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Changed laptop and quality went up.


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I have been using a rather simple laptop with Celeron CPU and internal SSD and 6 Gb memory and Windows 7 but had the feeling that a better machine could improve sound quality with my Meitner ma-1 dac and the old one be a good back-up in case of trouble. New one use a Core i5 4210U (low power) with 4Gb memory and a very power effective SSD and Windows 8.1. It has almost only the software for playing music and will be used only for that, I will test and optimize it further. Well, I heard at once it sounds differently: more low level info and cleaner with a tighter more articulate bass. Now I can hear what this dac can do much easier, so it was well worth the money for this new laptop (not very expensive). Some recordings though sounds a little clinical compared with the old laptop, I think it might be because of a more revealing character, or it is something not quite right yet, I have to try some more to be sure.

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I have been using a rather simple laptop with Celeron CPU and internal SSD and 6 Gb memory and Windows 7 but had the feeling that a better machine could improve sound quality with my Meitner ma-1 dac and the old one be a good back-up in case of trouble. New one use a Core i5 4210U (low power) with 4Gb memory and a very power effective SSD and Windows 8.1. It has almost only the software for playing music and will be used only for that, I will test and optimize it further. Well, I heard at once it sounds differently: more low level info and cleaner with a tighter more articulate bass. Now I can hear what this dac can do much easier, so it was well worth the money for this new laptop (not very expensive). Some recordings though sounds a little clinical compared with the old laptop, I think it might be because of a more revealing character, or it is something not quite right yet, I have to try some more to be sure.

 

 

I use a Toshiba laptop with a Celeron processor/Win7 for my computer music server and frankly I'm fed-up with the entire process. If I haven't listened to it for a while, and decide to add to new music to it, I generally find that when I get ready to play something, that it has quit working and I'm in for at least an hour of time-wasted fiddling to get it up and running again!

 

Yesterday was pretty much the last straw. I found out that Linn Records had put up a free sampler of their wares ("24-bits of Christmas, 2014") on their web site (linnrecords.co) and I downloaded the 24/192 FLAC version of it and installed it in J River Media Center on my laptop. I connected the laptop via USB to my iFi iUSB power supply and my iFI iink USB-SPDIF converter. But Windows wouldn't load the iFi driver. I tried swapping USB cables, that didn't work. I re-started Windows, nothing. I rebooted the laptop, no-joy. In desperation, I tried to attach my DragonFly. Windows wouldn't load that driver either. Finally after messing with it for more than a hour, I suddenly heard the encouraging "bong" from the laptop suddenly emerge from my Martin-Logan speakers telling me that the driver had finally loaded, and I could get-on with my listening session! I still don't know what the problem was, but I seem to have this problem a lot and I'm really fed-up with it.

 

I figure that that the only solution is to dump the computer-based server, and USB interface all together for this application, and do a proper NAS server permanently connected to my stereo and use a tablet/smart-phone as an interface. I have a cheap Android tablet that I can probably press into yeoman's service for this purpose (it's too slow for anything else, anyway).

 

Bah! More expense, more trouble. If hi-res audio didn't sound so good, I'd say, the hell with it!

George

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Strange, my setup has never refused to play unless a few times when I forgot something and then it was up running again (very few occasions). Some have reported problems with USB 3 ports and I have never tried it, are you using USB 2 or 3?

Old laptop was a HP and the new one is from Asus.

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Strange, my setup has never refused to play unless a few times when I forgot something and then it was up running again (very few occasions). Some have reported problems with USB 3 ports and I have never tried it, are you using USB 2 or 3?

Old laptop was a HP and the new one is from Asus.

 

 

USB2. I just chalk it up to the primitiveness of Windows. My Mac (my Main computer) is connected to a generic 24/192 USB DAC in my office, and it always works, first time, every time. Windows? Always a problem, no matter what I want to do. I think it knows that I don't like it, and so, it doesn't like me either... :)

George

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USB2. I just chalk it up to the primitiveness of Windows. My Mac (my Main computer) is connected to a generic 24/192 USB DAC in my office, and it always works, first time, every time. Windows? Always a problem, no matter what I want to do. I think it knows that I don't like it, and so, it doesn't like me either... :)

 

And here we are thinking bits are bits, clearly your computer has an attitude that is interfering with your bits :)

Analog: Koetsu Rosewood > VPI Aries 3 w/SDS > EAR 834P > EAR 834L: Audiodesk cleaner

Digital Fun: DAS > CAPS v3 w/LPS (JRMC) SOtM USB > Lynx Hilo > EAR 834L

Digital Serious: DAS > CAPS v3 w/LPS (HQPlayer) Ethernet > SMS-100 NAA > Lampi DSD L4 G5 > EAR 834L

Digital Disc: Oppo BDP 95 > EAR 834L

Output: EAR 834L > Xilica XP4080 DSP > Odessey Stratos Mono Extreme > Legacy Aeris

Phones: EAR 834L > Little Dot Mk ii > Senheiser HD 800

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