Use of PC in high-end audio?

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ashok

ashok

Member
Joined 2002
Waveterminal 192L

Hi,
I think the Waveterminal 192L also deserves mention. It also does 24/96 K AD and DA and 24/192K DA.
What I really like is the large size plugs - 5.5 mm as compared to the usual 3mm mini size plugs in most PC sound cards. I always found the smaller plugs to be unreliable.
The card is about US$149/-.
You also get an adaptor for SPDIF in/out etc. for US$50/-.
Cheers,
Ashok.
 
F

fmak

Member
Joined 2001
The Terratec Aureon cards are very similar, but have better analog specs and are only ~$20 more expensive. [/B][/QUOTE]
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The 2 channel EWX2496 is about the same price as Maudio, cutprice in UK.
 
F

fmak

Member
Joined 2001
fmak said:
The Terratec Aureon cards are very similar, but have better analog specs and are only ~$20 more expensive.
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The 2 channel EWX2496 is about the same price as Maudio, cutprice in UK. [/B][/QUOTE]

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One other thought. MAudio or Terratec can hardly be called high end audio! Not even RME.
 
Pjotr

Pjotr

Member
Joined 2002
fmak said:
One other thought. MAudio or Terratec can hardly be called high end audio! Not even RME.
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What are you considering “High-End” then? A professional studio DAC of around 10k $ connected to a S/PDIF out?

There is not much to worry about noise from your main board. There is more noise entering your external cables. I am using a M-Audio Audiophle 2496 en it sounds really good. If you want, you can plug in better op-amps and add some extra power supply filtering. Attached a loop though measurement at 44.1 kHz. At top the Soundblaster Live en below is the M-Audio Audiophile.

Cheers ;)
 

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M

MWP

Member
Joined 2002
Not anything that uses poor opamps, inadequate power supplies, and cheap adcs and dacs. Certainly not Terratec or MAudio [/B]
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No PC soundcard is going to give high quality analog line-out's... it just aint going to happen with the environment they are in.
So ill agree with you there.

But, for SPDIF out, the Envy24HT cards are amoung the best anywhere... hence why ill use one.
 
Silver Stealth

Silver Stealth

Member
Joined 2002
There's been some good discussion about PCI cards, which is cool, but what about the rest of the system? What bits do you need to build up a minimalist PC system with say a 180GB HDD, touchscreen and motherboard incl SPDIF to interface to your DAC. What are your recommendations? House it in a perspex box and sounds like a pretty cool project to get onto...the high end ones are about $10k, this could be built for way less...you could also make a much nicer PSU to get away from the noise issues well known of in PCs...

Post your thoughts! :bigeyes:
 
joeling39

joeling39

Member
Joined 2002
Audio Computer

Hi,

I am in the process of building an audio computer :

Hardware :

1) VIA ME6000 fanless motherboard
2) 160GB hdd Seagate Barracuda
3) 256MB RAM
4) Mini-itx case with integrated power supply (similar to the notebook type i.e. no fan but limited to 60W)
5) Slim CD ROM drive
6) RME DIGI8/96 PAD sound card
7) 7" LCD touch screen

Software :

1) Windows XP pro
2) EAC
3) Foobar2000

The intention here is to create a PC that can replace the CD transport. It will only be used for 2 channel CD quality audio (uncompressed WAV files). With 160GB of hdd space, I anticipate I can probably store 3500 songs (assume 20GB taken up by OS etc.)

Any thoughts ?

Regards,
Joe Ling
 
Pjotr

Pjotr

Member
Joined 2002
fmak said:
I have not heard this one but it uses processors up to 2.4GHz. Try silencing the fan(s)!

The sad fact is:

What computer manufacturers say is low noise IS actually high noise to audiophiles.
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Hey not so fast fmak,

First look a bit closer at the thing please, it uses an external fanless PSU. And if the small internal fan still makes too much noise we are here at diyaudio to mod it and add something like an external heatsink and/or plumbing some heatpipes in it.

But if u want to build you own bare bone, go ahead. Curious with what you will come up.

Cheers
 
A

AndersZ

Member
Joined 2003
t.kth.se/andzak54
Any thoughts ?
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Joe Ling: Sounds like a good plan if you only plan to use it for two channel audio. I'm currently building my pc based HT transport/processor and I started off with a M-10000 MB, but it was way to slow to even show a dvd correctly (it had issues with overlay as well) so I changed it for a mini-ATX MB with athlon cpu and agp slot (now filled with a 9200 radeon).

A friend bought my M-10000 to replace his ME-6000 used in an audio-only application (live performances with propellerhead reason). The ME-6000 works well with .wav files but nothing more!

If you use the integrated PSU why not use a regulated 12V toroid supply instead of the standard black box?

I've bought the components for my own toroid based ATX PSU that I will deal with as soon as my OB speakers are finished.

Take a look at my webpage if you want to see how I've set up my computer and the components chosen.

Anders
 
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