PC for MUSIC ONLY

[Thad E Ginathom]

Should all PCs with digital out sound the same? Well... maybe they should, but they don't --- and it is very difficult, without individual component changing, to be sure of the reasons for the differences.

Power supplies are probably number-one suspect: I don't use a laptop for audio, but consensus is that their supplied power supplies are notorious.

Then there are problems like buzzing noise when the mouse is moved. Even on a music-only machine, which may not have, for instance, a browsing session running while one is listening, this is not acceptable. Sometimes these things may go away by using different USB sockets --- sometimes they don't. The trouble is that it is all stuff that only comes out in the finished machine: we've spent our money, and I don't know if anybody ever successfully returned a MB over this sort of problem.

More by luck than anything else, I seem to have a good music-playing machine, but even then, it is not consistent. Perhaps that ought to be impossible --- but I am 99.9% convinced that, when I am not happy with the music, it was the reboot of the machine that made the difference, rather than the reboot of my head

I wish I still had my Pentium machine from over a decade ago that simply played music. Nothing special about the machine (except I sound-insulated the cheap case) but it just gave no problems. I have a theory that problem-free music playback was easier on the equipment of ten years ago!

RoC... looking forward to your HD-PLEX story, hopefully with pics

 

[prepress]

For a "music only PC" a Yahama 299 does not fit anywhere. You should be looking out for stereo AMP and speakers. Experts here would elaborate more on that.

I understand the difference well about Stereo and HT Amps, my concern was if I use YHT-299 in the chain just to Digital/Analog conversion like a DAC does. e.g. YHT-299 has inbuilt Burr-Brown DAC so I was thinking if I can use that as DAC

Music PC-->--optical connection to-->--Yamaha YHT299-->--Analog output to my Yamaha Stereo Amplifier-->--Speakers.

 

[gobble]

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Is there any low-powered motherboard or PC available in the market with at least one PCIe slot ? as I have a PCIe sound card and I don't want to make it redundant

Thanks,
Amit

None that know of. USB DACs are the way to go with these tiny devices. For old soundcards there is always olx or quickr. Besides audio these devices can also playback full HD smoothly with xbmc based installs like openelec or volumio using hdmi .

G0bble

 

[gobble]

Ahhem... your proved one machine sounded better than the other. Could just as likely have been the colour as the size .

(unless it was a blind test, of course :lol

Yeah the cubox is in a black enclosure thus giving that blacker background [emoji16]

G0bble

 

[Falcon21]

there is absolutely nothing wrong with cooler master PSU unless you are building a silent PC & not music only, of course corsair is better but the high end series and its not available for cheap or easily. your call for the haggle.

You can absolutely use 299 as pre-amp/dac nothing wrong with that. Infact much better than any usb dac understanding your requirement. Should you need 5.1, 299 will be best choice. If only stereo, you could get a stand-alone dac from any dealer in person or online.

 

[prepress]

You can absolutely use 299 as pre-amp/dac nothing wrong with that. Infact much better than any usb dac understanding your requirement. Should you need 5.1, 299 will be best choice. If only stereo, you could get a stand-alone dac from any dealer in person or online.

I already have Vintage Yamaha 2 channel (Stereo) amp and speakers, my personal room is not that big so considering the area I have decided to go for YHT-299 for HT system and want to use it as DAC but will use Stereo amp when required MUSIC only.

For music:
Music PC will be connected via Optical to YHT-299 <Digital conversion> then Analog signal to Stereo Amp>Speakers.

For HT:
Will use complete YHT-299 Package (including speakers)

 

[Naturelover]

I have a Seasonic S12 Bronze PSU with an 80+ rating in my i5 desktop which I use for home video editing as well. It is deathly silent and the machine runs cool with no additional fans.
Highly recommended.

 

[Rockfella]

Coolermaster PSUs have a very bad repu. If i start on this the thread topic will deviate completely :indifferent14:

there is absolutely nothing wrong with cooler master PSU unless you are building a silent PC & not music only, of course corsair is better but the high end series and its not available for cheap or easily. your call for the haggle.

You can absolutely use 299 as pre-amp/dac nothing wrong with that. Infact much better than any usb dac understanding your requirement. Should you need 5.1, 299 will be best choice. If only stereo, you could get a stand-alone dac from any dealer in person or online.

 

[gobble]

I have a Seasonic S12 Bronze PSU with an 80+ rating in my i5 desktop which I use for home video editing as well. It is deathly silent and the machine runs cool with no additional fans.
Highly recommended.

Is the i5 fanless? What fan do you use?

 

[Naturelover]

It is fanless. It was such a revelation what a good PSU can do.
Had decided on this after much research and it's worth the cost and then some.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Coolermaster PSUs have a very bad repu. If i start on this the thread topic will deviate completely :indifferent14:

If there is a good reason not to buy a component, then a brief statement, or pointers, or links, would be helpful.

The thing with advice is... nobody is obliged to agree with or act on it.

 

[Falcon21]

I already have Vintage Yamaha 2 channel (Stereo) amp and speakers, my personal room is not that big so considering the area I have decided to go for YHT-299 for HT system and want to use it as DAC but will use Stereo amp when required MUSIC only.

For music:
Music PC will be connected via Optical to YHT-299 <Digital conversion> then Analog signal to Stereo Amp>Speakers.

For HT:
Will use complete YHT-299 Package (including speakers)

sounds like a good plan...all the best! :thumbsup:

 

[dheerajin]

For music:
Music PC will be connected via Optical to YHT-299 <Digital conversion> then Analog signal to Stereo Amp>Speakers.

Optical link has limited bandwidth compared to other connections, so for hirez music..optical link is compromise...

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Optical link has the advantage of electrical isolation. I wonder if it will get upgraded?

 

[gobble]

Optical link has the advantage of electrical isolation. I wonder if it will get upgraded?

My ciunas usb-spdif converter is not galvanically isolated. Because the designer thought all the transformers he tried degraded the SQ. Before purchasing I was apprehensive but he assured me. Now I feel not having GI in a mid-fi costing device is likely an upgrade. A properly done GI device that doesnt degrade SQ would likely be seen in only very expensive devices.

G0bble

 

[Falcon21]

for music only its not a compromise at all considering the 80% media.
spdif can handle upto 1500 kbps.

 

[prepress]

Optical link has limited bandwidth compared to other connections, so for hirez music..optical link is compromise...

for music only its not a compromise at all considering the 80% media.
spdif can handle upto 1500 kbps.

I think it would be okay as I use .Wav 1411kbps.

Also, anybody has experience for something like this? Should I give it a try?

 

[dheerajin]

For SACD rips..which are normaly above 5000 kbps..will be in question..anyway..USB connection is considered best..

 

[manniraj]

I think it would be okay as I use .Wav 1411kbps.

Also, anybody has experience for something like this? Should I give it a try?

I used sometime back similar one from the Orei brand. Its decent and I used for optical conversion for the TV to my Bose speakers as the TV sound is not good enough to listen to. But for music it may not sound great but ok kind, you have similar in the Fiio as well. Do check it out.

 

[Falcon21]

i am using similar set up with toslink optical spdif to analog conversion as my receiver does not have optical spdif nor coaxial connecting PC out with optical spdif >toslink>analog conversion>receiver

in optical there is no or minimal loss and is very good for quality

well to make things more complicated and costly you can try other stuff like dac to minimal gain on 299

maybe try some of your friend's DAC first and see if the difference is worthy of the effort and expenditure