How to Get the Best Sound From Ripped cd's and mp3's

[DannyBoy1]

Hi all can anyone help me I'm trying to find the best way to play music stored on my pc though my amp and sound system, I currently use a simple audio Y connecter cable to link them up but am aware of a feint buzzing sound when i do this I've also noticed the sound quality is just better when i use my cd player as the source.
I'm thinking of getting a sound card with an optical out to overcome this problem(can anyone recomend a good one) but is there somthing I'm missing like a piece of software that is regaurded as being exceptionally good for playing stored music though(currently using windows media player). Or is there a standalone dukebox type device that would give me better quality playback like an Ipod at least half of my collection is ripped from my cd's in wav. files as i don't like to lose anything by compressing to mp3's and i don't think Ipods will play those files.

Simply put is there an easy way of getting good quality playback from digitly stored music

[Nelviticus]

There are so many places in the chain where you can lose quality. A PC is an electrically 'noisy' place by nature but a good sound card can make up for this - the on-board sound on most PCs just isn't as good as a decent dedicated sound card.

The latest range of Creative Soundblaster X-Fi cards have a chip called a 'crystalizer' that's supposed to improve the sound of MP3s - I haven't heard it in action and it does seem a bit implausible but I have read various good reviews of the technology.

A good-quality cable is also important.

Then there's the format you rip your tracks to - WAV is lossless but there are other good formats you can use, like FLAC which is also lossless but takes up less space than WAV. FLAC isn't so widely supported in players though. You can still get good results with MP3 if you choose the settings right. This page tells you all you could ever want to know about configuring LAME, the most popular MP3 encoder:
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=LAME

Regards

[DannyBoy1]

Cheers I'll consider converting my files into flac, any idea how much one of those soundcards would set me back?
I'm just set up my pm media box to stream music from the pc which improves sound quality but i like being able to flick though my music and set up playlists which the media box ain't so hot at so i think i'll look into those sound cards

[rhubarbe]

When you say a pm media box, do you mean a Pixel Magic HD Media Box? If so, haven't you got a HDD in the PM box?

If you are just streaming to the PM box from a PC then a sound card IMHO would be a complete waste of money, because it wouldn't do anything. Likewise, you'd be wasting your money with cables because the only connection between your PM box and the PC would be a CAT5 network cable.

Whether the PM box handles .flac or not these days I don't know. I sent mine back in disgust after about a week.

EDIT: Having read the OP in a bit more detail I would say that I have an HTPC with some music on it and this is connected to my Naim AV2/Rotel RMB-1077 via my scaler over hdmi (from PC to the scaler) and digital coax from the scaler to the AV2. Cable quality is Blue Jeans Belden 1692. Sound on the PC is Realtek 882 HD Audio and I have never felt the need for any external sound cards....

[Autopilot]

Originally Posted by DannyBoy1

Cheers I'll consider converting my files into flac

That wont help, the loss in sound quality you get when using MP3 is permanent - the MP3 encoder permanently throws away data to achieve small file sizes - hence it's a lossy compression. You will need to rip the CD's again to benefit from lossless formats like FLAC.

BTW, this is the wrong forum really, better looking in this forum - http://www.avforums.com/forums/forum...prune=30&f=333

[Nelviticus]

Originally Posted by DannyBoy1

Cheers I'll consider converting my files into flac, any idea how much one of those soundcards would set me back?

About £30 see here:

PCI-Express version

PCI Version

Regards

[alpine101]

If it's just mains hum pickup because of the 'Y cable' that you're using for the link, then a fibre out card will resolve this. I had the same problem with my laptop, because I was using a 4metre cable to connect it to the analogue audio in of my 5.1 system. I installed an Audigy laptop card with a Toslink out, and it's fixed this. Plus it's 5.1 out of course with a suitable source!

[Rezillo]

Just a plug here for streaming to a Noxon 2. I bought this more for 'jukebox' convenience rather than sound quality. However, its analog output turned out to be so good using 256k vbr mp3s that I've consigned my Arcam Alpha 7SE cd player to the store cupboard as it sounds worse!

I haven't heard a Squeezebox but that is supposed to be even better than the Noxon 2.

John

[DannyBoy1]

Originally Posted by rhubarbe

When you say a pm media box, do you mean a Pixel Magic HD Media Box? If so, haven't you got a HDD in the PM box?

If you are just streaming to the PM box from a PC then a sound card IMHO would be a complete waste of money, because it wouldn't do anything. Likewise, you'd be wasting your money with cables because the only connection between your PM box and the PC would be a CAT5 network cable.

Whether the PM box handles .flac or not these days I don't know. I sent mine back in disgust after about a week.

EDIT: Having read the OP in a bit more detail I would say that I have an HTPC with some music on it and this is connected to my Naim AV2/Rotel RMB-1077 via my scaler over hdmi (from PC to the scaler) and digital coax from the scaler to the AV2. Cable quality is Blue Jeans Belden 1692. Sound on the PC is Realtek 882 HD Audio and I have never felt the need for any external sound cards....

Yes it's a pixel magic media box and the sound from it is pretty good, the problem is the media box doesn't have a great user interface - you can't set up playlists or browse though the music tracks while listening to a track it's hard to beat a pc for that sort of user friendlyness.
Your set up sounds like it's a bit out of my budget, does your pc have a hdmi out or am i misreading that?

[DannyBoy1]

Originally Posted by Rezillo

Just a plug here for streaming to a Noxon 2. I bought this more for 'jukebox' convenience rather than sound quality. However, its analog output turned out to be so good using 256k vbr mp3s that I've consigned my Arcam Alpha 7SE cd player to the store cupboard as it sounds worse!

I haven't heard a Squeezebox but that is supposed to be even better than the Noxon 2.

John

That squeezebox definitely sounds interesting but at around £200 I think I'll try to upgrade to a soundcard first.

[DannyBoy1]

Originally Posted by Nelviticus

About £30 see here:

PCI-Express version

PCI Version

Regards

Cheers man i think I'll get one of those.

[rhubarbe]

Tell me about it (PM Media Box). I had a Toshiba LCDTV and the PM remote interfered something terrible. As you say, the interface wasn't good and the file support was worse.

Yes, my HTPC has HDMI out, MSI K8AMG2 mobo with an AMD X2 4600 CPU, not expensive: maybe £110 for the combo, but it does add up when you add in all the rest of the necessary bits.

The bees' knees is the Sonos: www.sonos.com - highest WAF of any music streamer. I use Sonos for music and HTPC for video.

I just know you won't thank me for telling you that.

[DannyBoy1]

i had a toshiba telly it played up with too but they've brought out a 'toshiba friendly' remote now

[CrazyindianZA]

I used to have the MB200 pixelmagic mediabox and the sound was superb. Sadly, it has a terrible interface and lacks x264 support.

I then built a HTPC with a modded x-meridian 7.1. To get the best audio, I use foobar and the analogue outs of the card. There is a very distinctive improvement in audio when using analogue rather than coax and foobar wllows bit-exact playback bypassing Windows kernel mixer.

[rhubarbe]

I bought a Sonos for flac and wav and a Naim DVD5 to play my CDs. Breath of fresh air, though somewhat pricey.