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Computer Audio Asylum Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies. |
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Computer Audio Asylum Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies. |
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In Reply to: Computer music vs cd posted by Andyman on November 12, 2011 at 12:40:48:
Hi Andy, just my $0.02 - here are my thoughts regarding computer audio:
1. I've always found a faster computer beneficial. For a year I was running at Atom based machine with XP out to an Emu 0404USB like you. I realized that the machine was not fast enough to maintain low latency USB transfers when I downloaded and tried the DPC Latency checker - every 30 seconds, I'd get some nasty red spike in latency. Multitasking led to brief crackles and pops correlating to the poor latency. Note that this is not just the CPU speed but also motherboard related. For example, some Gigabyte motherboards like the older P35's sucked even with fast 2+GHz CPU's.
Download here to check:
www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
2. I think the 0404 is actually a very good sounding DAC but I never liked the drivers and they seem dated these days although I can still use the newest version with Win 7 x64. ASIO sounds as it should and I never had any concerns around non-bit-perfectness. One issue though is that shielding is poor and noise can leak in if too close to Wifi transmissions or placed too close to the computer. Make sure it's placed a couple feet from the computer at least. May be worthwhile isolating the power supply as well from the computer.
3. If you can ensure bit-perfectness with your drivers (eg. ASIO to prevent Windows audio mixer screwing things up), low latency as above, aren't multitasking and eating up CPU cycles, then I think USB is just fine. There's plenty of bandwidth there.
4. I do not believe in the obsession around jitter that everyone talks about. With *decent* modern equipment & DAC's, I don't think it's an issue and have yet to prove to myself or seen any reputable independent reports that this is a problem. This includes my opinion on USB cables and the like as I had previously posted a few weeks back.
Good luck! Make sure to try a couple of blinded tests along the way with a buddy or your partner to keep things honest :-). Despite what you hear at the Asylum, to this day, I have yet to meet a golden ear audiophile who could convince me he/she can tell the difference between well-encoded 320kbps MP3 music from the lossless WAV no matter what the equipment.
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Archimago's Musings: A 'more objective' audiophile blog.
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Follow Ups
- My 2 cents on computer audio [Lets keep it simple folks]...... - Archimago 11/13/1120:27:55 11/13/11 (0)
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