share the info earlier but somehow did not get the chance. Took some time to put it down here:
http://www.hifivision.com/reviews/59218-uptone-audio-usb-regen.html

 

[sidvee]

Hi Sid
Great learning experience for some of us like me.
Don't see the Impulso in your gear. Has it not arrived as yet?

Here you go Naturelover,

http://www.hifivision.com/my-audio-video-setup/12274-back-tubes-30.html#post660758


Cheers,
Sid