Getting High-Quality Audio From a PC

audiophile writes "Just because it's a PC doesn't mean it can't output good-sounding audio. In the same vein as specialty A/V products, you can find PC-based A/V systems with extensive audio processing and step-up performance specifications, including Signal-to-Noise ratio, which can make a significant difference when using the analog outputs. Media center manufacturer Niveus shares tips for getting high-quality audio from a PC."

Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro works GREAT!

[jlseagull]

It's a USB audio card the size of a thumb drive. Its ground is completely isolated from the computer, and as such it is dead quiet - this is especially great in laptops. I have Shure e3 headphones and if you ran them directly into my laptop you'd hear clicks and pops as the HDD was operating.

Here's a link:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2 788 [notebookreview.com]

The TBAAM is pretty much the best value upgrade for a laptop's audio out.

Source + DAC + Amp +Speaker

[sebol]

You have to remember, when it come to "high-end" audio, logic has no place. "High-end" audio lives by a very simple rule - more expensive the gadget, the better - it does not matter if makes sense or if it really even make things better (because it is all about psychology and not physics), the cost of the gadget is what matters.

In my oppinion, Source + DAC + Amp +Speaker ar important to determine audio quality.
if we know sound card contained with very poor DAC, dont let PC doing the DAC job.
so that's why i strongly suggest just get optical spdif from computer.

in my real life situation, my macmini (with flac & alac audio) spdif to yamaha amp, the B&W speaker.
it sound just great.

Re:Actually it's pretty easy..

[mrjb]

Audigy 2 and other EMU10k1 chipsets are locked to 48khz internally, which has caused me a lot of grief when wanting to play back stuff at other rates. If you're playing back 48k exclusively this is fine, otherwise better get a soundcard that supports the different sample rates of your choice natively.

Re:Source + DAC + Amp +Speaker

[TPJ-Basin]

Try the DAC [headphone.com] from HeadRoom. They're an outstanding company. I first purchased from them probably 10+ years ago and have used them 4 or 5 times since. They're good folks and make outstanding products.

Just get one of these

[locarecords.com]

Why would you bother? Makes a lot more sense to get one of these and output to whatever you need... RME Fireface [rme-audio.com]

Re:My answer

[Lumpy]

unfortunately your answer is wrong though. Most high end sound cards are PCI. 24 channel recording cards for pro tools do a GREAT job at rejecting and shielding against PC noises.

these guys have been doing this for quite a while now. and if you only want "good audio" from a pc for your hom theater, get something with spdif and toslink and call it done. Let a high end reciever/processor do the work converting the AC3 track to analog instead of the garbage consumer level PC audio cards.

Re:MP3

[dal20402]

99% of music is indistinguishable from CD in 256kbps AAC (I don't have many 256k MP3s).

But some waveforms are just too hard to compress. In particular, harpsichords, solo classical string instruments, and solo electric guitar (through some filters) start to sound strange even at 256k.

A good but not foolproof way to figure out what is going to be troublesome to compress is to compress it losslessly using FLAC or ALAC and look at the resulting mean bitrate. Most stuff that compresses to between 400-600kbps, which is most music, will be fine at 256k. Some of my music, though, exceeds 900kbps lossless, and I even have a couple tracks over 1000kbps (where uncompressed PCM = 1411kbps). In all cases this stuff sounds like crap compressed to 256k. The harpsichords, in particular, sound harsh and flat, since the exceedingly complex waveform they make just can't all fit.

For me, it doesn't matter in the end, since I rip everything losslessly and then compress it for the car or the iPod where sound quality really doesn't matter anyway. But some people may not want to use hundreds of GBs of disk space or may have more music. For them, strategic ripping is in order.

Re:Age considerations?

[Kadin2048]

To be perfectly honest, except in cars that are really well-insulated from the outside world, most of the quality on a CD or a decently-encoded digital file is going to be lost.

If your threshold for music listening is around 95 dB (which is only safe for 4 hrs/day anyway), and the road noise in the car at highway speeds is 60-75dB (the latter is allegedly the figure for my car as-built, a VW GTI, from an auto magazine) then you only have at most 35dB between the noise floor and max while driving.

