Bit-perfect is not hard to do on Windows. Bypass K-mixer; this is old news. If you can pass DTS over S/PDIF...it's bit perfect.
"I assume that you mean DTS audio CDs that have DTS content encoded inside the stereo/16-bit/44.1 kHz PCM audio stream. MC handles these like any standard Red Book Audio CDs. You can configure MC to output bit perfect data to an external DTS decoder (usually a multi-channel receiver). For this you need to use the ASIO output mode and disable all DSP inside MC (including the volume and replay gain adjustments). Naturally your soundcard must support ASIO and bit perfect 44.1 kHz S/PDIF passthrough."
from:http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=39200.msg266592#msg266592
SWPS.....find one with solid build quality & low ripple, and cross your fingers. Toslink decouples chassis' and is not succeptible to RF or EMI; the bandwidth limited comment should be qualified. If it has less bandwidth I2S, fine, but it has enough for high sampling rates like 96kHz. If it's bit perfect and you pass it to a decent external DAC, in this regard I think Toslink is superior due to decoupling, and no succeptibilty to RFI or EMI.
If you have a decent card, and the right DAC, jitter is a non-issue (at least one that won't keep you up at night
); methinks the SWPS is a red-herring, or a sign that jitter reduction is not properly implemented in the DAC.
"Well I spent some time comparing the sound of the Lavry DA10 when fed from the S/PDIF outputs of modest Echo Mia and Emu 1820M soundcards that I use as benchmark comparisons when reviewing audio interfaces, as well as to the AES/EBU digital output from the well-respected Lynx Two soundcard, and couldn't detect any sonic differences between them through my ATC loudspeakers or Sennheiser HD650 headphones.
Suffice it to say that I happily left the DA10 plumbed in to my Echo Mia card, and have no plans to upgrade this component. "
from:
http://lavryengineering.com/lavry_forum/viewtopic.php?t=649You won't get "bit perfect" reproduction from the output of a typical PC, even with a quality sound card. And BTW, besides the bit perfect ripping, there's also the problem of perfectly clocked digital output from a PC.
One of the theoretical superiorities of network players, is that the network data stream is bit perfect, unlike audio data coming from a PC soundcard. But again, as in the comments about the SB3, that doesn't mean that the output from such a device is bit perfect.
Building a silent audio-rack HTPC will be even easier in years to come. SSD drive and through some Firewire drives in the closet. I currently have a 12gHz HTPC sitting silently on my audio rack, and it's bit-perfect (if I choose not to use ReplayGain). I don't understand the infatuation with labeling everything a "media server"; it's a front-end and it doesn' t have to be network based, in fact, I'd prefer it not to be, but logistics sometimes call for it I guess. All these high-end systems like Soloos just freak me out; limited GUIs and auto-tagging. J. River offers with $30 more than any of these "corporate" in-a-box "music servers" can with $5k of DRM bloatware.
It would be cool to build a linear psu and gather some real comparisions:
http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/730085-power-supply-linear-48v-500w-bfs500-48.htmlDC
