I replied this to another post but thought I'd post for all to see as you might aswell all try it and see what you think.
This may go against the "audiophile rules" but try using your computer as a transport and take the digital outs off the sound card into your hifi's DAC. I have the T-1 and D-T1 combo and this sounds good.
I had read a few times in hifi news about the benafits of using a PC to replay digital audio. (This is only if you use something like Windac to copy the CD to your harddrive and then something like FooBar2k as a player). It all revolves around the way a computer handles data, it buffers it all then uses it. Im not 100% sure about the pros but its something like it gives a jitter free and perfect data stream with no errors to the dac. Anyway I tried this using a PC as the transport thru the D1 and the difference was clearly there the PC sounded better no arguement.
I copied strauss 4 last songs and some Ella Fitzgerrald and then played it for my mums consumption. When I make some simple minor changes to the hifi I can hear them and she cant. Basically she commented on how stupid the hifi industry is as the total PC cost £300 and the TEAC £550, but the PC clearly sounded that much better.
The best bit is that you all have PC's and most will have a digital out. FooBar2k and windac can be d/l for free so this little test doesnt cost you a penny. Oh and btw if u use the standard 3.5mm to phono lead you need to use the left channel (the white one plug) into the DAC or no sound will result or if that fails the right 😛. One other comment soundcards upsample everything to 48K then send it to the DAC. Soundblaster lives are shoddy upsamplers. FoorBar has a real time upsampler that uses your comps power to do this so the soundcard doesnt have to. One problem with this tho is it takes a reasonable ammount of power. The comp I use atm is a 300megahtz and cant do the upsample, the comp im typin on is 900 and can. But the 300 still sounds better then the T1 regardless of its "shoddy" upsampling.
This may go against the "audiophile rules" but try using your computer as a transport and take the digital outs off the sound card into your hifi's DAC. I have the T-1 and D-T1 combo and this sounds good.
I had read a few times in hifi news about the benafits of using a PC to replay digital audio. (This is only if you use something like Windac to copy the CD to your harddrive and then something like FooBar2k as a player). It all revolves around the way a computer handles data, it buffers it all then uses it. Im not 100% sure about the pros but its something like it gives a jitter free and perfect data stream with no errors to the dac. Anyway I tried this using a PC as the transport thru the D1 and the difference was clearly there the PC sounded better no arguement.
I copied strauss 4 last songs and some Ella Fitzgerrald and then played it for my mums consumption. When I make some simple minor changes to the hifi I can hear them and she cant. Basically she commented on how stupid the hifi industry is as the total PC cost £300 and the TEAC £550, but the PC clearly sounded that much better.
The best bit is that you all have PC's and most will have a digital out. FooBar2k and windac can be d/l for free so this little test doesnt cost you a penny. Oh and btw if u use the standard 3.5mm to phono lead you need to use the left channel (the white one plug) into the DAC or no sound will result or if that fails the right 😛. One other comment soundcards upsample everything to 48K then send it to the DAC. Soundblaster lives are shoddy upsamplers. FoorBar has a real time upsampler that uses your comps power to do this so the soundcard doesnt have to. One problem with this tho is it takes a reasonable ammount of power. The comp I use atm is a 300megahtz and cant do the upsample, the comp im typin on is 900 and can. But the 300 still sounds better then the T1 regardless of its "shoddy" upsampling.
Puhlease. The "sox" program has been around for 15 years and it converts any sampling rate to any other sampling rate, and is able to do so on ancient SPARCStation, no 900MHz peecees required. Upsampling in software uses FIR (or IIR) filters, just like the filters in hardware upsamplers or DSPs.
If your PC's digital output has less jitter than your CD player, that says a lot about the quality of your CD player but not much about the potential of your computer.
Finally, the soundblaster is not just a bad upsampler. It "upsamples" to 48kHz by doing a D/A conversion and resampling the result at 48kHz. Ew.
If your PC's digital output has less jitter than your CD player, that says a lot about the quality of your CD player but not much about the potential of your computer.
Finally, the soundblaster is not just a bad upsampler. It "upsamples" to 48kHz by doing a D/A conversion and resampling the result at 48kHz. Ew.
Whatever I dont understand the technical side of this all im doing is reproducing what ive read. This stuff I read is legitimate and not some hype. If you wanna flame it then go ahead all I know is that the T1 is a very good respected and well reviewed transport but the plain truth is that the PC sounds better then it. I dont know how sound blaster up samples. I dont even know whats involved with the SB card and outputing a digi signal. I would very much like to know however. I would have thought the SB just a condiut for transfering the Digital the PC uses out of the computer in an accessable fashion ie 3.5mm jack plug. And not that the SB does anythin with the signal appart from output it or upsample. Yes I would like to be able to turn off the upsample and output a 44.1k signal but am unaware of how to do this or even if it is possible.
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