PC audio the future?

[Bas Horneman]

So who else is interested in PC audio (maybe a better name should be hard disk audio?) ....very few if you count the posts here at diyAudio? I guess that those interested in PC audio are frequenting other boards?

I'm going to build a USB -> SPDIF converter to see if there is any promise in the PC Audio realm.

Anyone else looking into the phenomena?

[dhaen]

Well Bas, I prefer the term "Computer Audio" 'cos I'm doing it Mac based There is definate promise, although it's not always plain sailing.
From a noise point of view, I think external DAC's are probably the way to go, unless you can afford one of the professional audio cards with balanced I/O. We have had a couple of threads for USB DAC's using TI chips.

This thread has a post describing my system, and some discussion of sound card merits.

[Bas Horneman]

think external DAC's are probably the way to go

I think so to. Spdif and/or the synchronous retrieval of data (vinyl has this same problem) is one of the biggest things to hold back digital audio is my perception.....PC audio has the capability to overcome this problem.


Word out on the street is that no stand alone transport can compete with a computer based solution on a performance for your euro/dollar basis. Although at this early stage there are too many variables still. There aren't too many USB dacs around. But there are even reports that USB to SPDIF conversion from computer based audio has advantages over the traditional transport.

[dhaen]

Personally I'm not fond of USB as a an interface. It seems to be the first thing that's "put on hold" when the processor gets a bit busy, which of course it unacceptable for audio. Whether it can be given priority as a background process, I don't know, or maybe bigger buffers are the answer. My M-Audio DAC is USB and works really well with some computers, but less well with others.... There are Firewire versions that may be better. I wish I'd gone the whole hog and got one of those.

There are a lot of devices out there that turn TCP/IP into audio. I use one in my lounge for wireless connection. It sounds pretty good to me, and never runs out of data. No doubt there are those who could improve it. I do have a mind to try it with an external DAC, but the connection would be optical. That seems to have a worse reputation than SPDIF.

[ThorstenL]

Konnichiwa,

Originally posted by Bas Horneman
So who else is interested in PC audio (maybe a better name should be hard disk audio?) ....very few if you count the posts here at diyAudio? I guess that those interested in PC audio are frequenting other boards?

I am for one interested, but the problems are many.

In my view the best choice would be a Digital I/O (S/P-DIF) card that can operate fully duplex. Then a custom driver for Linux (or maybe even Windoze) could be written with a suitable main memory buffer build in (several MB) which syncronises the S/P-DIF output clock to the incoming S/P-DIF clock if it is sufficiently in range of the originals sample rate.

Ideally use optical connections to kill any earth loops.

Then you need a box that contains a re-clocker (for the S/P-DIF Signal) and can produce suitable sample rate clocks. Given that you can include the source sample rate in the S/P-DIF Headers you could arrange a system where a PIC first checks the incomming sample rate, then selects the neccesary clock to send up and sends back the clock to the PC with the sample rate also in the header, so with with first incoming blockheader of the correct sample rate the software knows to switch into "sync" mode.

The alternative (for a CD only system) would be to fix yourself to 44.1KHz sample rate, which means you can force the sync on permanently.

At any extent, you should be able to get a near perfectly jitter free electrical S/P-DIF output from a fairly small box. For the most basic design you just need a 44.1KHz S/P-DIF transmitter, a suitable clock and a simple re-clock circuit and TORX Receiver and Transmitter.

Now the software platform I'd find ideal for a transport type device would be Linux and ideally we have an asyncronous DAE Mode (CD/DVD) Drive which will automatically "rip" the data transparently to HD when the CD is first played (and plays asyncronous with multiple reads), afterwards, whenever a CD already in the library is inserted it simply plays it from HD. A suitable database system including CDDB connection to download the Tracklists etc. should sit on top of course.

How does that sound?

Sayonara

[Bas Horneman]

How does that sound?

http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/zero-one_e.html

There's a pc running linux in there..

Sounds like these guys are halfway there...although they prefer the I2S link to their dac.

[ShinOBIWAN]

Another fan here!

In fact I have no other sources except the PC, I use it for everything, CD's, MP3's, 5.1 etc.

I did use to have a Pioneer 737 DVD player for movies and an Arcam CD93 spinner but ditched these very soon after discovering high-end PC audio.

I now use an RME HDSP 9632 with the 6 channel input and output draughterboards. Bit perfect playback using ASIO is a delight and 5.1 is fantastic through TheaterTek 2 with onboard decoding.

I've never heard anything that sounds as good with digital.

[earsandeyes]

this is a commercial product
http://www.6moons.com/lettersfeedbac...eedback_9.html
somewhere half the page
check the answer to the reply of marja en henk to the message of Cass Fisher

It is costing an odd 100 USD and EURO including lots of cable

E&E

[ThorstenL]

Konnichiwa,

Originally posted by earsandeyes
this is a commercial product
http://www.6moons.com/lettersfeedbac...eedback_9.html
somewhere half the page
check the answer to the reply of marja en henk to the message of Cass Fisher

It is costing an odd 100 USD and EURO including lots of cable

The Xitel (they have various external gizmo's), not such a great choice I should think.

http://www.xitel.com/product_phfl.htm

Sayonara

[earsandeyes]

I don't have experience with the product.
"Marja en Henk" did a review on EAC (Exact Audio Copy) that came very close to my own experience with copying CD's.

It gives me some trust in their observations.

E&E