Does the source PC make any real difference?

[SteveR750]

Which is fine except one fundamental difference between CD transports and a PC or any streamer, the former has to read and error correct (ithink it was Cyrus that stated about 10% of the data is mis-read on even the best transport), a streamer has no such issue, it's a bit perfect file source. If the DAC can manage jitter well, then life's all rosy, however, I actually think that PCs can influence the sound because of interference, the question is whether it really does have an audible detraction. I'm sure it measurably does, but can you hear it. My room has orders of magnitude more influence over what I can or cannot hear than a -70dB main ripple.

 

[Cpt.Issues]

I connect the computer via TOSLINK to a Benchmark DAC1.

In theory fibre optic lead shouldn't be susceptible to electronic interferance and benchmark's 'phase-accurate ultralock' claims to be 100% jitter immune (isolated D/A clock etc). When in playback modes that pretty much bypass audio processing (WASPI) then I can't imagine the source PC making much difference?

Will try it at some point just out of interest though, can't say for certain otherwise!

 

[noogle]

The source PC makes a difference if it has noisy fans and disc drives. I've just got a fanless Quiet PC and its a thing of silent lovelyness. The obsessive in me would fit an SSD drive but TBH I can't hear the hard drive anyway.

As long as you don't rely on the PC's clocks (i.e. use an asynchronous DAC) and have galvanic/optical isolation on the data output, all will be well. A well-known computer audiophile site has extensive articles on bit-perfect software configuration.