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Post by roadrunner on Jun 14, 2010 14:19:15 GMT -5
Yeah, if I went that route, I'd plan on using a hub. But I think buying a converter and running digital coax will be a better solution and cost less in the end. Still researching. My sound card does its digital via HDMI and the rest is crap. But if I replace the sound card with a cheap SPDIF output one, I'll lose the HDMI, which I use for video. At least I think. Can multiple sound cards be used? Are there plugs to support this? I've been inside the case, but just to clean. I didn't pay that much attention to the card setup. An HD sound card with both HDMI and SPDIF will run most of the cost of the XDA-1, so that's not really an option. I am not certain what the current limit on the number of sound cards you can use in an IBM compatible PC is, but about 15 years ago it was 4. I built a mini recording studio for one of my clients using 3 sound cards and it worked very well. I bought all three sound cards from the same manufacture and all were high-end cards with slightly different feature s and connectors. You should not have an issue if you buy high quality cards. This particular client wanted external sound cards for two of the three. Do a little research and try to stick with "audiophile" oriented sound cards because they will have better shielding and better signal strength and quality I think ASUS has a couple of excellent sound cards at reasonable prices. I think Stereophile magazine did a rave review on one their card during past few months. Good luck. |
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Post by rockguitar on Jun 14, 2010 17:16:45 GMT -5
If you go the VIP Lounge you can see some new info from Lonnie about the XDA. On a side note, can someone comment on how much difference there are between transports? Is the ERC-1 gonna be more or less obsolete or does it still have merits bc it's still a better transport than say a DVD player or digital player like a SB or something computer based? That's an interesting question. When I used to own a Benchmark Dac1, I found that the different transports I used sounded different. Even though the digital input of the Benchmark was supposed to nearly free of jitter, I heard greater differences with different transports than different cables, like Toslink vs. coax. Benchmark has always recommended using a bit - transparent transport, i.e. one that reproduces all the bits that are on the disc and if I remember correctly many inexpensive DVD players weren't bit transparent. However, there were some that they tested that were. The exact models used to be listed on their site, but are no longer, probably because they are no longer in production. Do a search on the internet on "bit transparent" and CD transports. I would think the ERC-1 would perform well as a tranport, though never having heard it, can't confirm it. |
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Post by tjhenry on Jun 14, 2010 19:02:58 GMT -5
I must admit I was very skeptical about the contribution of a transport to sound quality but I hadn't had much experience with it until recently. I have a small inexpensive DAC that I used to compare to the analog section of a Pioneer Elite DV-48AV (an upconverting DVD player with DVD-audio and SACD). The small DAC sounded very similar to the analog out of the 48AV though not quite as good. I just assumed that was the performance of the small DAC. Then I changed out the 48AV to a Pioneer BDP-51FD (a Blu ray player with much better construction) and the improvement in analog out from 48AV to 51FD was impressive. The 51FD is a very good CD player and the audible improvement from changing from the 48AV to 51FD was similar to moving up a speaker model; it was that dramatic. Then just for curiosity, I plugged in the small DAC to the 51FD and it sounded slightly less clean than the analog out from the 51FD. So, the transport clearly dictated how the small DAC sounded. I was very surprised.
That being said, due to the robust construction of the ERC-1, I would assume that it would be a very good transport.
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Post by tcs2tx on Jun 15, 2010 11:31:48 GMT -5
Yeah, if I went that route, I'd plan on using a hub. But I think buying a converter and running digital coax will be a better solution and cost less in the end. Still researching. My sound card does its digital via HDMI and the rest is crap. But if I replace the sound card with a cheap SPDIF output one, I'll lose the HDMI, which I use for video. At least I think. Can multiple sound cards be used? Are there plugs to support this? I've been inside the case, but just to clean. I didn't pay that much attention to the card setup. An HD sound card with both HDMI and SPDIF will run most of the cost of the XDA-1, so that's not really an option. I am not certain what the current limit on the number of sound cards you can use in an IBM compatible PC is, but about 15 years ago it was 4. I built a mini recording studio for one of my clients using 3 sound cards and it worked very well. I bought all three sound cards from the same manufacture and all were high-end cards with slightly different feature s and connectors. You should not have an issue if you buy high quality cards. This particular client wanted external sound cards for two of the three. Do a little research and try to stick with "audiophile" oriented sound cards because they will have better shielding and better signal strength and quality I think ASUS has a couple of excellent sound cards at reasonable prices. I think Stereophile magazine did a rave review on one their card during past few months. Good luck. I am not sure of the limit on the number of sound cards in a Windows-based computer, but one thing that you may need to consider is the way that Vista/Win7 control audio. Under Vista/Win7, the operating system allows you to select only one audio output at a time. In other words, audio can not be output simultaneously to more than one audio output. So, you are forced in Vista/Win7 to manually switch the default audio output if you want to switch from, for example, HDMI to S/PDIF. The only way to get around this limitation in Vista/Win7 is to use an application that is able to directly communicate/output with the audio outputs without relying on the default audio output. I use Casatunes to output lossless via S/PDIF while my Win7 outputs by default on the HDMI. AFAIAK, there are a few other programs that will let you do the same thing (e.g., WinAMP). WinXP does not have this same limitation. |
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Post by CrazyBlue on Jun 15, 2010 11:52:41 GMT -5
I'll check out Casatunes.
