Remove Display Driver Improves Audio Quality Greatly!

[Windows X]

I hope it won't lead to CA users are being hostile.

 

btw, I tried removing the whole PC but couldn't hear a sound.....

[Dr Tone]

jrmc supporters are quite hostile, aren't they.

 

I'm not hostile, I'm just passing on a mod that you endorsed as having excellent results. The original poster should give it a try.

[designmule]

A few months ago I removed the video driver from my PC in an attempt to reduce stuttering via DLNA. I run my PC headless. Removing the driver did reduce latency (as measured by latencymon). In the end, I don't think it made much of a change in the stuttering and I can't comment on the effect on the sound quality.

[BobSherman]

A few months ago I removed the video driver from my PC in an attempt to reduce stuttering via DLNA. I run my PC headless. Removing the driver did reduce latency (as measured by latencymon). In the end, I don't think it made much of a change in the stuttering and I can't comment on the effect on the sound quality.

 

A properly setup system should never stutter. It is more than just a driver at that point. Look deeper into settings buffers etc. Any other stuff interfering with playback. What hardware and software are you using?

[designmule]

In my particular case I think the issue is more related to my DLNA renderer (an Onkyo AVR). I only wanted to point out that the video driver was contributing to system latency which as I understand it, can affect the playback of audio.

[koblongata]

A few months ago I removed the video driver from my PC in an attempt to reduce stuttering via DLNA. I run my PC headless. Removing the driver did reduce latency (as measured by latencymon). In the end, I don't think it made much of a change in the stuttering and I can't comment on the effect on the sound quality.

 

Stuttering often likely to be network related, especially wireless.

 

My case is that after the driver is gone, my movie playback has video tearing, which is understandable since the video card isn't working at its fullest. Now my driver-less PC is only used for audio playback when watching movies.

[trithio]

Yes, they're the equipment I'm referring to.

 

As an experiment I fed the coax signal out of SACD player into DAC, playing a standard CD. In setting up a simple A/B, the DAC played the same music from computer/player/hard drive via USB. Comparisons were made between the two inputs (COAX and USB) to the DAC reasonably easily as well as the analog out from the SACD player.

 

There was a pretty tough call to compare the coax input of the DAC to the SACD player, to me they sounded the same, therefore the differences are just construction and topological differences between the SACD and the DAC.

When the same music was compared via USB, the results of the music were very obvious changes, a drop in height of sound stage, and smearing of the finer details, I suppose a classic veiling. Now this could be a deficiency in a number of places, all the way from the computer, so I tried a HP workstation and a Mac Mini, audirvana + to Jriver, but the effect was much the same. The SACD also has a USB input, and the performance was much the same as for the DAC input, lifeless.

 

My thinking now is to bypass USB altogether with the RME, since it re-clocks the signal internally or by an external clock and works from the PCIe bus to AES3. The problem is the computer is 25m away from the DAC, so a cable is necessary whether it's a 2 core shield or a fibre optic cable & complex array of the Adnaco PCIe bus extension. Simplicity favours the cable which can run to 100m, so that's plenty for I want to do.

 

I only will use the AES3 for 48, 96 and 192 PCM files. DSD is taken care of by DSD_DISC which is played by the SACD player as well as regular CDs. AES3 has its place, it is a lot less noisy than USB, properly clocked, the sound what you hear can yield very good results.

 

Nothing to do with the thread of course.

 

The RME + Adnaco setup has some theoretical potential. It is however quite expensive to try. Also, may be better to replace the RME with this http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/pinkfaun_i2s_bridge_e.html. Delivers direct i2s into the Dac, no Aes needed. And who knows, maybe you dont need that adnaco extension at all.

 

 

Other than that I consider jriver's comment quite hilarious and the initial post about the video drivers quite ridiculous. As about the posters who pretended to be mortally offended by a joke that was particularly lame.

[koblongata]

The RME + Adnaco setup has some theoretical potential. It is however quite expensive to try. Also, may be better to replace the RME with this [Review] Pink Faun I2S Bridge - Computer to DAC Interface. Delivers direct i2s into the Dac, no Aes needed. And who knows, maybe you dont need that adnaco extension at all.

 

 

Other than that I consider jriver's comment quite hilarious and the initial post about the video drivers quite ridiculous. As about the posters who pretended to be mortally offended by a joke that was particularly lame.

 

It's a great way to improve timing and reduce noise, not ridiculous... have you nay sayers even tried??

