Computer based Hifi

[Theo404]

An old tbred machine running a bare command line install of ubuntu jaunty with the latest realtime kernel. Music player daemon decoding eac ripped flac files to brutefir, which runs crossovers, phase correction and eq, outputing straight via alsa (hw:x,x) to the P16V chip (24/94 capable, no hardware resampling) of an Audigy 2 ZS (old yes, but your $200 dollars used to buy you something) with output opamps replaced with LM4562s and removed 'pop/click' stopping circuits...

Eq and phase correction perfected using a combination of holmimpulse & denis sbragions measuring tools and a linkwitz modded panasonic wm61a mic...

Crossovers made with an old tool from uli, 3 way 10th order...


Sounds truly amazing.

I urge anyone plodding along with windows to go out and find a redundant old PC and start playing with the magic that linux audio has to offer...

[Theo404]

Originally posted by 5th element
I use PC audio exclusively as my source. I've got a M Audio Revolution 7.1 card that I take the I2S lines from . I then feed the I2S into a PCM1794 + THS4031 as I/V and OPA627, the PCB sits in the bottom of my PC.

It sounds fantastic and I highly recommend this approach.

Got any more details on that? Have thought about doing this with my audigys a few times...


Cheers

[Wavebourn]

I keep PC in my barn, then feed RGB video from it to the living room, and an audio via couple of audio transformers.
Microsoft remote keyboard and mouse has low sensitivity, so I had to bring USB radio device to the living room hiding it behind the stand.

[tomcat9]

All my music is stored as FLAC files, 16 and 24 bit. Here is what I use to play them:

WD Passport HD 500GB > WDTV > Monarchy DIP > Musical Fidelity DAC > preamp, and so on.

I like this a lot.

[lowtherdream]

Did anybody try the Asus Xonar Essence sound card ? The specs are very interesting PCM1792A DAC

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_I...K2f&templete=2

[audionut]

i'm experimenting with a hard drive based system on windows xp ripping with EAC and playing back with foobar connected by usb to a doede duama 1543 mark II dac...

sounds pretty good to me

[scott wurcer]

Originally posted by Theo404
I urge anyone plodding along with windows to go out and find a redundant old PC and start playing with the magic that linux audio has to offer...

Well said. It shocks me totally that on a DIY forum of so many smart people there is so much support for platforms and OS's that actively prevent any access to the underlying hardware that your money has paid for. Maybe when MS and Apple both make hardware watermarking built in with no work arounds people will get upset.

[Wavebourn]

I use CentOS. It is free.

[RocketScientist]

I use a Benchmark DAC 1 Pre connected to my PC. It's not only one of the best performing DACs money can buy (and even the Golden Ear tweak audiophile press loves it) but it also has a flawless headphone amp for high quality headphone listening. Unlike many USB DACs it has a high quality analog volume control (versus no volume control or a digital one that loses lots of resolution at anything but full volume). So you can directly feed a power amp (or powered monitor speakers) with it.

The only downside is the price. But it's still much cheaper than lots of high-end esoteric audio gear including lots of DACs. I've done blind comparisons between it and several other products. And it's clearly an audible improvement over most. In a showdown with the roughly twice-as-expensive Bel Canto 3 it was a tie using S/PDIF and the Benchmark sounded clearly better than the Bel Canto via USB.

For anyone curious, download a copy of the manual and you'll find a dozen or more pages of Audio Precision data showing in great detail how it performs--even with very high amounts of input jitter. Independent reviews have verified the measurements. I've never seen anything that even comes close. John Siau at Benchmark seems to know how to do digital and analog right.

It's also worth noting Benchmark has a tech paper on gettin bit accurate playback under Windows and OS X. It turns out OS X can have some serious problems. Using Foobar 2000 under Windows is bulletproof.

[Wavebourn]

Speaking of hardware, I am still satisfied by old good Tascam US-122.