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Audiophile setup advice

D

doanster

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 21, 2005
Messages
139
Haha, so maybe the title is unrealistic, but I need help setting up my PC for good sound.
Music on my PC simply doesn't compare well to the sound from my component system in the living room.

Any suggestions for:

1) a good sound card (rite now I have an Audigy "1")
-also, is it possible to install a second sound card, say, for 2-channel music listening?

2) quiet CD drive - this really pisses me off when listening to CDs and its wurring along at 40X (Nero DriveSpeed used to let me turn the CD-ROM speed down to 1X-4X, which is whisper quiet, but doesn't seem to work with WinXP ... maybe some other software would help?)

3) nice headphones (thinking of the Grado SR60's)

4) headphone amp (buy or BYO??)

5) good music playback software (anything better than the run-of-the-mill Windows Media Player and WinAmp and ITunes?)

6) windows hacks to optimize quality (i recall there was a way to work around the volume control?)

Any ideas would help... thanks!
 
Eh, I'm not an audiophile, but I've heard good things about the grados, and also the X-FI is a mighty nice sound card, otherwise I just use some Kinyo 5.1 Headphones, they arn't on newegg for some reason though, basicly thier just cheap medusas. (But what do I know I'm just using a catalina sound card for now, till my new rig gets here)
 
I love my GRADO's sr60's are good entry level headphones get a good amp especially if you plan on using them on mobile devices, if you go Creative get the XFi Extreme Music.
 
Software: Use Foobar2000 for your playback. Ultra customizeable, best quality options.
If you have the harddrive space, I'd reccomend ripping all of your CD's to FLAC or some other lossless format using Exact Audio Copy. No more will you have to worry about a loud CD drive, and you will have your entire collection at your finger tips!
 
I would actually get the MS-1s instead of the grado sr60, sure its 40 more bucks but its much better
 
1) Chaintech AV710 and a interconnect to connect an amp
2) Some Plextor or NEC drive
3) Grado SR60's or AKG 240s
4) Cmoy or a PA2V2
5) Foobar
6) use the amp to adjust the volume
 
SR60 it is! Got intro'd to TTVJ site and found them for $69 + shipping - $10 "new member discount" = yay or nay?

Thanks for the help!
 
I can help with the quiet DVD-RW drive. The Samsung SH-W162C Writemaster reads in a quiet mode and burns at full speed by default. It also come with software so you can change the speed. I've never used the software though as I find it quiet in default mode. You will see in this link that they also recommend Samsung for quiet DVD drives.
http://htpcnews.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1930

I have some Flac files on my HDD and they are HUGE in size compared to mp3. Sound a lot better though.I also have some in .wv (WavPak), also lossless and HUGE.
 
But with hard drive thesedays ranging form $0.25-$0.50 per gigabyte, it's kind of hard to complain about files taking up too much space. Now if you are on a laptop it is a different story...
 
My suggestions:

1. Get any old cheap card, that has digital output, and then get a receiver. This is more cost efficient than getting something like the super high-end audigy, and is going to give you better results. This is only cost efficient if you are looking to build a speaker system eventually. If you intend on sticking to straight headphones, then headphone + amp is better.

2. Instead of getting amp + headphones now, get good headphones now and amp them later. Grado sr225s are my personal choice, but whatever floats your boat. Much more cost efficient now, and will give you a better result later. Combined with option 1, you will have a very decent headphone jack in most cases. I'd rather see you with sr225s + amp than xfi + sr60s + amp.

3. Use foobar2000. Use flac and rip all of your CDs and get 0 cdrom noise.
 
I use an E-MU 0404 connected to my Onkyo. I rip all my CD's to MP3 at alt preset extreme, played through itunes or foobar (foobar for quality, itunes for the simple fact that it works with my ipod and is pretty user friendly).
 
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