Digital Audio « Thread Started on Apr 13, 2012, 5:48pm »
I'm setting up my computer digital audio system using a Intel I-7 920, 24-gigs of ram on a Asus Saber tooth motherboard with built in sound.
I'm using a Music Fidelity V-Link Asynchronous 24 bit to Spdif Converter. I'm using a regular USB cable nothing fancy and a optical cable going into my XDA-1.
My questions are what methods are you guys using?
Will a thicker USB cable/the audiophile USB cables make a difference in audio or are they a scam?
Does cable length from computer to Dac make a difference? My Usb cable is a Manhattan USB 2.0 cable with a 16.5ft length. My Optical/Toslink Cable is a Manhattan, 5ft long. I'm ripping at slow rate to ensure data integrity.
Are there settings or things that you guys have tried to make things better?
I'm thinking of adding an external sound card. I'm using Windows media Player, using loss less. I was thinking about using flac and eventually going to HDTracks for files.
I have the popping with the XDA-1 at the beginning of any track CD or otherwise this topic has been covered before on this site, but I don't remember the solution, I might call EMO.
I remember that there is a length distance for the cables especially USB 2.0 and 3.0.
My music sounds okay, but I think it could be better, I'm using the 24 bit by 96k setting. I've heard an incredible system at a local dealer through Sonus and I don't think I'm there yet.
I will be using a Cine Raid Home series and (4) 2-3TB hard drives to rip all of my music, movies and Lp's. Thanks guys for suggestions.
Joined: Dec 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 22,113 Location: Tampa, FL
Re: Digital Audio « Reply #1 on Apr 13, 2012, 5:58pm »
IMHO regular USB cables are just fine. As for the length, the golden rule is.. as short as practically possible.
Don't beat yourself up with the comparison with Sonos. As long as you like the sound from your system, in your room, that's the best system!
Firewire, USB, coax, AES/EBU are all legitimate (assuming their drivers are installed, if needed) vehicles for a 24/192k bit depth and sample rate. The XDA tops out at 96k but I've heard 192 and it's amazing.
Joined: Mar 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 2,894 Location: Palm Beach Gardens, FL USA
Re: Digital Audio « Reply #2 on Apr 13, 2012, 6:11pm »
That is a *long* USB cable ya got there son. Are you sure it's _really_ that long or did you just tell her that to impress her...<g>
Digital cables (TOSLINK & Coax) seem to work best at multiples of 1 meter. Something about the reflection of the wave coming back thru the cable once it reaches the other end was the deal, IIRC. Google it, I'm not yer friggin' research dept. <vbg> So, try to go with a 1, 2, or 3 meter cable.
And do NOT spring for the uber-expensive bullshit cables being hawked everywhere. Go to MonoPrice.com and score one of the "Premium TOSLINK" - this is a *seriously* nice cable priced WAY cheap: http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=premium+toslink The metal jacket is the cat's a$$, your audiophile street cred will be bolstered immensely...
Re: Digital Audio « Reply #3 on Apr 13, 2012, 7:49pm »
Problem solved and Thanks guys:
Hey RLW: Too late, she's seen it and already knows how long it is and she's hooked!!!
Hey RLW and Hemster, thanks alot the Toslink is 1.5m and the USB is 5m. The problem was that in the windows media player I had the file type set wrong. It was set to windows media audio lossless instead of WMA lossless.
It now sounds fantastic, almost as good as HD Tracks 96k. I got both of my cables from a friends local computer shop for $20.00 total. I still hear a pop when I change songs manually with the mouse, but not on every CD that I've ripped.
Now to enjoy the new Vincent KHV-111MKII tube headphone amp that was just delivered by fed-ex 40 minutes ago.
Re: Digital Audio « Reply #4 on Apr 13, 2012, 8:13pm »
I'd go with a shorter USB cable. You'll be fine with a monoprice-type cable - no need for an "audiophile" USB cable. Probably try to keep it 6 ft. or less in length.
You'll be in good shape with the V-Link.
I'd ditch the Windows Media Player and go with something like Foobar or J River Media Player.
