If you think having more than one DIMM is going to have an effect on the sound, then surely a lower end card assembling the S/PDIF stream is going to have a massive impact.
Honestly, beyond the nice interface, I think this whole build is a waste. If you have a nice external DAC that can reclock the stream, it doesn't matter how much jitter enters before there.
I have a small project studio in my bedroom. I have an external Focusrite sound interface. I can't imagine anything sounding better than it. Or more precisely, I highly doubt I would ever be able to hear any improvement above it (heck, I could probably go down a couple levels and not hear any change, but this one had all the actually useful features I needed). This goes for any very well designed audio interface.
Hey ClubNeon,
maybe I should’ve clarified the intent of my project in my initial post to give a better idea of what I wanted to achieve in the end. The main reason for exploring the project is to eventually have my computer become the central piece of a total tv/home office/audio/home theatre solution.
I don't believe the traditional setup that includes a dvd player, cd player, blu-ray player, Xbox or any number of other media devices is the most efficient and ideal way of setting up things. At the very least, I feel a computer can be much more competent media source and player, but maintain a high enough standard of quality in its output as to be imperceptible in a double blind test scenario.
Now, I realize the instructions for the Cplay/CICs build is specific to a computer as an audio player, but the lessons learned in that build can be used and applied to developing the complete system.
I definitely don’t intend to follow all the instructions to the letter because I agree that some of the info is dated and may be incorrect, but there are definitely things that I can take from their guide.
I've read many articles trashing PC audio as subpar, but I disagree that it can never be good, and this build will either support this belief or give credence to the "PC is a bad way to go" approach. Either way, it'll be a good learning experience, and one which I already find very enjoyable. Maybe I’ll even convince some other people to go my route once my system is complete.
To me, the project is just like any other hobbyist build, but I think an automobile analogy will help summarize why I don’t believe it will be a waste. I could buy a BMW M3 and be very content with the performance and features, or I could buy a Mustang at half the cost and modify it the way I want to and get similar performance. Now, I like bimmers, but I know I’d be more interested in building up that Mustang.
Stay tuned for more updates!
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