Windows Media Player

Foobar is indeed a great music player. You can try the Kmplayer as well. Have you tried some eq tweaks or different positions? placement is very important.

Almarg,

Your post provides a lot of really useful tips. I have a question that you might know the answer to. Have you ever tried any type of line conditioner with a computer and external drives? Given that computers are not really made for high end audio, I can't help but think that it may make a substantial improvement.

Great explanation Almarg and Xxqq250. These tips should help others in the future with similar questions.

03-15-12: Xxqq250
I have a question that you might know the answer to. Have you ever tried any type of line conditioner with a computer and external drives? Given that computers are not really made for high end audio, I can't help but think that it may make a substantial improvement.

Good question, but I have no relevant experience. Even though I'm both an audiophile and a computer enthusiast, who builds his own computers, ironically I haven't yet merged the two and the only digital source in my audio system is a one-box CD player :-)

I'd imagine that a power conditioner could very well be helpful in many setups, mainly by minimizing the amount of computer-generated noise that might find its way into the power wiring and from there into the audio components. Also, if the computer is located close to the audio system a shielded power cord would seem to make sense, to prevent rfi from escaping from the power cord and radiating into the system.

I would guess that the effects of a power conditioner will tend to differ depending on whether or not the computer's power supply uses active power factor correction, perhaps making less of a difference if the computer provides that feature. Recent computers are increasingly utilizing active PFC, especially the better ones and those that are Energy Star compliant.

FWIW, I'll mention that I use a CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD true sine wave UPS on my desktop computers. It works great for my purposes, but I wouldn't recommend its use close to an audio system because I've found that it radiates rfi, as detected by a portable AM radio brought near it. Inexpensive UPS's that put out stepped approximations to a sine wave, btw, should not be used with computers that have active PFC.

Thanks for your comment, and thanks to Tom6897 as well.

Best regards,
-- Al

I have digital recordings I made out of a headphone jack on an old HP laptop years ago when I first started to dabble with computer audio that still sound pretty good, so I know it is possible to get a Windows computer to produce good sound, but it can be very hit or miss with any given Windows computer.

I would not rely on any Windows computer to deliver "audiophile" quality sound. It can happen by design if that is a goal of the maker or you are smart and persistent enough to find the right tweaks, but not likely by chance otherwise.

Newer devices and home versions of Windows are better optimized for multimedia in general than older ones, so the newer stuff is probably a better place to start in general.

I use WMP to rip CDs to lossless .wav only these days. It works fine for that all digital process which does not alone involve any sound making.

Once you have a decent audio file though, the best strategy to assure best sound for minimal cost (unless you know a good PC recipe otherwise that is proven to work) is to use a separate network player designed for good sounding audio (like Squeezebox) to stream the files OFF and AWAY from the general purpose computer. Then you can use a separate outboard DAC or your choice attached to the NP to tweak the sound to your tastes as needed from there.

Or, if you must use a computer as the music maker, Apples are a safer bet in that many use these, they are pretty much all the same, and it is easier to know what to expect.