To get the best sound out of your computer, you'll want to use WASAPI, ASIO or Kernel Streaming for the output mode.
As far as ripping your CDs, just use something like Exact Audio Copy or dbPowerAmp and select a lossless format like FLAC.
Re: Digital Audio « Reply #5 on Apr 13, 2012, 9:21pm »
If you want to be uber careful, emotiva recomends a six feet or less USB cord. But in terms of which cord is better in terms of digital audio, I wouldn't spend more than the least amount of money possible on a digital cord. There's no point really, bits are bits. Just make sure it doesn't look too flimsy or too long and you will be fine. Also, I reccomend you use a better media player than windows media player: like foobar or J river. Foobar is free but requires an additional free download of the WASAPI component you would need for bit perfect audio. And, oh, never mind FLCanuck actually said everything exactly you need to know That is exactly what you need to do. Computeraudiophile is a great website. Exact audio copy is GREAT, and there is a program called autoFLAC that goes with exact audio copy that sort of automates the process for you. FLAC files are definitely the way you want to go.
Re: Digital Audio « Reply #6 on Apr 14, 2012, 6:34am »
Thanks again for the suggestions. Do you guys think the pops at the beginning of the songs are windows media player or the XDA-1-remembering the pop that the XDA-1 gives at the beginning of CD play back that some have complained of.
I downloaded flac front end, but haven't used it yet and I have burned two CD with Exact Audio Copy, but I still get the Pop at the beginning of the song and the pop when changing tracks. I will be looking for foobar as well and thanks for the suggestion of Computer Audio Phile. The pop occurs even when windows sounds play.
Re: Digital Audio « Reply #7 on Apr 14, 2012, 6:50am »
When I use my Vincent Audio headphone Amp and put my pre-amp in stand-by or soft mute and listen through the Headphone amp with headphones, no pops or clicks at all. My pre-amp is a Belles 20-A tube, which has a high gain.
Headphone Amp connect through tape outs to headphone in, which will play sound even if the preamp is in mute mode, interesting.
My music sounds okay, but I think it could be better, I'm using the 24 bit by 96k setting.
That is only allowed for 96k files! You MUST do the playback in the same sample frequency setting as the file itself!
The simplest way with a Mac is to use "bitperfect", cheap app that automatically sets the correct frequency. But my Amarra MINI software does this also. No idea how a PC deals with this.
And certainly don't use a longer Toslink than necessary in order to avoid Jitter noise.
Happy ripping! I started to rip in Apple Lossless 5 years ago on this very iMac. Before that, I messed a bit (bit! ) with 128 kbps on an ancient Powerbook until that it's 20 GB HD was full. I now almost filled a 3TB HD!
Joined: Dec 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 430 Location: pensacola
Re: Digital Audio « Reply #9 on Apr 17, 2012, 3:35pm »
I use Windows Media Player and there are no pops, I love it. It works, my files are most all WAV from CD's, I paid for WMP and Windows Media Center since I had to buy windows, so I say why by something or get else? I 've been using it for years and love it's features. I now use it with WINdows 7. I like how it displays a collage of album covers. Or a collage of my photos while music is playing. It also is pretty handy at finding album info to display without me having to do anything. It even finds that data for my vinyl I copy to digital. I really like the shuffle and playlist options, and sync with my walkman.
Re: Digital Audio « Reply #10 on Apr 17, 2012, 8:17pm »
Hey altpensacola, how are you connected, are you using a usb to spdif converter, Music Fidelity, Usb Hiface, or are you going doing something else. Are you getting bit perfect copies and are you just using a regular usb cable.
I just found out that my usb cable is now creating the RFI that I fought hard to get rid of by taking the tuner out of my system. If I unplug the usb cable, which is thin, the RFI goes away. I'll probably get a cable from monoprice or mount my Musicfidelity box outside of my rack.
Now don't get me wrong the sound quality that I'm getting is outstanding and I'm making bit perfect rips using exact audio copy, but the pops at the beginning are a little problem.
