stakhanov

Imho the Benchmark is still a very very good DAC. Of course if you listen to the opinions of the "fashion victims", who are a majority on the forums, and even here, they will tell you that the technical specifications are completely out of date (signal/noise ratio, theoretical dynamic range, and so on....). But if you listen to real music lovers, they will tell you that the number of zeros after the point doesn't say much about sound quality, and that the DAC chip used in the Benchmark is still one of the best sounding chip available (Analog Devices AD1853, found in other very pricey and very well considered DACS). And in the Benchmark, the other important parts, like the power supply, the output stage, the clocking circuit, and so on, are all very well made. By the way, if you live in Hong Kong, it must be quiet easy to find some chinese DACs, and some of them have a very good reputation, like Audio GD for example (many of them use the famous BB 1704 chip, the best of all times....). You could try to listen to them to have an idea of their sound quality..... For the Cambridge Audio Dacmagic plus, there are no reviews yet to find on the web, because it is too recent, so it would be better to wait a little. Cheers, stakhanov

Do you think that a linear 12 V regulated power supply feeding a pico-psu is a bad solution ? I wanted to do this with my Intel D510 motherbord, thinking it would smooth the sound......

Many thanks for the link ! ;-)

I too would be very interested in a GUI for the DRC software. It would be nice to get the link ! ;-) Cheers

imho, the eventual sound quality difference on a digital output may only be caused by jitter. <br /> Thus that means that different players and /or drivers use the hardware in a different way.<br /> If not, there would be no difference at all in sound quality between different players.<br /> <br /> That's probably what makes the difference between consumer products like the ASUS cards and the pro like RME and Lynx.For the last ones the software is perfectly targeted to the hardware without any compromise.....

The Theater View of JRMC really looks nice !<br /> But I wonder if it could work well on a 12 inches touchscreen ?<br /> Maybe everything would be too small ?<br /> What do you think Chris ?

I've seen on the schematics that the DSP acts as a digital filter, then the filtered outputs feed separate DACs, and then the analog outputs of the DACs feed normal class D amplifiers. So they are not truly digital.

Yes, it could be interesting for a DIY project. But I wonder about the sound quality. In the pdf file they talk about 192 KHz digital input, but it seems that everything will be resampled to 48 KHz by an ASRC before feeding the DSP and the DACs ! So why 192 KHz input ? And, as you say, what's about the quality of the DACs ? Imho I think these modules could be used for a pair of pc desktop monitors for example, but not for high end speakers. Cheers, stakhanov

Hi Chris, I agree with you, using a computer with a Lynx card is less harmful to sound than a player. This is why I say that the noise of a PC is not inevitably dramatic, as long as it is treated correctly. That's the job of the really good engineers from Lynx or RME......

Like everyone I read everywhere that computer noise is the new "devil" against which it is necessary to fight by all the means. But I have just a small question : I have read many times that a computer with a high quality internal PCI soundcard from Lynx or RME can beat a very high quality cd transport or player. So my question : how do they deal with the noise problem ? Are their engineers magicians? Or isn't the problem of the pc noise exaggerated?

Personally I have three different 1 TeraBytes drives. One in my music server, the second in my desktop computer, and the third is an external USB drive. Every time I make some changes (= most of the time : adding new music) I copy manually the new files on all drives. It is not so user-friendly, but quiet secure I think, except for some major accidents like fire ! ;-)

I am testing right now, and I must say that the quality is astonishing ! A very good way to discover the Linn Records. Thank you very much for the link Chris. ;-)

No problem with the delay Jesus ! I live in switzerland, so most of the time when you are working I am sleeping and "vice versa".... ;-) Many thanks for the answer ! If HDCD works, it means that it is bitperfect sound without a doubt. And I'm very happy to know that I will be able to use my Nokia as a remote. Cheers !

Many thanks agillis ! Now I understand much more the way sound is treated in Linux ! I will have a try with mpd....

.....and I've done some comparisons between a Windows based system with Foobar 2000 and Kernel Streaming, and a Linux based system with Aqualung and some other players. Everytime my ears told me that the sound was a lot more accurate and clean on the Windows system.........