I use Winamp now, as I like it better then Windows Media Player.
I'm really not sure, but I think the HDMI out is part of the video card. So I may be okay. Switching outputs wouldn't be that much of a problem though.
All I really want to do is get the signal out to the XDA-1. If Digital is better than USB, I'll either get a new sound card or use a USB>SPDIF converter, like a Musiland Monitor 01.
Never thought going in that this would require so much research. Good thing I like to learn new stuff.
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Post by UT-Driven on Jun 15, 2010 12:12:46 GMT -5
Yeah, if I went that route, I'd plan on using a hub. But I think buying a converter and running digital coax will be a better solution and cost less in the end. Still researching. My sound card does its digital via HDMI and the rest is crap. But if I replace the sound card with a cheap SPDIF output one, I'll lose the HDMI, which I use for video. At least I think. Can multiple sound cards be used? Are there plugs to support this? I've been inside the case, but just to clean. I didn't pay that much attention to the card setup. An HD sound card with both HDMI and SPDIF will run most of the cost of the XDA-1, so that's not really an option. I am not certain what the current limit on the number of sound cards you can use in an IBM compatible PC is, but about 15 years ago it was 4. I built a mini recording studio for one of my clients using 3 sound cards and it worked very well. I bought all three sound cards from the same manufacture and all were high-end cards with slightly different feature s and connectors. You should not have an issue if you buy high quality cards. This particular client wanted external sound cards for two of the three. Do a little research and try to stick with "audiophile" oriented sound cards because they will have better shielding and better signal strength and quality I think ASUS has a couple of excellent sound cards at reasonable prices. I think Stereophile magazine did a rave review on one their card during past few months. Good luck. The Xonar soundcards were the ones you were referring to. I read the article before letting my subscription lapse.  Doug |
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Post by roadrunner on Jun 15, 2010 15:11:51 GMT -5
Yes, Windows has always had poor sound card support when trying to go beyond playing standard fare. I am trying to remember the software that M-Audio bundled with their sound cards. They recommended that you immediately install the ASIO.dll into windows and go to the control panel and make the ASIO.dll the default. Using the ASIO.dll and the bundled software, I was able to use all three sound cards with no trouble.
A lot of time has passed, but I am willing to bet that nearly all advanced sound cards will have you download and install the latest ASIO.dll drivers. I am sorry to say I have not kept up with the development in software for advanced usage of sound cards. There are probably some Lounge Members who can recommend some of the better software.
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Post by BillBauman on Jun 17, 2010 14:58:25 GMT -5
Yes, Windows has always had poor sound card support when trying to go beyond playing standard fare. I am trying to remember the software that M-Audio bundled with their sound cards. They recommended that you immediately install the ASIO.dll into windows and go to the control panel and make the ASIO.dll the default. Using the ASIO.dll and the bundled software, I was able to use all three sound cards with no trouble. A lot of time has passed, but I am willing to bet that nearly all advanced sound cards will have you download and install the latest ASIO.dll drivers. I am sorry to say I have not kept up with the development in software for advanced usage of sound cards. There are probably some Lounge Members who can recommend some of the better software. ASIO isn't exactly something you download, per se. All professional audio recording equipment come with ASIO drivers, and all professional audio software supports it as the pro standard. I believe ASIO was originally developed by Steinberg (the makers of Cubase and Nuendo), as a solution to the end-user-oriented audio stack within Windows. Windows was originally based on an extremely poor audio implementation, which was significantly improved (but not to the level of professional standards) by the WDM model. Essentially, professionally recording requires multiple routings of audio signals/channels/devices, as well as extremely low-latency (requiring support for hardware-offloading of audio processing). In the modern day, many higher-end, consumer-grade soundcards now offer ASIO drivers/support. This provides the multiple card support, as well as improved audio signal quality/integrity. There are even plugins for Winamp for ASIO support, or you can simply select an ASIO output device, whereby effectively offloading that aspect of the processing. Note that there is a major difference in using USB-based consumer audio devices (without ASIO) via WDM and using USB-based or IEEE 1394-based pro gear with ASIO drivers, the simplest being that the jitter issues introduced by USB exhibited with consumer gear are not experienced with ASIO as the audio is fully offloaded and processed within pro gear and not streamed via the Windows kernel as is done with the consumer gear. |
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Post by bearfan51 on Jun 18, 2010 5:02:35 GMT -5
I use Media Monkey with excellent results. It has an option to bypass the Windows kernel, (I believe it's called DirectSound) and another that uses the ASIO Winamp plug in. I have replaced iTunes with Media Monkey for my ipod as well. Love it.
