16 bit music

skygoose

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I have been using the audiolab m-dac for 2 weeks now. Having done a lot of reading into dacs the basis of most posts on various forums was that the usb only supported 24/96 resolution. Having only a few 24 bit files for listening from the classical shop and the radiohead album I set about listening to my back catalogue. After a few days of investigation I decided that my collection needed to be re-ripped because having to use headphones I invested in a pair of grado ps500; listening to Laura Marling's A Creature I Don't Know there was to much background hiss and the sound was a bit flat to other recording which was ruining the listening experience.

Now having re-ripped my entire collection using dBpoweramp and listening using JRiver media centre I have the sound that I crave.

The point is that some recording sound so good I feel that I don't crave a 24 bit version because the cd rips have opened up a whole new listening experience. Setting up the computer properly in sound settings and ripping using the best software has made all the difference in the world.

Now when listening I just get lost in the music and don't have any nagging feeling that the sound could be better. It has taken a while to get the sound right. Now I have I have ordered more cd's and I am not wondering when the next batch of 24 bit remasters will be out and only available in the U.S.
 

The_Lhc

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skygoose said:
I have been using the audiolab m-dac for 2 weeks now. Having done a lot of reading into dacs the basis of most posts on various forums was that the usb only supported 24/96 resolution.

You mean "up to 24/96 resolution", not "only".
 

Overdose

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Personally, I'd put any difference between 16 and 24 bit, down to remastering differences. I tried a 24bit track that I downmixed to 16bit and I did not hear anything conclusive regarding possible differences.

The biggest factor in sound quality seems to be how well the music has been recorded or mastered in the first instance.

For peace of mind, it's easy to rip the same bit of music in differing bitrates to compare quality discrepancies, if any exist.
 

skygoose

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I agree with you. Listen to Long Gone Before Daylight by The Cardigans; the sound just hits you. I have found some real surprises in the the last couple of weeks. Shoegazers Ride cd single Birdman sounds wonderful. That maybe down to the dac and headphones.
 

SteveR750

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A PC with J River MC set up properly can sound stunning. Are you using USB or optical? I preferred the former using Cambridge Audio's own ASIO driver. The only downside is the noise interference from the PC PSU, which you don't get with the optical conection, but this sounds slightly duller and flatter. Maybe a new cable, oh wait, no it can't be, it's just 1s and 0s innit.
 

Overdose

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"I listen to most of my music on my pc played through the JRiver Media Centre 16 .... I never hear my psu though... what psu are you using and if you are hearing it whislt listening to your music then (just a suggestion) maybe think of getting a more quiet one ?"

I use a 2007 Mac mini, hardly cutting edge or silent in operation, but I can hear no electrical interferance over the USB out from the Mac.

I guess it's all down to quality of equipment.
 

skygoose

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For cables I use furutech gt2 usb cable. The guys at analogue secuction give me a discount when I bought my gear from them. As to power supplies I agree that quality counts. When I bought my last pc Igot it from pc specialist and ticked for 450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29) and SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19). These extra's make all the difference to the noise output of the computer.
 

SteveR750

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Overdose said:
"I listen to most of my music on my pc played through the JRiver Media Centre 16 .... I never hear my psu though... what psu are you using and if you are hearing it whislt listening to your music then (just a suggestion) maybe think of getting a more quiet one ?"

I use a 2007 Mac mini, hardly cutting edge or silent in operation, but I can hear no electrical interferance over the USB out from the Mac.

I guess it's all down to quality of equipment.

If you are asking me, then I can only hear it when there is no music playing - it's a faint burbling which by no means seems to detract from the sound when playing music, its really very very quiet, you have to be up close to the tweeters to hear it. However, it must be "contaminating" the sound, and in the age of digital purity it's psychologically mildly annoying.

