audio cd

[trekker]

Hi all members.

This is my first post on this site and I hope I am in the right section,

I have an old sony HI-fi system for playing LP's and CD's etc. My aim is to record LP's to my PC and also rip or play the CD's from the PC and put the Hi-fi system way.

I am recording the LP's and playing them back through the Hi-fi speakers satisfactorily, the CD's I was hoping to play from the PC CD/DVD drive or rip to file and play. But, the quality is no good. If I record the CD's from the Hi-fi CD player to the PC, then the file plays back ok. So the question is, how do I get better quality from my PC drive. Upgrade or ...........?

Once this problem is solved my next step would be to upgrade my PC speakers or use a DAC etc. but first of all I need some idea of the wattage for a 15' x 30' room.

 

[Overdose]

For a 'DAC' I would recommend a USB audio interface. The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 would be an example. Roland/Cakewalk UA-25EXs come up for sale on the bay occasionally and are also very good.

The natural step from there is to a pair of active monitors.

 

[trekker]

Thanks for the recommendation, but it still means using my pc dvd drive which is giving poor audio quality. Will give it some consideration later

 

[abacus]

Your PC drive just outputs a digital data stream the same as your CD player and has no bearing on the sound quality unless it is so worn that the disc skips or data discs are not read correctly.

My guess is you are using the on-board sound chip (Cheap & Nasty) to convert to audio hence the lack of quality.

If the problem occurs with ripped discs, then make sure you are ripping them into a lossless format.

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[philbirch]

Your CD-ROM drive might actually be outputting its own analogue audio. There is sometimes a cable that connects the cd drive to the sound card directly. This could explain your poor sound. You need to use a Digital Audio Extraction capable media player - this will extract the music digitally from the drive.

 

[MajorFubar]

Your CD-ROM drive might actually be outputting its own analogue audio. There is sometimes a cable that connects the cd drive to the sound card directly. This could explain your poor sound. You need to use a Digital Audio Extraction capable media player - this will extract the music digitally from the drive.

^^^This. Trekker, when you say you're recording from the PC's CD ROM drive, hopefully you don't mean literally playing the CD back in real time from the drive and somehow recording it. This method will sound pants and if you've got a large CD collection it will take you the rest of your life to record, split and tag all your CDs. You need to 'rip' them (ie digitally extract the audio from the CDs) using Windows Media Player (etc) as WAV or MP3 etc.

 

[trekker]

Sorry about the delay in acknowledging your comments, but been away for along weekend.

I have now played and ripped the cd with various software options and have good sound. I changed both my media player and cd ripper, now using WM Player. The next step is to look at DAC's and amplifiers, this is where I need more help. At present I play back thro' to my HIfi amplifier, so why do I need a DAC? Will a seperate amplifier do the job?

 

[MajorFubar]

Hi Trekker, the DAC does not perform the job of an amp, it converts the digital data to audio. You still need to plug the DAC into an amp. You don't really 'need' an external DAC, it's a desirable item because most computers come with lousy built-in sound-cards which really don't sound very good. But that's generalising of course: the DAC in my Mac Mini is quite good even though I use the computer with an external DAC (HRT II+), but the one in my old Windows laptop was bloody awful, and that's putting it mildly.

 

[trekker]

Thanks MajorFUbar, that makes it really clear, my PC has a seperate Realtek sound card. As I am in no great hurry and am trying to gain a better idea how to put a system together, I shall start by looking at amplifiers and connecting 2 sets of speakers (different rooms) via a 2way speaker switch.

 

[The_Lhc]

Thanks MajorFUbar, that makes it really clear, my PC has a seperate Realtek sound card. As I am in no great hurry and am trying to gain a better idea how to put a system together, I shall start by looking at amplifiers and connecting 2 sets of speakers (different rooms) via a 2way speaker switch.

You could just get an amplifier with two sets of speaker outputs, that would save the trouble of having to use a switch.