meeklo062704

I kinda figured I was better off avoiding the adapter on that one. As far as glass cables go, is a glass cable a glass cable? Or are they higher priced ones really going to perform that much better? I also read there is a sweet spot on optical lengths between 7'-15' as long runs degrade the signal, and short runs can have problems with reflectivity within the cable.

The coax outdoes it in the sense that it'll do 24/192. I shot an email to Schiit the other night asking them, and actually got an email about 5 minutes later from Jason Stoddard who point me towards optical. I have tried both, but I haven't really had time to get used to either one to be able to easily pick out a winner. Correct, it is powered by molex instead of the pci-e lane. The cables I'm using aren't great ones. I just picked up the 3 cables from Monoprice as he also mentioned that, to his ears, there wasn't a big benefit with the Bifrost and high-end optical cables. I was just wondering if I wouldn get a different quality signal having the music exit the pc quicker straight out of the back as opposed to traveling out the pci-e, into the soundcard, then out the back.

I just got a Schiit Bifrost, and I'm currently running from optical out on my Essence stx. Is the stx the way to go, or is optical out from the motherboard? I'm guessing it won't matter, just wanted to make sure. Also, is there any difference between a toslink to mini toslink vs a toslink to toslink through a mini adapter? I picked up one of each from Monoprice, and the one that runs through the adapter seems to be higher quality.

I completely agree on sticking pc. I've never tried to deny the quality of a mac to anyone, I'm just baffled by what they charge for them when you compare hardware vs hardware in a mac vs pc. I understand that it has applications in media editing, and in music creation, but it's a heavy premium to pay. I have a problem with tinkering. I wanted to get a hackintosh going just to play with it, and see if there are any differences, and what all the fuss is about. Hell, I don't need silver interconnects, but I'm going to make some anyway because they're not that expensive to make and sometimes I have nothing better to do. I've been completely happy with my pc because I picked the parts, and built it myself. Just the curiosity that makes you wonder sometimes.

I can't find a lot of recent information, so I wonder if the gap has been closed. But I read a few places that mac handles processes differently, so is more likely to give a cleaner sound in general, but more specifically during multitasking. As far as apple hardware, they do get hardware the same as most pc manufacturers. I built mine myself, so my hardware isn't the run of the mill cheapest stuff that they can get their hands on. I've normally stayed away from apple due to the large mark-up on all products, but a hackintosh or a good condition used mac mini is more reasonable. If it was a hackintosh, I was considering running a dual boot, but I have enough parts lying around so I could build a second machine meant for just media.

I read an interview with Gordon Rankin, and he said that mac was better for audio playback than a windows pc. Was that due to hardware differences, like dac quality? Or because of the way the os handles the processes? I am trying to decide whether or not I want to continue running my library through my pc, or if I want to grab a mac mini or throw together a hackintosh. I'm about to pickup a usb dac, and it'll run from there to a Bottlehead Crack to Sennheiser HD650's.