Not sure you can get a quieter PSU

"Hello Sony can I have the audiophile brick please for my overpriced laptop"

"Certainly sir, if we made one"
 

quadpatch

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Just to clarify - You guys are talking about hearing the PSU of your PC through the sound coming out of your DACs over USB? If so I must say I have never noticed this. Nothing on either my laptop or my desktop. Although I do have a pretty expensive PSU in my desktop - 600w Seasonic I think. The PC itself was made to be quiet, I have had noisy PCs in the past and I can't stand them. All the case fans are 120mm Noctua fans, 2 of them on the CPU heatsink too. I think my graphics card is my most noisy component.

I also just inherited a water cooled desktop with a 1200w Enermax PSU, will be curious if that makes a difference when I manage to get it shipped here :O
 

Overdose

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quadpatch said:
Just to clarify - You guys are talking about hearing the PSU of your PC through the sound coming out of your DACs over USB? If so I must say I have never noticed this.

Me neither. The noise that I was refering to was the fan and HDD noise. That's not to say it doesn't happen though. Obviously an optical connection would alleviate this problem.
 

SteveR750

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quadpatch said:
Just to clarify - You guys are talking about hearing the PSU of your PC through the sound coming out of your DACs over USB? If so I must say I have never noticed this. Nothing on either my laptop or my desktop. Although I do have a pretty expensive PSU in my desktop - 600w Seasonic I think. The PC itself was made to be quiet, I have had noisy PCs in the past and I can't stand them. All the case fans are 120mm Noctua fans, 2 of them on the CPU heatsink too. I think my graphics card is my most noisy component.

I also just inherited a water cooled desktop with a 1200w Enermax PSU, will be curious if that makes a difference when I manage to get it shipped here :O

It's electrical interefernce through the system, sounds like a burbling sounds rather than a mains 50Hz related hum. The ground switch on the DAC makes USB usebale, without it I would have to use optical. It's very very quiet though, I can only hear it with my ears up agaisnt the tweeters with no music playing and the amp turned up to dangerous levels
 

skygoose

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I have not heard the noise of the psu, but when using my laptop I do get a lot of interference which is not their either through my desktop or ipad/camera connection kit. My laptop works perfectly fine and I don't hear any interference when using b&w mm1 speakers.

The problem I have is that, I have to in the main use headphones for my listening because I hear background noise (this has a very long name). Using headphones is the only way I can listen to the whole of the mix. This is why I hear noise interfere of some discription from my laptop because my hearing is very accute and 99% of the time I am using my grado's which will isolate any sound. The pc has a very high quality low noise psu because with my previous pc the only thing I could hear when it was turned on was the fan on the computer.

I have also realised that dbpoweramp is the best way to rip music. When I got my current system I listened to Laura Marling album and found that the recording I had a lot of hiss in the quiet passages. I lock onto that and it is very distracting. So I used this album as test album and found that dbpoweramp did not include any noise in the mix.

It has taken time but finally I have the sound that I crave. You do not need to go to spend lots of money on a pc, but before you buy decide what you need and speak to the people building it, otherwise use a mini mac which what I may do in the future. :beer:
 

Overdose

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skygoose said:
I have also realised that dbpoweramp is the best way to rip music. When I got my current system I listened to Laura Marling album and found that the recording I had a lot of hiss in the quiet passages. I lock onto that and it is very distracting. So I used this album as test album and found that dbpoweramp did not include any noise in the mix.

That's very interesting, not something I've noticed myself. I use open source software on Linux in the main, but have used iTunes recently. I might have a tinker to see if I can pick up any noise.
 

shadders

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Hi,

In Hifi News they review the downloads that are meant to be 96kHz 24bit etc., and many are resampled lower data rate or sampling rate data sources, or resampled from SACD.

The differences in your expectation of a 24bit 96kHz, or 192kHz sampled sound file to 16bit 44.1kHz may be due to this - essentially you are being short changed on the music quality.

Regard,

Richard.
 

SteveR750

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skygoose said:
I have also realised that dbpoweramp is the best way to rip music. When I got my current system I listened to Laura Marling album and found that the recording I had a lot of hiss in the quiet passages. I lock onto that and it is very distracting. So I used this album as test album and found that dbpoweramp did not include any noise in the mix.

Was the hissing on an alternative rip, or on the hissing on the original CD, but not the rip? If so, then it is far from lossless.
 

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