Hi,
Over the last year or so ago, I have moved away from listening to CDs to now listening to ripped CDs and high quality music downloads. I appreciate good sounding music. Where I struggle is with the technical set up! I have a few questions which I would be greatly appreciative if you could guide me.
I’ve recently invested in a DAC player (an irDAC made by ARCAM). I connect the DAC to my laptop (running Windows 7) using a high quality USB cable.
At the moment, all my music files are stored on the hard drive of my laptop. Over time, I will transfer these to an external hard drive storage device. I use Foobar200 as my preferred audio player.
Here are the question/s I have:
When playing music (using foobar2000) from my laptop connected to the DAC, are my laptop’s sound card / drivers (I’m not even sure it’s got a sound card, all it says is that is has an IDT High Definition Audio CODEC) being used? Or is the music being bypassed from the IDT High Definition Audio CODEC and straight to the DAC (which I assume has a sound card?).
If my understanding is incorrect, and the sound in fact does go via the laptops soundcard / driver set-up, what would be the best way to upgrade the music prior to it getting to the DAC? I’ve read that the soundcards / drivers on standard laptop are not much cop! I guess if the sound does not go via the soundcard / driver this question is obsolete.
I am concerned that I’ve invested money on the DAC and USB etc and the sound quality is being let down due to the hardware on the laptop. Is there anything else I can do that will improve my current set up?
Thanks in advance
Over the last year or so ago, I have moved away from listening to CDs to now listening to ripped CDs and high quality music downloads. I appreciate good sounding music. Where I struggle is with the technical set up! I have a few questions which I would be greatly appreciative if you could guide me.
I’ve recently invested in a DAC player (an irDAC made by ARCAM). I connect the DAC to my laptop (running Windows 7) using a high quality USB cable.
At the moment, all my music files are stored on the hard drive of my laptop. Over time, I will transfer these to an external hard drive storage device. I use Foobar200 as my preferred audio player.
Here are the question/s I have:
When playing music (using foobar2000) from my laptop connected to the DAC, are my laptop’s sound card / drivers (I’m not even sure it’s got a sound card, all it says is that is has an IDT High Definition Audio CODEC) being used? Or is the music being bypassed from the IDT High Definition Audio CODEC and straight to the DAC (which I assume has a sound card?).
If my understanding is incorrect, and the sound in fact does go via the laptops soundcard / driver set-up, what would be the best way to upgrade the music prior to it getting to the DAC? I’ve read that the soundcards / drivers on standard laptop are not much cop! I guess if the sound does not go via the soundcard / driver this question is obsolete.
I am concerned that I’ve invested money on the DAC and USB etc and the sound quality is being let down due to the hardware on the laptop. Is there anything else I can do that will improve my current set up?
Thanks in advance
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