Larry2B

Good timing with your post John , I have just received the JPlay JCat battery PSU (made by Bakoon for JPlay) and agree with you. It can be difficult to choose what hardware path to take, it took time to decide. I ended up buying the JCat sata cable for my SSD and the JPlay USB card last year, good improvements in removing noise and in getting more clear and analoge sound. The new 5V battery PSU has a dual cable for both SSD and the USB card, plus it has a smart internal system with 2 batteries that do shifts, one in use the other recharge. So music all day long by battery. In my setup the PSU gave more full body sound and better attack. Also sounds better to play music from USB stick in the JPlay card than directly from SSD with the OS. Not cheap but if you have the money the JPlay JCat trio is a nice upgrade. Next up I think is a quality ethernet cable, maybe Wireworlds new Starlight CAT7a, we´ll see .

Okay cool, I have just used Fidelizer 5.0 in extreme mode to gain the best quality from the OS, but will read about the settings. I use a Calyx DAC with asio driver, so no wasapi, but I get your point. Last night I went to a Linn silver RCA on my Dac and it made change in sound too. Smaller soundstage but more clear sound from top to bottom. So tuning can be made many places, but of cause you have to get the core setting right. We should have a beginners guide to basic setup for good standard sound at this site, both for Windows 7 + 8.1, it´s kind of a jungle. A small ajustment could make a big change for the better.

Well, days of listening with Windows 7 as OS makes it clear all is not perfect. Sound stage is much better than Win 8, but midrange is kind of muffled and thick with the vocals. Turning back to Win 7 was great at first, but with headphones and Audioquest cables things are a bit too smooth for my liking. So try out which one you like the most, synergy is always hard to figure out. Me myself I´m buying an Auralic DAC + headamp in the next weeks. Should make things much more clear and tight, we´ll see.

I have been sitting on the fence about going back to Win 7 premium, but the new 800mb service pack for Win 8.1 induced even more noise and distortion in my PC sound wise, so I´m finally back with 7 and it sounds great. Can´t believe I waited so long. The problem must be something about all those programs working in the background of 8.1, Fidelizer 5.0 could stop some of them, but it´s helpless against the new updated hybrid Windows monster. Strange not more people have complained about it, maybe it´s a setup thing or people just don´t know what they miss out on.

Well, in the end I went with the JPlay JCAT Sata cable (in sata 2 port) and it made a nice difference with more clear and clean sound because of less noise, but still a pretty expensive cable true. The big jump up in quality though came with the JCAT USB card, really a great improvement, much more organic and bigger sound + black background. But I think you have to analyse what road is best for you in the long run, both regarding money spend and the systems functions. My own plan (right now) is to buy the Corsair AX760 platin PSU (for my games), go battery power for the SSD and battery or linear PSU on the JCAT USB card, where I can power er USB stick with music from port two. I know my setup is not a hardcore computer audiophiles dream, but it´s the compromise I make for both good sound, surfing, streaming music and some gaming. Still haven´t read any impressions on the Asus ROG Raidr Express PCIe, so I´m also curious .

Paul Pang should make some nice sata cables in different price categories and he has also helped (or made) JPlay with their expensive sata cable. I just found out last night that my motherboard only have one PCIe left and it´s going to the Jplay USB card, so I guess I´m in for the sata cable . SHOPPING AREA: SATA CABLE Paul has a sata 2- 10 cm cable for 49 $, but other cables and more expensive ones (300 $) as well.

Okay, thought the JPlay card could work with PCI too. I´m also interested in more clean power in my system, will hopefully come later this year.

Thanks for reply and thoughts guys. I bought a nice 30 $ sata 3 cable (40 cm = 16 inch ?) with the SSD and I have been too long in the cable game to know that cable quality can matter a lot if your system is up to the task. So I think I´m jumping in the deep end, it´s just which pool to choose. I also got inspired by the change of my Nordost Blue Heaven USB cable to the Audioquest Diamond USB cable. Great improvement overall with soundstage, inner detail, more deep bass, though Diamond has a more smooth approach than Nordost, at least in my system. Next step is thinking inside the box (pc) and upgrade . Jplay is releasing their PCI USB sound card ( remove noise in pc) in a few weeks, it´s on my short list, so would be nice with a SSD PCI or sata cable to welcome the card to its new home.