That's already worse than most cassette tapes, particularly decent ones with Dolby NR. (I don't think they even sell the metal tapes anymore, but my recollection is that they were 30+ dB right out of the package without any noise reduction at all.)

In a way, it explains why so much popular music and FM radio is compressed: there's no reason to offer more than 40dB of dynamic range, because (assuming your listeners don't turn it up to unsafe/painful volumes) they'll never hear the quiet parts because of all the noise in the listening environment.

Frankly, I think the biggest single thing you can do, in terms of improving the sound system in your car, is to install a lot of Dynamat or other sound-insulating material. Most car stereos, even the factory ones, have far more resolution than you'll hear except when sitting in a parking lot. If you can drop that noise floor even 5dB, you'll get that much more "loudness" out of your stereo without upping the volume to dangerous levels.

public service announcement

[fred fleenblat]

not to be a downer, but the #1 thing is to protect your ears.

* keep the volume down, whether speakers or headphones
* be careful of occupational noise...use foam earplugs or over-the-ear mufflers, make your employer pay for them and make sure your co-workers know about hearing damage too
* stay away from loud concerts, parties, dance halls
* get your hearing checked every couple of years by an audiologist
* don't overdo the drugs, booze, or caffiene
* if you are exposed to even moderately high sound levels, let your ears rest for a couple weeks before exposing them again. do not *ever* go to two rock concerts in the same weekend
* at the first sign of infection or fluid buildup, see a doctor
* hearing loss can be instantaneous and permanent, don't risk it

All the megabits and SNR in the world won't help if your nerve cells and eardrums are making little buzzes, whines, and clicking noises. You can buy a better sound card or nicer speakers but you cannot replace damaged hearing: PROTECT IT

Re:Nice, just wish I could afford the equipment...

[the_lesser_gatsby]

The M-Audio 2496 is pretty cheap and has excellent ADC/DAC and not bad op-amps. It gives a very nice line-out into a hifi (I run my through a Quad 303 for monitoring on my desktop).

For the ultimate hifi upgrade, get a Benchmark DAC and run it from the SPDIF of the M-Audio. Superb audio quality.

Re:I keep the analogue audio out of the computer

[radish]

I pipe FLAC over wifi (how's that for electrical isolation!) to a Slimdevices Transporter [slimdevices.com] and from there to the amp with a regular analogue hookup. The sound is amazing, the DAC in that thing is a work of art.

I have a question - why are you resampling to 24/192? If your source is 16/44 you're not going to improve anything by resampling...and that ratio is potentially going to lead to degredation (192 is not an integer multiple of 44).

Re:Nice, just wish I could afford the equipment...

[MrHanky]

M-Audio is well supported by ALSA. Sauce [alsa-project.org].

Yes...my biggest upgrade was dumping my Audigy

[Scrith]

I didn't really know any better until I tried something else. The sound quality from the Audigy sound cards is simply awful thanks to the terrible sample rate conversion they do from 44K (music from CDs should play at this rate) to 48K.

Re:Lynx Studio: 200K samples/sec @ 24/bits per sam

[Anonymous Coward]

I own a Lynx L22. These audio cards are about as good as you can get for something that lives inside the PC. I have actually used my L22 inputs as an FM baseband spectrum analyzer. (FM baseband goes to 100kHz and so if I run the L22 at 200kHz and do a big 'ol FFT on that, well, there you have it :)

As to questioning the high sample rates for normal audio use (the real reason I bought the card) what I can tell you is this: many people report that the 192kHz converters sound significantly better than older generations of converters BUT they sould better even when running at "normal" (44.1) sample rates! In other words, the higher sample rate is probably meaningless (frequencies beyond human hearing) but the converters have also improved within the range of human hearing. Also, in the case of the Lynx L22, it is not just the high end ADC and DAC chips but the rest of the circuity on those cards that results in excellent audio quality. Go take a look at the pictures of the L22 PCB - it is a very high quality design.