I am trying to figure out what to do for my setup. I want to just use the volume control on my PC and not use a pre--amp. Just have my DAC output the signal directly into the amp. I don't now what Inmput sensitivity means. It is 1V. Input impedance is 33.2K Ohms. Thanks for any help.
Hi suspencefull,
That's a low input impedance for an amp. You may be further ahead to plug the sound card straight in and use the volume control in the PC.
-Chris
That's a low input impedance for an amp. You may be further ahead to plug the sound card straight in and use the volume control in the PC.
-Chris
I was going to use digital out into a DAC and then output into amp. Wouldn't this be the same thing? It is a B&K amp. Thanks for any help.
Here is link :
http://www.bkcomp.com/pdf/8445 bkRef125.2 cutsht.1.0.2.pdf
Here is link :
http://www.bkcomp.com/pdf/8445 bkRef125.2 cutsht.1.0.2.pdf
Hi suspencefull,
I am at a loss trying to figure out what you want to end up with. The mixer, or volume utility in your computer should be able to adjust the volume just fine. I am not a fan of "passive preamps", and your impedances are a little low for that.
So what am i missing?
-Chris
I am at a loss trying to figure out what you want to end up with. The mixer, or volume utility in your computer should be able to adjust the volume just fine. I am not a fan of "passive preamps", and your impedances are a little low for that.
So what am i missing?
-Chris
I wanted to output digital(Coaxial)->DAC->Amp. I wanted to control the volume some way either with a Passive unit connected to the output of the DAC. Or control it from the volume control within the computer. Computer would be nicer because I wouldn't need anything. I didn't know if that was ideal or what.
With the lowish input impedance of your amp, just connect the two together and use the volume in the computer. IT's easy and will work better.
Don't go nuts on an amplifier. Most sound cards aren't that good.
-Chris
Don't go nuts on an amplifier. Most sound cards aren't that good.
-Chris
Hi suspencefull,
What do you plan to play? MP3's are not good. Reduced data rate wave files are not good. None of that stuff deserves a good dac.
Use a real CD player for good music. It is well worth the money to buy a good one. They are better in every way if you want quality.
-Chris
What do you plan to play? MP3's are not good. Reduced data rate wave files are not good. None of that stuff deserves a good dac.
Use a real CD player for good music. It is well worth the money to buy a good one. They are better in every way if you want quality.
-Chris
I, and many others, respectfully disagree. I'd much rather listen to a well organized computer music collection, all copied error free (something that can't be said for standalone CD players) with EAC or dBpoweramp, encoded losslessly into .FLAC.
It can be made superior both technically and in terms of convenience.
It can be made superior both technically and in terms of convenience.
I've had some experience driving ampliers directly from a sound card.
Fisdrt it is next to impossible to get useful spec from mosr sound card makers. That said, it is clear that sound cards are NOT preamps. In my case 10k input impedance resulted in sever distortion from the soundcard. Increasing the input impedancrey crude means, the distortion was cured somewhere between 30k-35k. I strongly suspect that different soundcards behave differently. If I were building something to be driven by a soundcard I would make the input impedance 47k-100k.
Fisdrt it is next to impossible to get useful spec from mosr sound card makers. That said, it is clear that sound cards are NOT preamps. In my case 10k input impedance resulted in sever distortion from the soundcard. Increasing the input impedancrey crude means, the distortion was cured somewhere between 30k-35k. I strongly suspect that different soundcards behave differently. If I were building something to be driven by a soundcard I would make the input impedance 47k-100k.
FLAC is a lossless format, in other words it compresses the data without changing the waveform, as opposed to MP3 etc which compress data by removing frequency components that are supposedly inaudible when removed.
You can find out more from http://flac.sourceforge.net
The weak point in most soundcards is the analogue stage and DAC - these are typically run from either a +5v source only, or rarely a +12/-12v source that is shared with the rest of the computer. There's a hell of a lot of noise to pick up in there.
Feeding a high quality DAC from a sound card pretty much eliminates this. There's still some gotcha's (such as the SBLive resampling everything unneccesarily) but generally it is as high a quality as if a cd player was used.
You can find out more from http://flac.sourceforge.net
The weak point in most soundcards is the analogue stage and DAC - these are typically run from either a +5v source only, or rarely a +12/-12v source that is shared with the rest of the computer. There's a hell of a lot of noise to pick up in there.
Feeding a high quality DAC from a sound card pretty much eliminates this. There's still some gotcha's (such as the SBLive resampling everything unneccesarily) but generally it is as high a quality as if a cd player was used.
