Nah, I don't believe that 'report' at all.

I've been using EAC for years and years, and dBPoweramp for the last 2-3 years. Both use the 'Accuraterip' database to test the accuracy of the rip. Both rip at pretty much the same speed and produce identical results in total agreement with the Accuraterip database.

Oh, and they sound identical to me.

BUT... I use a 'true' plextor drive with the 'forced unit access' feature activated in both dBPoweramp and EAC. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT!!!

Mani.

Haha, quite a while ago I wrote this:


I've pretty much always heard a difference between PE on or off. Does this mean that my system is even more revealing than Paul's? Or maybe it's just that my ears are better (I am a little younger after all)... 

Mani.

OK, all my intended tweaks are on hold until we hear more about this 'mechanical change' of yours Peter. Like everyone else I'm sure, I'm totally intrigued.

(One thing I certainly will proceed with though is the receipt of my new gainclone 'super amps' from Bert, which should be here within the next couple of weeks... can't wait.)

Mani.

Hi Jan,

Look here: http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=1642.0

Just scroll down to where CoenP talks about 'ntrights.exe'.

HTH.

Mani.

Well I've decided.

Computer switch mode power supplies are evil.

Right now, I'm sitting in my office with my office system (including a USB-NOS1) sitting right behind me. If I listen to FM radio (BBC Radio 3) with no electrical devices in the office switched on (other than my tuner, preamp and poweramp, all of which use linear PSs), the presenters' voices (live mic feeds) sound so pure and real. As soon as I switch on a PC (either my office work PC or my office music PC), a 'glare' is added to the presenters' voices. It's subtle, but unmissable once you know what to listen out for. Oh and I use Seasonic X-460 power supplies which are supposed to be about the lowest-noise computer PSs you can get.

I hear a very similar effect in my main listening room when I'm using my Atom-based PC with linear PS to play music and I switch on a secondary PC with SMPS - the 'glare' appears there too. Indeed, if I replace the linear PS with a SMPS, the 'glare' is there.

So I've decided that I will elimate all switch mode power supplies from both my office and main hifi systems. If this means that I have to live with a slower XX GUI, and even non-gapless playback, so be it. Now that I know it's there, I can't live with this SMPS 'glare'.

Mani.

I really wanted to get to the bottom of this and spent a few hours over the weekend trying a few things and listening to their effects.

It seems that my monitor has a major affect on the sound. It doesn't matter if it is switched on or not... just the fact that it is physically connected to the PC changes the sound. I think that the monitor cable is creating a ground loop of some sort. Now this may not be an issue with other monitors, but mine is an older Dell monitor with an IEC socket, and I think the ground is connected internally to the cable shield.

Anyway, the upshot is that the sound is much, much 'nicer' when I disconnect the monitor cable during playback. A PITA for sure, but definitely worth it.

Try it!

Mani.

Yes, Arthur Kelm is the expert on all of this. Indeed, I based my dedicated mains circuit (isolation transformer, ionic grouding rod, etc) on his ideas.

I'd love to know what he thinks about the use of SMPSs to power hifi components. My feeling is that he would say get the grounding right first, and then don't corrupt it with dirty SMPSs.

Mani.

My Atom PC is based on the 'CAPS' computer: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Computer-Audiophile-Pocket-Server-CAPS-v20

However, I would NOT recommend this PC for use with XX. The maximum SFS that I can set is around 150 (I have it set to 100). Even with this SFS setting, I cannot get gapless playback - the system simply isn't powerful enough. Now for me, sacfricing gapless playback for a smoother, less edgy sound is worth the price. But there's no guarantee that this will be the case for anyone else.

My recommendation would be to wait until ultra-low wattage/TDP designs become as powerful as today's i5/i7 designs - it surely can't be too far away. The other alternative would be to look into a linear supply for a current i5/i7, but I think this would be too crazy... even for us Phasure posters!

Apart from not coping with gapless playback, my Atom works quite nicely with XX, especially in Unattended with OS minimised. It's quite a lot slower than my i7 when playing with the XX GUI, but not painfully so.

Mani.

OK, I've done a fairly detailed comparison this morning between the i7 and the Atom.