[tranz]

It's a great way to improve timing and reduce noise, not ridiculous... have you nay sayers even tried??

 

Don't get discouraged by a few trolls. The ones that shout the loudest are usually those that have not tried a thing and have no interest in doing so. Often they do get a sick pleasure shitting on others though.

 

Those that have experimented or are designing hardware and software improvements realize nothing is as simple or black and white.

 

Keep the experiments going and please continue to share.

[Windows X]

Don't get discouraged by a few trolls. The ones that shout the loudest are usually those that have not tried a thing and have no interest in doing so. Often they do get a sick pleasure shitting on others though.

 

Those that have experimented or are designing hardware and software improvements realize nothing is as simple or black and white.

 

Keep the experiments going and please continue to share.

 

+1 I also got that a lot from people who never try Fidelizer yet keep shi.. I mean shouting about how pointless and ineffective it is like they're masters behind digital audio creations.

[trithio]

+1 I also got that a lot from people who never try Fidelizer yet keep shi.. I mean shouting about how pointless and ineffective it is like they're masters behind digital audio creations.

 

Here's a riddle for you then. From someone who really tried your Fidelizer for the last 2 years or so. Version 2 or so to latest. And it still sits on my Windows7 PC. Doing nothing. Never did hear the slightest change in sound and was just a waste of time for me.

 

Surely that's just my PC and one personal anecdote. YMMV, TINAR and so on. But I dont think that posts like the quoted help your cause in any way. The clueless 'trolls, trolls' cries above and your post actually made me post this report. Otherwise, I used to think that there was no point complaining cause it was a free tool and it was my own decision to keep trying and waste all that time.

Not interested in a discussion about this. Just dont start crying 'trolls' like the other guy. Good luck and make what you want out of it.

[sbgk]

Here's a riddle for you then. From someone who really tried your Fidelizer for the last 2 years or so. Version 2 or so to latest. And it still sits on my Windows7 PC. Doing nothing. Never did hear the slightest change in sound and was just a waste of time for me.

 

Surely that's just my PC and one personal anecdote. YMMV, TINAR and so on. But I dont think that posts like the quoted help your cause in any way. The clueless 'trolls, trolls' cries above and your post actually made me post this report. Otherwise, I used to think that there was no point complaining cause it was a free tool and it was my own decision to keep trying and waste all that time.

Not interested in a discussion about this. Just dont start crying 'trolls' like the other guy. Good luck and make what you want out of it.

 

what is it about your system that makes everything sound the same ? am assuming you don't think it's the best system you've ever heard otherwise you would have mentioned that fact and would be telling us all how to achieve audio nirvana.

[trithio]

what is it about your system that makes everything sound the same ? am assuming you don't think it's the best system you've ever heard otherwise you would have mentioned that fact and would be telling us all how to achieve audio nirvana.

 

I am pretty sure I never said that everything sounds the same in my system. That would be quite retarded, who ever tested 'everything'? Only said that Fidelizer makes no difference. And somewhere else said that foobar and jriver sound the same. I'm not even aware of any reports about those two players sounding different. And cannot really see why would they. Me testing them was another waste of time in a way. Had some fun though and I wanted to be extra sure. That's all.

Is my system the best sounding? I dont think so and I actually hope not cause that would be kind of boring. But it is good enough so I dont spend much time thinking about it lately.

Not sure what kind of bones you have against me. Dont even remember talking to you much. But it is not exactly nice to put words in my mouth and such. Whatever. As said, make what you want out of my report. Including trashing it anyway you like. It's still true. As oposed to the funny words that you attribute to me for some reason.

[Windows X]

Here's a riddle for you then. From someone who really tried your Fidelizer for the last 2 years or so. Version 2 or so to latest. And it still sits on my Windows7 PC. Doing nothing. Never did hear the slightest change in sound and was just a waste of time for me.

 

Surely that's just my PC and one personal anecdote. YMMV, TINAR and so on. But I dont think that posts like the quoted help your cause in any way. The clueless 'trolls, trolls' cries above and your post actually made me post this report. Otherwise, I used to think that there was no point complaining cause it was a free tool and it was my own decision to keep trying and waste all that time.

Not interested in a discussion about this. Just dont start crying 'trolls' like the other guy. Good luck and make what you want out of it.

 

Well, that's OK. You tried it. It's your system, your ears and all. Much better than 'bits are bits' and 'theory without experiment' folks. By the way, have you tried version 6.x yet? It's becoming stable since version 6.