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Quality of laptop for use with Dac.

Good evening all.

I was just reading a review of a Belconte DAC ( im not actually after a new dac but was reading it simply out of interest) and the reviewer made comments about a possibilty of higher sound quality with a better driver, than the native windows driver, and higher quality laptop as the one he used to review the equipment was old.

Im quite a novice to Pc audio, having recently acquired an AMR processor which is a cd player with USB input. Ive been using the USB with an old, but extremely reliable HP laptop. The DAC inside the CD77 sounds really pleasing, using J River. Owing to the age of my laptop I cannot use some of the recommended output options, one being ASIO.

Is there any sense of what he is saying? I thought is was digital signals that are going to the DAC? I always take what reviewers write with a pinch of salt ( though interesting to read) as almost every component that they review performs well beyond its price.

Anyone have any knowlege that might give novices like me some pointers.

Thanks. Regards. James.
james123
james123 OP
61 posts
 
Thanks for the replies. Ill look into jitter, thanks for the pointer.

Perhaps I could mention something I found to be a positive. I installed Windows 8 into my ageing laptop and certainly found some improvement. Also doing away with the externally powered IDE hard drive and replacing with a Sata one that is powered by the USB port did something positive too. Minor improvements but most certainly wothwhile.

Thanks again.
wtf's avatar
wtf
307 posts
 
Have you poked around Computer Audio? There's an enormous amount of info to wade though but well worth it.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/
james123 OP
61 posts
 
Wtf. Thanks for the pointer. I had a look, lots of information there. Thanks.
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,597 posts
 
James, have you gotten new speakers? What did you buy and how do they sound?
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Unfortunately, even with Async USB interfaces, there is still a lot of interaction with the computer. In theory this should not happen, but it does. Some of it is due to CODECs that dont run well real-time, audio stack issues and even power system issues in the computer.

There are some things that you can do to improve SQ:

1) ripping with dbpoweramp on PC or XLD on Mac to .wav files

2) add a common-mode filter to the USB cable (only if the USB interface does not require the +5V in the cable), such as the Short-Block

3) stop all unneeded apps running on the computer

4) power the computer with a better PS or batteries

5) add JPLAY to your Jriver playback app

6) Use a better quality USB cable

7) Power the DAC and the computer from the SAME AC outlet

BTW, better than this can be achieved with Oct. 2009 Mac Mini running PM or Amarra IME.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
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