Hi,
thankyou Jaycee for the explanation & the link.
I knew that lossless compression existed for computer data and for video (MLP- Meridian Lossless Packing), I had not realised it existed for audio.
Can a conventional CD be compressed without loss to be stored on a hard disc?
What is a typical compression rate for CD music?
Why do we have to pay full price (60p) for a lossy compressed MP3 track that contains about 10% of the data?
I would consider paying full price for a 24/192 lossless copy of a track and 10% of cost for a 10% of data copy.
thankyou Jaycee for the explanation & the link.
I knew that lossless compression existed for computer data and for video (MLP- Meridian Lossless Packing), I had not realised it existed for audio.
Can a conventional CD be compressed without loss to be stored on a hard disc?
What is a typical compression rate for CD music?
Why do we have to pay full price (60p) for a lossy compressed MP3 track that contains about 10% of the data?
I would consider paying full price for a 24/192 lossless copy of a track and 10% of cost for a 10% of data copy.
Depending which lossless format you use? It can compress anywhere to 50-65% from a wave files size. For a lot more info check out the hydrogenaudio.org.
Hi suspencefull,
It would seem to me that ripping your information from a CD may eliminate some of the errors that a normal CD player has to cope with. In that case an external dac is the way to go.
As sam9 pointed out. Impedances from the average sound card will force you to use an integrated amp or preamp / amp setup. I have found this to be an issue while attempting to use a sound card for measurements.
Tim_x,
It can take a long time to rip an error free copy from a CD. You are still left with the standard bit depth and sample rates. I vote for a stand alone, good CD player. I must say that my latest card, a Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic, sounds better. I am hoping for better amplifiers measurements.
-Chris
It would seem to me that ripping your information from a CD may eliminate some of the errors that a normal CD player has to cope with. In that case an external dac is the way to go.
As sam9 pointed out. Impedances from the average sound card will force you to use an integrated amp or preamp / amp setup. I have found this to be an issue while attempting to use a sound card for measurements.
Tim_x,
It can take a long time to rip an error free copy from a CD. You are still left with the standard bit depth and sample rates. I vote for a stand alone, good CD player. I must say that my latest card, a Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic, sounds better. I am hoping for better amplifiers measurements.
-Chris
Sorry, I may still be a bit drunk from last night, but I think you guys are posting needlessly. This guy wants to use his computer to run the sound. No problem. I have a cheap compaq computer that does this perfectly. I have even plugged a speaker strait into the speaker out of the computer and it makes a bit of noise and not that horible of a noise. I don't know why you people are saying that like 33K is hard for a soundcard to run into. Maybe mine is alittle different but it doesn't have to hard of a time running into 8 ohm speakers. And its not like I am stupid. I know what distortion is. I have been into music since the day I was born, played in actual orchastrated bands and the like.
Hi davidallancole,
The sound card can drive a 33K load. A volume control would have that impedance in parallel to it's wiper, transforming the log taper into something not log.
I did recommend running the card's output directly into the amplifier. However the use is not common and suspencefull is attempting to get the highest sound quality possible.
Have another drink! 😉
-Chris
The sound card can drive a 33K load. A volume control would have that impedance in parallel to it's wiper, transforming the log taper into something not log.
I did recommend running the card's output directly into the amplifier. However the use is not common and suspencefull is attempting to get the highest sound quality possible.
Have another drink! 😉
-Chris
Lol. I will get the DAC and see how it does directly into the amp controlled by the volume on the computer. I guess if it does it work I will use a pre-amp.
Hi,
when a PC is adjusting the volume using the vol icon, what is it doing?
It cannot be an analogue attenuation, or could it? Stepped attenuator using a bank of sil resistors. No, I think not.
I suspect it is a digital attenuator top slicing the bits off the signal and rapidly reducing the bit depth from a maximum (16bit?) to much lower.
Can anyone confirm? ?bits in the sound channel of a PC and in the soundcard?
What happens to the sound quality if the remaining bit depth is only 8bits @ the volume that one wants to listen?
when a PC is adjusting the volume using the vol icon, what is it doing?
It cannot be an analogue attenuation, or could it? Stepped attenuator using a bank of sil resistors. No, I think not.
I suspect it is a digital attenuator top slicing the bits off the signal and rapidly reducing the bit depth from a maximum (16bit?) to much lower.
Can anyone confirm? ?bits in the sound channel of a PC and in the soundcard?
What happens to the sound quality if the remaining bit depth is only 8bits @ the volume that one wants to listen?
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