The DirectSound setting make a noticeable improvement in the sound, and is probably better suited for most consumer cards, vs. an ASIO plug in for a card that can't fully utilize it.
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Post by malibujeff on Jun 20, 2010 16:57:49 GMT -5
Lonnie,
When the XDA-1 is released, will you have a USB driver available for Linux?
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Post by BillBauman on Jun 21, 2010 16:34:59 GMT -5
Lonnie, When the XDA-1 is released, will you have a USB driver available for Linux? I really doubt that Emotiva is developing any USB drivers. What I think they are doing is relying on existing drivers in the OS to work with the chipsets they've selected in their unit. From that perspective, if it's working in Windows, I think there is a very high likelihood it will work in Linux. If it does not, there are a few of us around here that might 'look into it'.  |
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ddhd
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Post by ddhd on Jun 29, 2010 7:48:20 GMT -5
Well this thread has been silenced for some time - any word on a pre-order or release date?
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Erwin.BE
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It's the room, stupid!
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Post by Erwin.BE on Jun 29, 2010 13:29:03 GMT -5
Well this thread has been silenced for some time - any word on a pre-order or release date? Around the end of July. |
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Erwin.BE
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It's the room, stupid!
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Post by Erwin.BE on Jul 1, 2010 3:01:27 GMT -5
Well this thread has been silenced for some time - any word on a pre-order or release date? Around the end of July. According the latest 06/29/10 Webcast, the production starts in 10 days.  Pre-order is scheduled within 30 days (that's the end of July) and the items are expected to arrive within 60 days "tops"... |
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MikeWI
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Post by MikeWI on Jul 19, 2010 4:09:53 GMT -5
According the latest 06/29/10 Webcast, the production starts in 10 days. Pre-order is scheduled within 30 days (that's the end of July) and the items are expected to arrive within 60 days "tops"... It is nearing the end of July... |
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MikeWI
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Post by MikeWI on Jul 31, 2010 8:30:29 GMT -5
According the latest 06/29/10 Webcast, the production starts in 10 days. Pre-order is scheduled within 30 days (that's the end of July) and the items are expected to arrive within 60 days "tops"... It's the end of July. Updates? Mike |
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Post by sanjaygolf on Jul 31, 2010 8:35:46 GMT -5
From Lonnie:
"I know I have been silent for a little while and I am sorry about that (been a little swamped lately).
Ok, so here's the scoop on the XDA. The first sample was incredible but needed a few little changes and a face lift. Got in the revised sample and there was digital clock noise on the analog grounds. Did some digging and in the new rev of the board the digital and analog grounds were tied together in a number of places. For those of you who deal with both the analog and digital worlds you know what a pain in the @$$ this is to track down and fix. Anyway, we got the grounds seperated again and did some additional decoupling during my last visit to the factory. Just got in the latest rev and I am happy to say it is now a piece of gear I am proud to put our name on.
So I am sorry for the delay in getting this out, but it is now approved for full production which will be in September so we should have them in October. I know a lot of you have been patiently waiting on this one and I appreciate your patience."
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Post by jlafrenz on Jul 31, 2010 8:36:18 GMT -5
Lonnie posted in the XDA-1 update thread that it will be here in October. The latest podcast also states this.
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MikeWI
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Post by MikeWI on Jul 31, 2010 9:06:09 GMT -5
Lonnie posted in the XDA-1 update thread that it will be here in October. The latest podcast also states this. Thanks. I just noted webcast with update. Newest Emotiva webcast: emotiva.com/podcast73010/webcast.shtmXDA-1 production "end of September" and available in October. "Reserve list" soon (next week? unclear) Mike |
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Post by albireo13 on Aug 1, 2010 17:19:40 GMT -5
Can a pre-order list be started?
Thx,
Rob
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