Dgaylin
...and here comes one more twist on the pc to analog theme....
I went through all sorts of itterations before I planted the flag on my current 'source'. This desktop or that, laptop, Vista, XP, XP Pro, USB sound cards,media players, ASIO drivers, came and went, etc.
Previously it was a Sony SCD xA 777es. Ultimately I managed to improve upon the CDP with these two sources:
Toshiba Satellite 350 laptop running Vista, via USB into a cheap USB SC > stereovox XV2 > Bel Canto D3 > Nirvana SX Ltd or SR resolution Ref x2, into my Onkyo receiver or Thor tube preamp
depending on the event/mood.
My main approach is via an older Dell Dimension 4600 Ive added more RAM and an M Audio 24/192 PCI audio card > Stereovox xv2 > BC D3 > SX Ltd > Thor pre > HT Magic IIs. On this box Ive trimmed down almost all the windows services & utilities running in the background. That helped a whole lot. This box and the DAC3 sit in the Sound Anchor rack with each component using Bright Star nodes.
Files are loaded and served up from a 1TB Iomega x2 NAS drive which sits on a different rack atop Bright star nodes. Just those little things there added more clarity and ease in the presentation. All pcs but the laptop use Ethernet wires.
Lengthy USB & VGA extension cables for keyboard & mouse allow my use of it from an adjacent room, and I can either use the HDMI video output into the rec + FPJ onto the big screen, or simply use a LCD monitor on a TV dinner table in order to manage files. Ive used this box for playback of DVDs Ive downloaded onto the NAS drive but prefer using the newer Optiplex 620 w/ ATI Radeon PCI Express as it outputs multi ch audio over the HDMI interface.
I found using a better pc on the BC D3, AND the desktop help out tremendously. I have a Voodoo Tesla II on the D3, and a VD Power III on the Dell. Both are fed by a Running springs Haley which is fed by a Elrod sig III pc.
The NAS drive is fed via a PSA Duet connected to a Python VX, as are other spinning digital items.
All ckts are dedicated. Rotating stuff is on one ckt. Power items are split over another two ckts. The 4th ded ckt runs all the pc accessories and my daily office box, the 620.
The media player is primarily J River MC12, using FLAC, ALAC, and some WAV files regardless the personal confuser or operating system selected.
I have found that using some sort of sound card or USB to SPDIF converter is sonically better than going strictly USB into the D3, or with an ASIO driver and I bought the German one too. The better card or converter there
well, the better, and all the inputs vary too. AES, BNC, and SPDIF/coax, are PREFFERABLE to TOS/OPTICAL.
I tried a few far more pricey coax cables too and settled on Stereovox.
I use the up sampling output feature of the JR MC 12 player set to output 24/96 from the usual 16/44.1 48, encoding of the orig files.
The only area (s) I feel I can massage now is either the DAC3 or the sound card. Positive moves there have always proven out as noticed gains. Modding the DAC 3 or adding the new BC VBS option seems another way. Otherwise
maybe a dedicated server, but I dont feel that link is as important as the others I pointed out.
I use a 400 CDP once in a while when Im really lazy and plan on adding one more after I get an Oppo BDP 83, though. It connects to the BC D3 via TOS. Now and then I use an Oppo 980, about 5% of the time, pretty much as a barometer I guess.
Hope that helps some.
