What is your configuration for Computer Audio?

[Nikhil]

Starting a thread to just get an idea of what is being used by our forum members for computer audio.
There is no right or wrong answers to this so just share with us what you have setup in your chain.

My setup at the moment has the following software:

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit (Build 10240)
Process Lasso v9
Fidelizer Pro 7.7
JRiver v22 Media - For general listening upsampled to DSD128
HQPlayer 3.16.1 - For critical listening with upsampling PCM to DSD128

Hardware is circa 2015 so a little old now but still functional

Intel Core i5 4440 CPU 3.1 GHz processor
Asus B85M-G motherboard
Kingston 32GB RAM
Kingston 120 GB SSD
Primarily using USB audio with USB Regen + HDPlex LPS

My AudioPC sits on my audio rack running above mentioned configuration.
Media is on another computer running JRiver Media Center Server.
Both are connected via local ethernet on a Cisco switch with Cat7 cables

Look forward to seeing what others are running for computer audio.

Regards.

 

[elangoas]

I have a dated hardware..

Mobo - Intle DG33FB
Processor - 1st Gen Intel Quadcore Q6600 2.4 Ghz
RAM - 8GB DDR2
HD - WD barracuda
OS - Win 7 64bit
GPU - Zotac Nvidia GT 740
Foobar, with HDMI output to AVR..

 

[cha_indian]

I am using a Asus Laptop to USB DAC and Stereo speakers.... Audio processing does not need a very high end hardware ...


Asus Laptop > PCM1798 based tube DAC > Bada Integrated amp > Bookshelf speakers.

 

[raja_mastana]

I recently upgraded my machine
CPU
Ryzen 1600X
ASUS Prime x370 Pro
ASUS 970 GTX
ASUS Xonar STX
16GB Gskill FlareX RAM
OS
Windows 10
Speakers
JBL LSR 305 (RCA > XLR)
Player
Foobar 2000

 

[Naturelover]

Good idea, Nikhil. Hope folks chip in with their setup details.

Here are mine:
Fanless Antec ISK110 cabinet
Asus J1800I-C board
Optimized Win7
4GB RAM
1 TB Samsung evo840 SSD
Foobar2k
HDPlex linear PSU
Audiocadabra dual head USB cable
M2Tech Evo converter (my DAC is old and does not have USB input)

 

[rikhav]

My PC config

Probably the most dated config but SQ is best I am getting amongst all the new generation PC's and laptops I have tried with daphile as a music PC

Dual core Pentium laptop running daphile form the internal drive with music stored on a USB HDD

Laptop runs on battery power

Dac connected via USB out of the laptop and use a uptone regen and Joshua's DIY USB cable

All tracks play from RAM

 

[all4music]

HP Elitebook running Pentium Centrino with 4 GB RAM
OS: Win 7
Music App: Foobar with https set up for remote control [Foolite control on Android Tablet/Phone over WiFi network]
ASIO Drivers handing over data bits to Sabre 9018 chip based SMSL M8 DAC through a generic USB cable

 

[manniraj]

I use a Gigabyte N2800 all-in-one PC which has Intel Celeron processor.

CPU - Intel Celeron Processor N2807 up to 2.17GHz
RAM - 8GB single stick
Removed the Wi-Fi stick board and using only the Gigabit LAN

Using currently with its own power adapter which is of 12V 2.5A. Got a small Linear PSU kit from aliexpress.com and build around a small EI core transformer to check the improvement.

