A nice PC upgrade

If using a more powerful computer results in better sonics in some or many systems than using a less powerful computer, I would not assume that the reason has anything to do with computing power in itself.

The details of the designs of more powerful vs. less powerful computers will differ from each other in a vast number of ways, a great many of which might cause differences in jitter on the S/PDIF output that is being used in this case; and differences in the amplitude and frequency characteristics of noise that may be riding on that signal, or coupled into the AC wiring, or radiated through the air from the computer or the cable to other parts of the system; and differences in ground loop effects that might occur between the computer and whatever it is connected to in the system.

So chances are that whatever sonic differences may result between the two kinds of computers in a given application have nothing to do with computing power per se. IMO.

Regards,
-- Al

I would agree, Al. I think the chipset and the bandwith on
any applicable busses (I don't think Intel uses a frontside
bus any longer) (and USB bus, if one was unfortunate enough to
use it) and implementation of everything else are more
critical, assuming, of course, you do have a CPU fast enough
to handle the maximum tasks at hand effectively, without lag,
to begin with. These small atom boards, I don't believe do,
if they are running a standard windows OS, due to its bloat.
Problem is puters start running more and more processes (and
other things) in the background if not constantly maintained
which tax the CPU, which is why I recommend the biggest you
can afford - and constant cleaning! The larger, faster CPU's
come with the faster (better) chipsets. The motherboard is as
important as the cpu and its relationship (chipset) is
critical.

Hi Cerrot,
You need to try out the new Marantz NA8005 network player from a usb flash drive out to the coax input of your K-03. It may just blow the pc set-up away.
You can see my review of this affordable but excellent product in the Reviews section.
J.

Cerrot, I'm using the Bryston BDP-2. With that unit I have attached 2 2tb external hardrives and 14 usb 32 GB flash drives.
My whole music collection at my finger tips. I control it with my Ipad.

Has anyone noticed any differences in sound quality using an external HD, as opposed to using internal SATA drives?