Once the music is playing no pops or no pops moving forward or reverse. Also if I'm using my play list in Media player the songs play continuously without pops. This digital/computer is as adicting as vinyl when done right.
The sound quality is as good as I've heard through the Sonus that was demoed for me at a highend audio shop. They just ripped their own CD's or went through HD Tracks.
I've compared my rips through the XDA-1, using the Usb Converter on Opt 1 and the Erc-1 on Opt 2 and you can't tell the difference, so quality is there, but please man tell me what you are doing and thanks.
It also has excellent ripping error monitoring and correction, at least as good as EAC.
For USB, 5m is the top of what they recommend for single cable length, and if you have rf issues, getting a high quality cable from mono price is the most one should spend.
No need for a separate sound card, that's what the vlink is doing for you. You might also try using the vlink and xda at the same time via two USB outputs, then you could see if the popping is windows media player or the vlink or something else.
Joined: Nov 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 361 Location: Belgium
Re: Digital Audio « Reply #12 on Apr 18, 2012, 2:55pm »
If you hear no pops during playback then that means the asynchronous USB in the V-LINK is doing a fine job and does not suffer from the length of the USB cable. Its S/PDIF output is not the best money can buy (Audiophilleo2 is better but $$$$). Nevertheless, most likely it is still far better than that of any internal soundcard. The electric noise inside a computer does nasty things to anything audio related so keeping all of the computer's hardware nicely galvanically isolated from the external DAC is never a stupid idea IMO. I believe the V-LINK does just that. In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised if you could extend the length of the USB connection even farther without it causing any audible side effects whatsoever, using a powered USB hub. It all depends on how good the implementation of the galvanical isolation inside the V-LINK can block electric noise (because asynchronous USB, by definition, never adds any transport jitter whatsoever).
P.S. - I think I know what's causing pops at playback start / next track / previous track. Assuming you're on Windows Vista or 7, try using foobar2000 with WASAPI first. WASAPI still gave me occasional pops the same way you described them, no matter the Buffer length setting I used. So I ditched WASAPI and moved to ASIO component and ASIO4ALL. During the installation of ASIO4ALL v2 you should be able to specify that you want Off-Line Settings. After finishing the installation, if you go to the Windows Start Menu (All Programs) you should be able to find the ASIO4ALL v2 folder and inside it you should be able to launch the ASIO4ALL v2 Off-Line Settings shortcut. In the ASIO4ALL settings window, select the correct playback device and then set the ASIO Buffer Size slider to 2048 Samples, set Latency Compensation to 0 Samples for both In and Out, set Kernel Buffers to 4 and, finally, make sure all three checkboxes (Hardware Buffer, Always Resample 44.1kHz <-> 48kHz, Force WDM Driver To 16 Bit) are unticked. Click on the red close button in the top right corner of the window. If you haven't already done so, install the ASIO component for foobar2000 and then restart foobar2000. In foobar2000, click on File | Preferences (or hit <CTRL> + <P> ) and then, in the popup window that appears, navigate to Playback | Output. On the right side of the same window you should now be able to pick the Device. Set it to ASIO : ASIO4ALL v2. The slider below it is titled Buffer length. Increasing the Buffer length will result in more system memory (RAM) being occupied but if the buffer is too short then, depending on the speed of your computer and depending on how much you're slowing it down with other software, you might experience stutter during music playback. That being said, if you play your files over a network share then you might also want to adjust the Buffer size that you can find by navigating to the Networking subsection, on the left side of the same Preferences window. Click on the Apply button to apply the changes you've made, or click on the OK button to apply-and-exit. Let me know if the pops are gone.
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That is exactly what you need to do. Computeraudiophile is a great website. Exact audio copy is GREAT, and there is a program called autoFLAC that goes with exact audio copy that sort of automates the process for you. ![[avatar]](http://lh3.ggpht.com/_V4NyIonn8R8/TF_f9MLEjBE/AAAAAAAAAJg/b_yjTczfTWc/s64-c/NewAlbum908101258.jpg "[avatar]")
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) with 128 kbps on an ancient Powerbook until that it's 20 GB HD was full. I now almost filled a 3TB HD!
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