When I bought a SSD drive I could now use the sata 3 port on my motherboard, but it clearly degraded the sound. The music sounded thinner, smaller in sound stage and more muddy/ noisy. So I went back to good old sata 2 and things got back to normal again. I want to get even better sound here in 2014 and I´m considering an expensive sata cable, but know the future also is holding PCI express SSD like the Asus ROG 240 GB PCIe SSD, with no cables needed just plug it straight on the motherboard. So my question is, have any of you tried PCIe SSD and how did it sound compared to sata port ? Could there be as much noise as using Sata 3 ? As I´m not that technical it´s difficult for me see all the pros and cons here. One pro for the sata cable buy is that I can also connect clean power to my Samsung SSD with external PSU where PCIe draw power from the board. I ought to say I´m a strong cable believer and my question is mostly about best sound quality not the wise choice in spending the money, future proofing or GB space. Though if PCI express is not that noisy, it could be a good choice .

I just upgraded Fidelizer to 4.0 from 3.0 and I´m also getting better results from the new one. More organic and fuller sound, so I have to turn the volume up to get the same clearity as before. Maybe you feel you loose details blownsi with 4.0 compared to 3.0 ? I can understand why some people will feel that way and the music system synergy change. But a great free software that is worth trying. I have also only good things to say about my JRiver MC v.18 , don´t have the new v.19.

Good to know, I have both Win 8 pro and Win 7 (64 bit) lying around somewhere, so will probably change back from 8.1 before Christmas. I´m used to the sound now, but still sure its not as good as Win 7 or 8. Also I read Sata 3 ports has more noise than Sata 2, so will try this as well when I reinstall.

Hey guys I have a almost complete passive PC (i7, 8GB 1600 mhz, passive cooler on CPU+ VGA card = no fans in case) for all tasks, only the Cosair AX750 PSU fan starts running after 370 Watt. I want to make my audio path better the next months, so was beginning to look for a nice expensive sata cable for my Samsung 840 pro SSD and an USB card like PPA studio USB card, Sotm or the new from Jplay. But now I wonder, would I get as good sound quality spending the 400 $ on a PCIe SSD with direct connection instead of the sata cable ? I know Paul Pang talks about sata 3 ports is more noisy than sata 2 ports and advice to use sata 2, what about PCIe ports ? My motherboard is a few years old, so was looking for maybe the Asus ROG Raidr Express PCIe SSD 240 GB for both OS and some music. I stream a lot of music with WIMP, so don´t need much space for music on the drive. I use a Nordost power cable for my PC and have their QB4 base too, so get less noise than before and don´t have plans on going battery PSU for my SSD. Any thoughts about walking down that road for an all in one solution ?

Well, it helped the sound quality with only the Calyx DAC asio driver on the computer, but its not totally the same. Will analyze what I hear the next days. Would be interesting to know how the Windows audio DNA works. I can maybe turn off more of the services running in the background manually just to be sure, if Fidelizer don´t catch them all. Found this guide with what to turn off safely. Windows 8 Services Configuration: Turn Off / Disable Background Services to Improve System Performance - AskVG I know it would be better with a dedicated audio pc, but I stream a lot of music and TV-shows, so want an all in one solution.

As much as I believe in burn, like cables and hardware, Win 8.1 is not on that list. But I´m willing to try everything. I can see that I´m not the only one with this degraded sound problem and Microsoft advice you delete all sound drivers and install the latest ones. Poor sound quality after upgrading to windows 8.1 - Microsoft Community Will test it later today. There are no new drivers for my Calyx Dac, but will try it anyway to reinstall. I can remove 1) AMD HD Audio device 2) HD Audio device 3) Xmos XSL-LI Audio

I have been using Windows 8 pro (64 bit) for the most part of this year and with good results. I even had to remove some warm fullbody sounding cables because it was too much with the big full sound. Well until yesterday, where I upgraded to Win 8.1. Now the sound is much thinner, harder/more digital/ metallic and soundstage way smaller, even after those warm cables have been reconnected again. I find it very strange that the sound would change that much with this upgrade. I have a fanless PC for both work and audio, with a I7 CPU, 8 GB RAM, Samsung 840 pro SSD. I use a Calyx 24/192 DAC with its own asio driver + own PSU and I use Fidelizer (tried on and off) to get better sound, as it turns off windows services in the background. I also use JRiver media center 18. I have tried remove Realtek HD Audio driver. The Calyx driver has exclusive control over the device and enhancements is turned off too. I´m no expert in windows, so any advice would be nice, other than just change back to Win 8 pro. I can go back, but would like to try figure out what is wrong first.