improving sound from laptop connected to amplifier via a usb sound card

[admin_exported]

i apologise for my inquiries, i am really confused regarding my hifi setup i hope you experts and audiophiles can suggest me best way to get most out of my setup

.

i listen to all kind of music.i listen to mostly 320 kpbs mp3's and Flac and some cd,s through wmp on my laptop.i have a creative usb sound card connected to my laptop which is connected to arcam avr250 via digital coax output.

i have B&W 603s2 as front channel.
i read that best sound quality is achieved via analogue stereo direct mode on av amp.
i tried analogue out from creative sound card as well through my laptop integrated sigmatel soundcard, it did seems to improve stereo imaging but was bright and noisy compared to digital out from creative. i sue good quality monster audio turbine rca
interconnect and profigold 0.5 metre
good quality coax cable so both cables are of comparable quality. i have my 603 s2 biamped by using extra rear sorround channels from my arcam with ixos 6006 cables.

i want to improve mid range clarity and sound stage and imaging would love it bass can be more punchy, and as its not as good as what i used to get on my old nad c312 with wharfedale evo 2. should i buy a DAC like arcam etc for improving the sound ofr any other suggestions?

i thought of buying a cd player but since my collection is mostly mp3s and flac it did not make sense for me

thanks in advance

Mav

 

[ESP2009]

How much are you willing to spend? The Cambridge DACMagic does it for me at under £230 but others may advise alternatives. Mind you, my DACMagic is there for both computer-based music and CDP, so you can argue £115 per medium.

 

[Anonymous]

how about arcam delta black box 5 DAC?

will it provide better sound, better stereo imaging, midrange etc compared to digital output from my creative sound blaster audigy?

also i am confused about onr thing, when i take the use the digital sound out from sound card and connect it to arcam avr 250.how is sound getting converted?

is it digital sound from laptop via usb >soundcard then no conversion in sound card > same digital sound from laptop to DAC in Arcam?

or some kind of conversion, sound quality enhancement/degradation happinf in my sound card?

if sound card is just acting as a medium and bypassing the sound then i can also use a toshlinkto coax convertor and pass digital sound directly from my laptop to Arcam.

also in all this where a arcam or DACmagic fits in? how will it improve the sound? sorry i am newbie and really confused about all this?

 

[idc]

A soundcard and a DAC both have digital to analogue converters in them. The sound card also performs other duties usually to with gaming and other computer sound, so arguably the audiophile is better with a DAC.

All computers have a soundcard inside them to produce sound from its own speakers and to send an analogue signal to any phono/mini-jack connections it may have. The sound card also processes the digital signal as different sources have different bits and so it will upsample/downsample as required, or not with some.

An off board soundcard takes that process out of the computer and away from its noisy electrical environment, which hepls with sound quality.

A DAC, such as the DACmagic either takes a digital signal from the PC by optical, coax or USB depending on what the PC has and does the converting. It deals only with sound and as it is built for that purpose is usually better again for sound quality.

Your AV amp will have a DAC in it as well if it can take a digital signal.

 

[ESP2009]

idc:

A DAC, such as the DACmagic either takes a digital signal from the PC by optical, coax or USB depending on what the PC has and does the converting. It deals only with sound and as it is built for that purpose is usually better again for sound quality.

As a point of clarification, is it true to say that if the signal from the PC is not as good as it could be, does the DAC have to do more work in conversion, with attendant risk of overall degradation? In other words: 'garbage in - garbage out'? Can the DAC only do so much to improve the quality? My logic says yes to this.

 

[idc]

A digital signal is 1s and 0s and if that goes wrong, the signal cuts out. I have read claims, but have not seen real evidence that 1s and 0s can be misread. But jitter is real and measurable. As well as 1s and 0s there is a 'tick' sent so that the timing of the signal is correct. That is the digital clock. The more accurate the clock, the better the timing, the lower the jitter.

The issue is how well the DAC copes with an out of time signal and/or matches its clock to that in the PC. Low jitter is supposed to correlate with better sound quality, though that is subjective. Since jitter can be down in the pico seconds, which is a million millionth of a second, there is also an argument as to whether we can really hear jitter or not.

My feeling is that the analogue signal leaving the DAC is more important that the digital signal that arrives for conversion.

 

[Anonymous]

idc:
A soundcard and a DAC both have digital to analogue converters in them. The sound card also performs other duties usually to with gaming and other computer sound, so arguably the audiophile is better with a DAC.

All computers have a soundcard inside them to produce sound from its own speakers and to send an analogue signal to any phono/mini-jack connections it may have. The sound card also processes the digital signal as different sources have different bits and so it will upsample/downsample as required, or not with some.

An off board soundcard takes that process out of the computer and away from its noisy electrical environment, which hepls with sound quality.

A DAC, such as the DACmagic either takes a digital signal from the PC by optical, coax or USB depending on what the PC has and does the converting. It deals only with sound and as it is built for that purpose is usually better again for sound quality.

