PC For Music listening

[spirovious]

Well with SC,one needs good drivers too,with Xonar Driver support is not the best.I m using modded drivers from ST for D2X.Still need better.

 

[srikarkav]

Hi Guys,

I have a Creative sound card on my PC. I wanted my friend to bring a XFI extreme music card when she was abroad but she brought me a xtreme gamer sound card. I have Logitech 2.1- Z4 multi meida speakers. But i changed the fronts with my old Aiwa book shelves retaining the Logitech Sub. This set up is giving me very decent sound when i hear music on my PC. But i hear only flac.Some songs boom but fortunately the Logitech sound control has a Bass control too. So i am pretty happy with it.The music is absolutely fatigue free and detailed.But can't beat my stereo set up of course.

cheers,
sri

 

[spirovious]

New surr processor installed for foobar- AT surr processor &
selected Headphone surr ,now sound is clean & opened.Harshness of high freq got softened.
Did anyone try this?

 

[adityavj]

The best site I have seen for tweaking your OS for optimal listening

The Well Tempered Computer

 

[spirovious]

I have been using Foobar(asio4all) for music PC.For change I tried XMplay with wasapi drivers.
Well I found Foobar as a bit laid back & XMplay as forward.
Foobar like CA CDp,warm sounding & XMplay like Marantz CDP,clean trebles.

well I wld like to know your experiences.
Which can be ideal & consider as audiophile grade?

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Foobar was the first player I tried braking away from the standard Windows stuff. I found the sound much cleaner --- and yet, in the Foobar docs, it says, does foobar sound better than other players? No!

Well, my take is why waste processor on graphics stuff! Surely that has some effect on the sound?

On top of not liking visual effects, I also like an interface that is very plain. I don't even see the need to make a player look like it is a radio. I'd rather have simple software-style buttons rather than pseudo knobs.

On a different tack... just now I want a new motherboard, to get away from various issues (hopefully) that I have currently (including occasional crashes) but what to buy is just totally baffling me. Maybe it'd help to read this thread from the start! I'll do that.

 

[spirovious]

Did you try XMplay?
Which is your current(best player)?

 

[gobble]

On a different tack... just now I want a new motherboard, to get away from various issues (hopefully) that I have currently (including occasional crashes) but what to buy is just totally baffling me. Maybe it'd help to read this thread from the start! I'll do that.

You want to reuse an existing cpu? Which one is it ?

Regards

 

[thevortex]

I have been using Foobar(asio4all) for music PC.For change I tried XMplay with wasapi drivers.
Well I found Foobar as a bit laid back & XMplay as forward.
Foobar like CA CDp,warm sounding & XMplay like Marantz CDP,clean trebles.

well I wld like to know your experiences.
Which can be ideal & consider as audiophile grade?

There is nothing like an audiophile media player. cPlay is the closest thing to it - if there is one.

xmplay is a gem of a player. Try it with the original Japanese ASIO plugin. The plugin link is available through the xmplay site. Let me know if you are not able to find that out. It is the Otachan ASIO plugin.

Well - I did break my lazyness cycle and here is the link - WINAMP5? ASIO??????? (dll version) - ??????MIDI/Audio???

It says that it is for Winamp, but it will work for xmplay. As will it with Mediamonkey and a few others.

Foobar was the first player I tried braking away from the standard Windows stuff. I found the sound much cleaner --- and yet, in the Foobar docs, it says, does foobar sound better than other players? No!

Well, my take is why waste processor on graphics stuff! Surely that has some effect on the sound?

On top of not liking visual effects, I also like an interface that is very plain. I don't even see the need to make a player look like it is a radio. I'd rather have simple software-style buttons rather than pseudo knobs.

On a different tack... just now I want a new motherboard, to get away from various issues (hopefully) that I have currently (including occasional crashes) but what to buy is just totally baffling me. Maybe it'd help to read this thread from the start! I'll do that.

Foobar would help in maintaining a clear interface. But if you would like a resource champion which also does very well with playing music then I would recommend xmplay. Do try it with the Winamp ASIO plugin. Link provided above.

