pityerszer

Thank you for your recommendations regarding orientation. Actually I know Cardas Audio and I would love to rearrange my setup but I can't at the moment. But I will give it a try later just to check what I miss with this setup. One of the reasons why I decided to get the KEF Q300 was that it was told that it provided a really good soundstage even in the not optimal positioning... On the left we have big windows so I am afraid I could only use the curtains as sound absorbing material, do you think it will help? Also I checked that the tweeter was above my ear level by about 15cm (0.5 foot) while seated. Is this OK?

Bel Canto mLink seems to be really impressive but a bit too expensive for me. It also has BNC output like a model of hiFace Two. Would you recommend for me to choose a USB to SPDIF converter with BNC output instead of coax/optical? Sorry for my silly question: will I be able to connect it to HK3490? And how much does a decent BNC cable cost? Thank you Guido F. for your valuable recommendations! I have made a sketch about the location and orientation of speakers. I hope it is not as bad as possible… Squeezebox Touch is also another considerable option which also might be used together with hiFace described in John Darko's review. But I am afraid I cannot afford it at the moment. Eloise, I use EAC for ripping and Foobar2000 with WASAPI plug-in for playback but I will have a look the ones you listed. Also need to check whether the receiver has some room correction possibilities because I have not heard about it so far. I am glad you have suggested to get a USB-SPDIF converter instead of USB DAC (at least from my budget) because it means that the DAC integrated in the receiver is all right.

Thanks for your questions! First of all I would like to get rid of jitter as much as possible. Actually it is hard to say why I am not happy with my current system but I think I will never be satisfied with it... ;-) I would say the sound quality is not warm and lively and sometimes I don't feel the stereo soundstage enough. I mostly listen to all kinds of classical and rock music. The living room is 6x4m (20x13 feet) but unfortunately the orientation of speakers is not optimal (I cannot make it better at the moment). To reflect on Eloise's answer: Last time I listened to an audio CD played on my budget Pioneer DV-220V-K and it sounded better than the same music in FLAC. (The DVD player is connected via coax cable.) I would like to achieve at least the same quality on the computer because I don't have a big pile of CDs... so I am considering (b) if that makes an audible difference

hello! I have the following setup: - 'GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3H' motherboard with integrated 'Realtek ALC889A' HD Audio Codec (ALC889) - SPDIF-OUT supports 16/20/24-bit 32k/44.1k/48k/88.2k/96k/192kHz sample rate - 'harman/kardon HK 3490' stereo receiver with 'AKM AK4589' DAC but some people say it has 'AK4384'. (I am not sure but both included in the service manual) - 'KEF Q300' bookshelf speakers - optical toslink cable between desktop's sound card and receiver's digital input using the AKM DAC - as Realtek HD audio driver does not support 88.2kHz I use win7 default audio driver instead - Win7/x64, latest Foobar2000/WASAPI, with optimal settings, lossless/HD audio files I am thinking about an upgrade for a max.$200 budget in order to get better sound quality but still have the ability to play 192/24 (176.4kHz support would also be welcome): 1. replacing cheap cables to HQ cables 2. 'Gigabyte 12CR1-1SPINO-11R' SPDIF In And Out Audio HD Cable (cheap option) -> I could switch to digital coax from optical cable 3. USB-S/PDIF converter (hiface2, v-link192 etc.) -> asynchronous, class 2 USB might result superior audio quality -> I also might use coax cable on the other end -> I would still use HK's DAC -> I could have 176.4 support -> get rid of REALTEK 4. USB DAC -> asynchronous, class 2 USB might result superior audio quality -> DAC might result better audio quality compared to integrated HK's DAC -> get rid of REALTEK So my question is: which option or which combination of options would you recommend? Or do I have any better choice? Thank you in advance!