Your AV amp will have a DAC in it as well if it can take a digital signal.

thanks a lot IDC and ESP2000

couple of thought have come in my mind after reading ' Your AV amp will have a DAC in it as well if it can take a
digital signal.'

I am outputting sound via creative sound blaster audigy external usb sound card to Arcam avr 250 via digital coax out from my sound card. in my laptop creative control panel, digital out is selected and creative decoder for dolby digital is disabled. also conversion rate is 16 bit , 96khz.all equalizers and sound effect of my sound card are off and i keep the volume at maximum.

i pay music via Windows media player

Am i right in assuming that the sound card is basically not being used, its just passing the digital sound from laptop to Arcam DAC's , thus resulting in best possible sound?

I am assuming that since laptops sound source is compressed 320 kpbs mp3's so the sound card is just passing it to DAC's of Arcam.

the dac in Arcam are ' Wolfson 24-bit 192kHz DAC's, stereo ADC and electronic volume controls'

so what can be done in improving sound in my setup ? will external Dac or a better sound card help.I also watch movies and since i use arcam decoder as i have bypassed creative sound card's, so i also need to know whether DAc will create any issues in that.I am sorry but i have never seen a external Dac before and have no idea about them

 

[nads]

what is the Laptop?

does it not have its own digi out? or is that why you are using the USB card?

if so the Dac Magic has a USB in and you can then lose the creative card.

 

[idc]

The sound card is often used as a converter for example; USB to optica,l to connect products that do not have the same connections. If you have the same type of cable going from PC to soundcard as soundcard to PC (which I think you do), then you do not need the soundcard.

Examples of an offboard DACs are the Cambridge DACmagic, Beresford, Musical Fidleity V-DAC and the Firestone Fubar USB DAC. Google and have a look.

Whether those DACs will improve on the one in the Arcam, I have no idea.

 

[Anonymous]

@ nads, i have Dell xps m2010 and alienware m17x. both have optical out via a minijack which can go iin , digital in , in my avr receiver

so back to same question.if i connect my laptop via a external DAC to analogue input of reciever will it produce better quality then laptop>sound card's digital out> digital in reciever

or laptop digital out> digital in of reciever

or laptop's usb> sound card digital out>dac>analogue of receiver

which one is best in these four

we have to also consider that DAC in Arcam as mentioned before might be quite good based on assumption that Arcam is well known for music so external DAC has to be better then that

 

[Anonymous]

thanks Nad, IDC for your help till now.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I doubt that the difference between the digital options will do much to get your wanted result. I'd stick to the direct dell optical output. Unless this is very jittery and worse than the creative card (if you mention the model some people may comment on the quality) so that the sound card will sound better. BTW, you mention 96k as a setting, I'd try to avoid upsampling by the sound card if the source is 44.1k cd quality. So pass on bitperfect signals to the dac is possible. The dac will do the upsampling for you.

I do have a free alternative suggestion for you to test: the SRS Audio Sandbox software, free demo download at the SRSlabs site. It does digital processing with quite remarkable results, unlike other DSP software I tried. Unfortunately it does not work with my USB DAC (only with headphone out of laptop), but it would work, I think, also with your internal or external sound card.

 

[Anonymous]

i set sampling rate to 44.1khz and immidietely sound improved!! thanks a lot Pete.

i am downloading the software as i type, any suggestions related to setting?

my sound card is basic Sound Blaster© Live!" 24-bit External.

amazon link is http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/product-description/B0009AHV8U/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=560798&s=electronics

 

[Anonymous]

I used the default setting for my headphone. Some of the other settings sounded pretty bad. Also some extreme settings for the sliders caused weird results. Iïd be interested to hear your findings!

 

[Anonymous]

jsut a thought regarding all the discussion of laptop internal card having more intereference and external card having less.if i am using digital out from both and sending it to DAC of arcam then in that case will an external sound card improve sound ?

 

[Anonymous]

i read review of dacmagic, it looks great and will replace sound card as well as if i use a stereo amplifer then it will be neccessary but since i am using DAC of Arcam which i read is good in itself.i am confused

my budget was never more then 100£ as i just invested on some cables and arcam.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Pete

unfortunately this softwares works only with integrated sound card.i am trying to make it work with my external sound card but till now no success.

my laptop is dell xps m2010 and i can get toslink/optical out thorugh a dell accessory which i already have.i would have checked the differecne in sound quality between digital ouut from laptop and from sound card but since i dont have 3.5 to toshlink convertor so i am stuck

 

[Anonymous]

OK, but it does work with the internal soundcard with optical out? If so, does using the SAS s/w improve the sound (you can easily switch it on/off when playing)?

 

[Anonymous]

for that comaprison i have t o buy3.5mm to toslink adapter as right now i have no option of trying t out

you use media monkey for playback, is it better then windows media player?

have you tried any Dac like fubar etc?

 

[Anonymous]

any expert out there who can answer the questions in topic