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PC-Audio vs. High-end CD Player-GAME OVER

Hi All,
I just auditioned the Wavelength Audio Cosecant DAC on a very nice system at the local dealer. It was run through a Hovland 200 preamp , a Plinius amp and Avalon Eidolon Diamond speakers. This is all in a very well treated, good-sounding room.
It was, in a word spectacular. Beautiful tone, excellent bass, imaging soundstaging, etc. What was really amazing was a sense of space, or ambience that was imparted. We then compared the same CD's (Diana Krall, Jennifer warnes, some jazz), on a Levinson CDP. I'm not saying that the levinson is the last word in players, but it was what he had on the shelf.While it sounded good, it was much more bright, and "constricted".
Control was through an Imac using I-tunes, and the CD's had been nurned using Apple Lossless.
I ordered my Crimson on the spot.

David
deshapiro
711smilin
513 posts
 
David, I will be upgrading to the NWO 3.0GO in the near future, since I am in your area, let's get together, and play....then we BOTH could write some VALID comments. I happen to love the idea of computer based music, but, have not found "or heard"the love for it, you have. Let's play, and discover. See ya soon.

Steve

BTW, I love Gordon's stuff too.
bigamp
219 posts
 
1. Many digital designers would agree that the noisy switching power supply in a PC-based audio can never come even close to a linear power supply, especially if R-Core power transformers are used. A "nice DAC" (or any other “solution”) can not help eliminating the switching power downsides. This includes a Laptop because the battery feeds a switching power supply inside.

Deshapiro's DAC receives a digital stream from the PC via USB. If a fiber optic USB cable is used, the DAC is electrically isolated from the PC. If a reclocker is used in between (e.g., Empirical Audio Pace Car), then the digital signal is reclocked, reducing or eliminating any effects introduced into the digital stream from the PC. This way, PC power supply is not a factor.
deshapiro OP
177 posts
 
Hi All,
The DAC has a separate power supply. Shouldn't that play a role in isolation? The supplied USB cable is also shielded.

David
vladimir
346 posts
 
Goatwuss, Empirical's solution is a good alternative, but there is still another one: Logitech/SlimDevices Transporter. It is wireless and has a wordclock input, so that you can connect it to a top-quality DAC like LessLoss with wordclock output and you'd be up there with the big boys. I have been using a Bolder-modded wireless SqueezeBox2 for more than a year and recently added a Monarchy Audio M24 preamp/DAC; the sound I'm getting is extremely good.
aplhifi
515 posts
 
The drives, memory, processors and interfaces in the PC-Audio are powered with the noisy switching power. You can isolate this from the DAC but that does not help anything when it comes to the actual data processing.

Isolating the DAC from the PC brings an obvious improvement. Why? Try supplying your DAC from the switching power supply in the computer and see what happens with the sound.

It is very interesting to me that no one acknowledges the fact that PC-Audio remains powered by the noisy switching supply. But it does not end here. How about the fact that your audio data is being transformed to many different protocols inside the computer so it can be processed and stored? Do you really believe this can be a better solution compared to a quiet linear powered and precision clocked dedicated audio DSP directly hooked up to the DAC with 5 inches long cables? Not in my book!

Again, convenience and nice sound is a suitable description for PC-Audio. But when it comes to the best possible audio quality, I will have to disagree.

Finally, I have 5 desktops and 2 laptops here. :-)

Regards,
Alex
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