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Re: DAC for computers
#9149 03/03/03 09:46 PM
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In reply to:

Those with Macs probably don't need the stereo-link: Macs have long had excellent built-in audio capabilities with impressive DAC.



Actually I am a Mac user. (shall we start a flame war? - j.k.) And my Mac does not even have a fan; it is the ill-fated G4 Cube, the famous tissue-paper box that became a Smithsonian Museum collection soon after it was discontinued. The noisiest component in my Cube is the hard drive and CD/DVD transport when spinning up to 24x or whatever, if you can hear it at all. A very nice office environment for music lovers. Heh-heh...

Incidentally, the USB-based processor I use at work is Onkyo's MSE-U33HB, a cute little external box. Yes, it is one of those recommended on the macintouch site. It does audibly improve the sound quality on my Cube, especially on the S/N front.

Cheers!

Re: Using a compter as a CD source?
#9150 03/03/03 10:34 PM
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Be careful. It starts out so easy and cheap in computers that you can get very hooked. Next thing you know, you're spending all your time and money on it. It's very addictive.




Too late Semi.
I've been into computers for longer than i have home theatre. Since 1997 (now 6 years past) i've had 4 different comp configurations with my first being a clone computer with an AMD K6-3 cpu. I managed to overclock that 50mhz before heat was an issue and since that day, there's been no turning back.

I've slowed down lately b/c work has me busy but needless to say, once i'm done putting together a new little office sound system, i'm moving back onto the computer stuff. Number one is to get the volume down. Number two is to finish off my copper paint job on my Addtronics 6890 tower (the castors are the best addition i've ever had) and number three is to upgrade my cpu. I'm running an Abit KT333-R m/b right now but with a Duron 800 cpu o'ced to 933 ( the pencil trick never worked for me so i had to get out a dissecting microscope from the lab and i did the L1 connections with some permanent material. Sometimes science and its related equipment can really be of use for more than just looking at bugs.) I am going to move up to an Athlon XP at some point in the next half year.

One good thing about it, i'm not a big gamer. Saves the pocketbook on constant vidcard upgrades. However, that being said, i do video editing every other month.


"Those who preach the myths of audio are ignorant of truth."
Re: Using a compter as a CD source?
#9151 03/03/03 10:49 PM
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Good to see I'm not the only one here with this bug!

If you enjoy squeezing as much performance out of your dollar with over clocking, a water cooling setup will definitely allow you to overclock more than air cooling. Of course, whether or not it's $200 worth of extra performance is debateable, but the sound improvement is supposedly huge.

I'll probably try my luck at it with my next upgrade. I'm waiting to see the results of Hammer and how well the market embraces it in addition to Intel's Prescott developments. An 800MHz FSB intrigues me... I figure I'll do a major upgrade around next September or so.

Way to break out the engineering skills on your Duron, though. I was always a bit skeptical of the longevity of the pencil trick.

Re: Using a compter as a CD source?
#9152 03/03/03 10:54 PM
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Thanks, Semi, for your answer on the DVD-A.

Regarding my other questions... I did a quick scan of the AVSforum (which I do frequently visit these days), and what I see is that most people who appear to be "serious" about audio choose to connect the HTPC to their receiver/pre-pro digitally, just like you yourself plan to do. Such choice seems to me, as I eluded, entirely reasonable and probably superior than using an in-computer DAC. At any rate, those testimonials do not provide much information on the question about the analog-domain quality of those cards.

Cheers!


Re: DAC for computers
#9153 03/03/03 10:54 PM
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I was under the impression that the Cube was unusual in not even having analog audio out capability. The Macs that do sound great. My G4 produces virtually no audible noise. I'm sure there's some room for improvement; I only wanted to urge Mac owners to consider how good their built-in audio is before moving to upgrade it. If indeed the Cube doesn't have built-in audio (other than USB), this wouldn't apply.

Re: Using a compter as a CD source?
#9154 03/03/03 11:07 PM
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Sushi,

Do a specific search on the Revo. There were a number of threads on it when it was released. I believe quite a few people were planning on using the analog outs for DVD-A and such with experiences posted on the stereo analog out capabilities (as the software wasn't present when last I looked at those threads). There should be SOME info for you though I've never seen anything that documents the testing procedure behind the claims of M-Audio.

Personally, I plan on using the Asus A7N8X deluxe. It actually has a Dolby Digital encoder built into the south bridge. Everything is encoded into DD and passed up the SPDIF should you turn on that feature. The net result is positional sound in games which isn't exactly possible under any other solution. Every other card's digital out is merely a pass through in games not encoded in DD (Doom 3 being one of the few if only once it's released) resulting in stereo sound. You can use DPLII to then get some form of positional audio out of it, but that's not really the same...

I don't intend on using my HTPC for gaming often, but having it hooked up to a big screen and my Axioms, it will certainly be used as such some times.

Re: DAC for computers
#9155 03/03/03 11:08 PM
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In reply to:

I was under the impression that the Cube was unusual in not even having analog audio out capability.




I believe you are correct which is probably part of why Sushi uses a USB solution.

Re: DAC for computers
#9156 03/04/03 12:04 AM
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In reply to:

I was under the impression that the Cube was unusual in not even having analog audio out capability. The Macs that do sound great. My G4 produces virtually no audible noise.



Yes, the Cube does have an analog audio out, not on the main box but on a little external dongle to which you connect the included ball-shaped H/K speakers. The dongle has a standard headphone output. So, maybe Apple skimped on the analog side of Cube design, and that may be why my inexpensive external DAC improved the sound.

I do agree with you that the Macs in general have a great on-board audio quality. But I guess it depends on models. Yes, I know G4 minitowers sound great, so does the flat-panel iMacs (the inverted lampstand). On the other hand, the CRT iMacs seem to have an audible level of "digital" noise sneaking into the audio output.

Cheers!


Re: Using a compter as a CD source?
#9157 03/04/03 04:25 AM
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In reply to:

Do a specific search on the Revo.



Thanks, Semi.

I did find, among other things, some posts showing that the analog circuits on the Revo is basically as good as that of a decent receiver, with respect to the S/N and other actual measurements. Although most of the people who do these elaborate comparisons seem to carefully build their own HTPC (so no guarantee for an easy plug-and-play), I guess my prejudice has largely been eliminated.

I also learned that the sound quality and measured specs can wildly vary among different brands of cards! They are talking about hugely audible differences there.

Cheers!

Re: Cooling my comp
#9158 03/04/03 07:58 AM
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I justed wanted to say thanks to those people who helped me with my orginal question. I think I'm just going to use the analog line-out on the audigy for now. It claims to have good DAC, and seems to provide very decent sound quality. Plus, my receiver is older and doesn't actually have a digital-in. Why is it that even newer stereo receivers don't have digital inputs by the way, like the denon dra-395??

With that taken care of, I would also like to address the issue of my extremely loud computer. I recently had it custom built and didn't give cooling a second thought. Now I'm regretting it. I'm definitely going to take steps in the very near future to remedy things, but I was wondering if anyone could just give me the order of importance. What is it thats making the most noise? I currently have two internal fans, a cpu fan (pentium 4), vga fan (ati radeon 9000 pro) and the power supply. I've looked at some alternatives, such as the suggested panaflo, but I don't really have a concept of whats good. How audible in your opinion is a 21db fan (e.g. the panaflo L1A)?


Once again, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

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