alexandrum77

Agree. And.....check this out. I've started to these tests (High Frequency Hearing Loss Blind Listening Test) and I've failed at the <14kHz one. I can't hear a damn difference after 14kHz . It would be interesting to start a poll.

Hi guys, I've found another interesting article on Tom's Hardware "What Does It Take To Turn The PC Into A Hi-Fi Audio Platform?" shorten (Audiophile PC Sound - The Real Cost of Hi-Fi - Tom) Bare in mind this is not the most perfect test either but they say they'll have a second one coming up.

Hello everyone. The coincidence makes that I've been asking myself he same questions for the past few days, since it came into my possession some 24/96 Flac albums: "where can you begin to perceive a loss in quality objectively?". To be objective, you should "test" yourself without know which file are you listening to. I was a music lover since I can remember and always was sensitive to audio quality and when through all the stages vinyl collection > CD collection > Computer collection. These days, my setup is not the best but an acceptable: Flac -> JRiverMC -> WASAPI (event style) -> Arcam rDAC (USB) -> Marantz PM7200 -> PSB Image T6 Towers. I did something similar, testing various lossless and lossy formats at different bit rate: #1 FLAC-24/96 #2 FLAC-16/44.1 #3 MP3-320 kbps - 16/44.1 #4 MP3-128 kbps - 16/44.1 To my surprise, the difference could be heard ONLY when comparing #1 to #4. But even here the results were mixed. Sometimes I could hear the differences, sometimes not, depending on the part of the song that could put into evidence the differences. However, comparing #3 to #2 and #1, no difference whatsoever. There was no way of differentiating those from one another. I didn't stope here, so I've encoded other samples, using songs that I have listened to for a very long time, way before owning their 24/96 version. Same result. Then the obvious step was to listen to those using more accurate equipment, so I headed to a hi-fi store. There, I know someone and can often stay for hour listening to different equipment. So the test was done using a Hegel H20 DAC -> NAD Master series combination (don't remember the exact models, some older silver huge bulk ones) -> PSB Synchrony speakers. After listening, I draw three conclusions from all this: 1) Nor I or my friend who's a consultant there were able to distinguish from #1-#2-#3. The #4 "sometimes" stood out as somewhat different. 2) The overall sound was unmistakably better than my current setup. The DAC, speakers and AMP are way more important than the file itself, if that is a 320 kbps MP3 or above. 3) The price of the equipment is not linear scalable into the increase in sound quality. Sure it sounds better, maybe twice as better...but the price is may more times higher. I don't know if the equipment is not sensitive enough to put into spotlight the differences or if my ears are too old (c'mon I'm only 37) but I couldn't be convinced that there's a distinguishable difference once you go MP3 320 kbps and above. It couldn't be heard, nothing. I went back to the store, bringing my Arcam rDAC there and we switched various combinations of speakers and amps (Dynaudio Confidence, Harbeth, B&W, NAD's). I've noticed that that the speakers and on the second place the amp, will have the most impact on sound quality if your digital files are decent enough. Now I realized how good my Arcam sounds. What do you guys think? How much does the placebo effect comes into place and how much subjectivity there is going on?

Hi guys. I have the exact same issue with my 2012 rDAC and plus what RickDastardly describes here Arcam rDAC - sound drop outs and "clicking noise" | AVForums The symptoms that I've seen are: -sound dropped/muted all of a sudden (only 1-2 times) -popping/clicks in speakers (~10 times now) -very hard to switch between rDAC's inputs using the button. the button hardly reacts. sometimes I have to press it 5-6 times to switch from usb to optical (always) Last time I've noticed the popping I have switched to the optical input and the popping sound was gone. switching to usb it came back. I will test this again when it happens next time. Sometimes it doesn't occur for days, so I can't troubleshoot unless I can reproduce the issue. Have you been able to set up a reproducer? I'm using Window 7 64bit with Jriver18 in WASAPI Event-style with 100 mld buffer, like in the review here. The issue started only a few weeks ago.

Hello folks! <br /> First of all, I LOVE the website and the articles. I have a few questions about using the ASUS Xonar Essence STX without an external DAC, using the internal Asus DAC. My configuration would be this:<br /> <br /> JRiver installed on a Win7 C.A.P.S. server with Essence STX sound card -> analog RCA cable -> Marantz PM7001 -> Speakers.<br /> <br /> 1) What can you tell me about the Xonar STX's internal DAC performance taking into account that I have the Marantz PM7001 and not a high end stereo. (http://www.wildwestelectronics.net/marantz-integrated-amplifier-pm7001.html)<br /> <br /> 2) What would be the optimum audio output configuration for JRiver for using the Xonar's internal DAC to output directly to my Marantz?<br /> <br /> <br /> 3) Since all my FLAC's are ripped from audio CD's (16bit/44.1kHz) will a modest 16bit capable only DAC do the job? (http://www.audiophileproducts.com/usb-audio)<br /> <br /> 4) How would you classify the Squeezebox Touch DAC, the one from the Xonar STX, The Cambridge Audio DacMagic and the Arcam rDAC? What would be the order from a performance perspective?<br /> <br /> Thanks,<br /> Alex<br /> <br />