Firstly, the Atom powered by a linear PS sounds very different to the i7 powered by a 'highend fanless' Seasonic SMPS. I wanted to eliminate the two different types of PS from the equation so that I could focus just on CPU power. So what I did was compare the Atom powered with a linear PS vs. the same Atom powered by a 'brick' SMPS. Hmmm... With the SMPS, the Atom sounded surprisingly similar to the i7 with its SMPS. Neither is obviously better than the other, and the best way I can think of to describe the difference is something like this: the linear PS is like taking a photo in natural light, the SMPS is like taking the same photo with artificial light. Now if used cleverly, artificial light can actually enhance a photo - make the colours more vibrant and make the scene look more 'alive'. But this artificial light will never be as easy on your eyes as natural light.

BUT what I found next really surprised me. I powered the Atom with the linear PS. I then booted up the i7 (sitting about 1m away) with its SMPS. With the i7 switched on (i.e. a SMPS switched on somwhere in the mains circuit), even when the i7 was connected to nothing else, the sound of the Atom changed! It sounded very similar to how it sounded powered by the brick SMPS!!!

It seems to me that having any SMPS on in my system changes the sound. I will do more testing but right now, I'm seriously inclined to eliminate absolutely all SMPSs from my system.

Mani.

Hi Juan. Thanks for doing this. I'm not looking to put togther any more music PCs right now, but if I were, this post/thread would be an absolutely invaluable resource.

I'm not sure if there's yet any definitive answer as to which sounds better: more CPU power or less CPU power? At some point, I'll do a comparison of the 3 dedicated music PCs I have here. The CPUs are:
1) i7 on Gigabyte mobo
2) E8600 on Gigabyte mobo
3) Dual-core Atom on Jetway mobo

I only wish I had the means to objectively measure any differences, as opposed to subjectively listen out for them - I find hearing differences quite easy, but deciding which ones actually sound better, I find sometimes very difficult.

Mani.

Well, as is often the case (with me at least) I think I've been lured into a false sense of improvement when doing this. Actually, what seems to be happening is that most of what I liked about going from the original to the USB NOS1 is destroyed. Especially the beautiful balance between smoothness on the one hand and detail on the other - things are veering too much towards the [false] detail now.

Oh and to make matters more confusing, I'm not sure the SOtM products are really very beneficial with the NOS1 after all. You see, when I first tried them, I was disconnecting the power leg of my two-legged USB cable when listening to music. But I understood from one of Peter's earlier posts that the NOS1 needs to have the power leg of the USB cable connected. Yes, because otherwise the NOS1 won't be recognized on boot-up... BUT also because there seem to be some pretty niffty 'USB noise-reducing' schemes going on that require the power leg to be connected.

There's obviously a lot more going on with the USB connection of the NOS1 than us mere mortals are aware of. Best advice is to just connect to the PC and leave alone, I think.

Mani.

Yes I agree, we should be careful with all this stuff because it's really a very complicated 'system' which will be different for everyone.

For my part, all I can say is that I prefer the sound with the PC case connected to the star ground. What exact mechanism is in play, I don't know.

Mani

I'm finding that if I connect the PC case to ground (using one of the ground wires in my 'star' ground arrangement, itself connected to a clean, totally isolated and ultra-low impedance earth) I get a phenomenal improvement in SQ. The sound is transformed from a muddy, slightly hazy and pretty homogeneous sound to one which is tight, sharp and much, much more dynamic. I was demonstrating this to my wife last night and she couldn't believe a single wire connected to the PC case could make such a difference.

Mani.

Haha... I came back home yesterday and waiting for me in the post was the 'The Gifted Ones' CD I ordered. It's actually the original 1996 release (not a 2000 release as indicated on Amazon). So I paid just over €2 for a brand new original release of this CD. Now that's a bargain! (Oh and yes, Scroobius is right - it's great music!)

Also, I don't trust downloads at all. Many hirez downloads are proving to be sourced from redbook in reality. And as for 16/44.1 downloads... how do we know that these haven't just been ripped from physical CDs by a summer intern working at the record company? I really wouldn't be surprised if this is common practice. Also, we wouldn't know which CD release they used. All in all, I much prefer buying the physical CD and doing the rip properly myself. My experience with buying CDs off Amazon and eBay is that if ordered within Europe, they're in my post box with 2-3 days.

And there's no substitute for knowing that you have the physical disc should anything untoward happen with your HDD.

Mani.

Well I paid just over €2 (yes, two) for a brand new 2000 release of this. I may 'splash out' and order the 1996 release... but it's gonna have to be great music if I'm gonna part with €5 of my hard-earned money 

Kind of reminds me what a great philosophy Peter followed when creating the NOS1: Forget hirez, get redbook right instead - there's just infinitely more great music available. And isn't this what this hobby's all about???

Mani.