2. pc-audio
  3. 1375540142

Computer audio, I am not convinced yet ......

I am extremely interested in using the computer (Mac or PC) as a source for a digital playback. It seems to be the right direction for modern digital playback, a good alternative to the age old CDP, has endless potential and most convenient. So, I got an EMM DAC2 (retail $10000) with USB input and connected it to an Windows laptop via USB. My preamp, amp, speakers and cables are also of very good quality. Played some track on my system from the PC (used Audacity software, a very good and high quality software for sound processing). In 2 minutes I had to turn it off. It is just mediocre sound compared to playing the same track through a $1000 CDP(Sony SCD XA5400ES). It is almost like listening to an internet-radio through my PC speakers. I was wondering what happened to my first rate sound system ? Later I replaced the Windows PC with a Linux based MacMini, hoping that I will get the result I wanted. But it did not improve much. I did not like the outcome. My listening experience with the computer set up was 4 minutes(2 with PC and 2 with Mac) total. Since then I have gone back to using the same old CDP. I think I blame on the USB interface for this failure. The USB interface has not come up to the state of the art of a modern CD player. I did not try other interfaces purposely. No High-Res, only 16bit/44.1 audio files. I dont listen to SACD. Fire Wire to USB, USB to SPDI/F, Fire wire to HDMI, Firewire to SPDI/F, and almost an infinite combinations of patch up ideas are out there. But I dont like a patch up solution nor do I like to compromise the sound in favor of convenience.

I have heard many audiophile friends changed to computer based playback system many years ago for good and they are happy too. But I am not convinced yet. I am eagerly waiting for computer audio to catch up. I am sure it is in the making but it still has to go quiet a long distance.

Your thoughts are most welcome.
topmostaudio
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cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
Computer audio can(and does) sound awesome. I think dbpoweramp beats the pants off of EAC, in my set up.

I just did a ridiculous overhaul on my windows system (a very sophisticated cleaning & tweaking) and found a ton of malware issues (I do run antimalware-long story) and once the cleaning/tweaking over, the PC rig sounds even better than it was. PC Audio has many facets - the OS being bombarded with malware being one of them, I have now learned.
johnsonwu
469 posts
 
Try HQPlayer on the PC. Free trial.
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timlub
2,041 posts
 
I have EAC and DBpoweramp both. I find DBpoweramp a bit more user friendly, but as far as dropping disc to the hard drive or minor conversion, I really can't say one is better than the other.... but my EAC doesn't wear pants.
I had tried numerous settings with foobar, jriver, dbpower amp and EAC. When all are configured properly and the free ware is kept up to date, I find them comparable in sound quality.
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