OS - Windows 2012 R2 server edition
Audiophile Optimizer - HighEnd Audio PC running in "Minimal Mode"
Optimized to play only Foobar2000.
AudioQuest Jitterbug - USB filter

Recently the above configuration has gone to the back burner and using the latest Daphile OS on a 2GB pendrive with dual booting option on the same PC. Settings as described in the computeraudiophile.com site for optimizing the Daphile. Very good and superb package and lives up to my Win2012 configuration

 

[Kannan]

Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop,
Windows 7 X64 OS...no audio tweaks
Plex Media Server or Bubble PNP Server with foobar,
Chromecast Audio as DAC,
Adcom 2-channel power amplifier
Moded Infinity RS425 bookshelf speakers
Wharfedale SW150 subwoofer

 

[reignofchaos]

Here's mine:

Biostar J1800C/4GB RAM/256GB SSD/2TB portable drive for music

Antec ISK 110 fanless

Bare bones windows 7

Foobar 2k/WASAPI with custom plugin that I wrote which copies the next ten songs in queue to a temporary location on the SSD and plays from there. Optimized settings in foobar to allow real time priority to decoding/1GB Memory buffer

HD Plex Linear PSU + Hifi DC-DC converter

Uptone Audio Regen at dac USB input, powered by HDPlex

AMR DP-777 Non oversampling DAC

 

[Nikhil]

Foobar 2k/WASAPI with custom plugin that I wrote which copies the next ten songs in queue to a temporary location on the SSD and plays from there. Optimized settings in foobar to allow real time priority to decoding/1GB Memory buffer

Wow ... you coded your own custom plugin? Impressive!

 

[panditji]

Dell i3 laptop with 4 GB RAM, Windows 7, JRiver 20 feeding a Chord 2Qute DAC.

 

[reignofchaos]

Wow ... you coded your own custom plugin? Impressive!

It is actually pretty straightforward and it has all sorts of bugs right now :lol:.

 

[MaSh]

An old Dell optiplex 760 with 4GB ram and Nvidia graphics card. OS is Windows 7, foobar with wasapi output for music and MPC-HC for movies. All bitstream to a Marantz receiver.

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk

 

[tuff]

Windows 10 pro
Foobar
VLC Player
MPC HC Player
Intel i7 3770
24 GB RAM
ZOTAC GTX 960 4gbDDR5
COnnected to Peachtree amplifier via Generic USB Cable.

 

[keith_correa]

It is actually pretty straightforward and it has all sorts of bugs right now :lol:.

Just a thought - if you're not playing .wav files, via your plugin, you should try converting the file to be played to .wav in your temporary location and play that instead. You MIGHT be surprised at the difference.

 

[wantarangerover]

i5-6600K, 16 GB DDR4, Z170-D3H Motherboard, On-board GPU

Audio
1: USB --> Aune X1 Mini-DAC --> Altec Lansing VS4121 (very old!)
2: USB --> JDS Labs 02 DAC --> Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro / JVC RX900 / Brainwavz HM5 / Fischer Audio FA-011

 

[sound_cycle]

Look forward to seeing what others are running for computer audio.

Zotac ZBOX-ID88 Music (also) PC
win10, processlasso
FB2K / iTunes (memory hog version)
Dirac Live Digital Room Correction
Toslink Glass Digital
Schiit Bifrost Multibit
Marantz PM 6005
Dali Zensor 5

(with vague plans of Rethm Bhaava, if my *&%^$ clomping neighbours go away and I find the additional funds for fenestra sound proofed windows (3L !!!) to keep keep screechy aliens and other horrid sounds out)

ciao
gr

 

[reignofchaos]

Just a thought - if you're not playing .wav files, via your plugin, you should try converting the file to be played to .wav in your temporary location and play that instead. You MIGHT be surprised at the difference.

That is exactly what I'm doing. When the play list loads, it converts all tracks in the playlist to wav in a temp location and then plays those. The CPU in my rig is rather poor. So any decompression on the fly will cause trouble. Right now everytime a playlist loads, one has to wait a minute or two before everything is decompressed. So its a bit of a pain :lol:. However the patience is worth the effort.

 

[Nikhil]

It's great to see the wide variety of configurations so far.
I think this is an aspect of computer audio that is not appreciated or understood well.

With so many countless configurations possible in hardware alone there are so many things that can change in a setup. Add to that the different software recipes and you have virtually infinite variations to deal with. But yet there has been some remarkable progress and some of the most exciting developments have come about due to computer audio.

Keep the posts coming in guys. It's great to see what we are all running.

Regards