Your motherboard purchase solely depends on the processor you are using. I would recommend you go the AMD way - with a reasonably cheap dual core processor (at around Rs. 4000) and a 785G chipset from Gigabyte at around the same price.

If you use an Intel processor and would like to continue using that, I am afraid I do not know which motherboard would be the best fit for that as far as media usage goes. All the best.

 

[spirovious]

I opened the link & cld get asio plugin.Is it for foobar?only winamp?
Or I need to DL else which I cant read so properly.

 

[spirovious]

new players & foobar skins-

"XXHighEnd" - what is this player? - Hydrogenaudio Forums
http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=5.0
XXHighEnd player for Vista and XP better than foobar? - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

musicmusic's foobar2000 stuff - Columns UI
Foobar2000 Blog

 

[thevortex]

I opened the link & cld get asio plugin.Is it for foobar?only winamp?
Or I need to DL else which I cant read so properly.

There is one for foobar and one for winamp. The Winamp one works for xmplay and media monkey. For foobar use the other one.

Actually just to have a difference in setup I use Foobar with ASIO4ALL. But you can use the Otachan ASIO plugin as well.

 

[spirovious]

There is one for foobar and one for winamp. The Winamp one works for xmplay and media monkey. For foobar use the other one.
.

I DL it & extracted it & found 2 plugins(in Bin folder)Second is source folder.
So how to install both?What changes we see in foobar preferrences?
Pls.explain.I can read Japanies a little bit you know hyeah:

 

[spirovious]

Xonar essence ST with 7.1 brd-


ASUS Xonar Essence ST Sneak Preview | test

ST need molex power connector(D2X need floppy)
But central processor is AV100 unlike powerful AV200 in D2X.

 

[cmsajith]

I think they have not yet released the Essence ST officially, esp. in india. In some asian countries they are available, but not so common. Probably they are the initial testing pieces.

I was looking for this for a long time. Since i didnt see any sign of releasing in near future or a competitive pricing compared to Essence STX, I decided to go for an external DAC.

 

[spirovious]

I wld have got STX easily,but I was looking for 7.1out too.So went for D2X.
Now this looks to be best option for mov + music.
Lets wait for reviews.

 

[thevortex]

I DL it & extracted it & found 2 plugins(in Bin folder)Second is source folder.
So how to install both?What changes we see in foobar preferrences?
Pls.explain.I can read Japanies a little bit you know hyeah:

Just extract the dll and copy it into the components folder of foobar and restart foobar. That is it.

 

[spirovious]

Just extract the dll and copy it into the components folder of foobar and restart foobar. That is it.

Thats not working with foobar 0.9.6.Is it for 0.8.3 ?

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

You want to reuse an existing cpu? Which one is it ?

Regards

Sorry, missed your reply earlier. Thanks.

thevortex, thanks for your reply too.

Yes... At this point in time I would like to reuse as much as possible, and my current CPU is an Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 (according to CPU-Z).

Although I have a USB mouse, I'd like to stick to my PS2 keyboard too.

I have 2 Gb of DDR2 memory. I would be prepared to upgrade to DDR3.

All my disks and optical drives are SATA, and I want to use SATA drivers.

I want a generous allocation of USB ports, and firewire.

If not onboard, then I need a basically competent video card. Prefer to stay awy from anything that adds another fan to the machine's mechanical noise. Never play games; very occasional movie watching.

I intend to stick with XP --- even if it means buying a copy of W7 and utilising the downgrade option. (I've a couple of genuine XP CDs, but both OEM).

Budget. Hmmm... Rs.8,000 to Rs16,000 inclusive.

 

[thevortex]

Thats not working with foobar 0.9.6.Is it for 0.8.3 ?

I am not sure, Spiro. That worked for me about 6 months back. Right now I am using Foobar version 1.0 and recommend that.

Try one thing. Use ASIO4ALL with Foobar and use Otachan ASIO plugin with Winamp or with xmplay. That way you would have two planes of references.