[woodsyi]

I have been experimenting with Foobar/Asio/SRC/M-audio settings and finally have music streaming for the most part.  Once every two hours or so Foobar will stop playing.  Monitoring the PC performance and network diagnostics shows that it's the networking side that causes the stoppage when data is disruted beyond the buffer and latency setting.  The bandwidth is not an issue since connection averages about 48MB.  I am going to try running a CAT 5e cable (2 floors) from my NAS to PC and see if it will take care of the situation.  Now, what can I say about the music when it's playing?

First I have to give kudos to Steve for modding the DAC and transport.  This may actually be responsible for the biggest leap in sound improvement.  Before the mod, I could just convince myself that digital out into my DAC from my Bolder modded Squeezebox was better than analog out.  After the mod, I clearly like the digital out into my DAC more as it puts more meat on the bone.  May be the silver Bybee is finally kicking in.  Music fills out nicely with harmonics I didn't think I was missing.  There is a slight difference in the flavor of upsampling to 192 vs staying at 44.1 but not much -- I like some music with upsampling and some, without.  

How does I2S offramp facilitated 24/96 SRC upsampled music compare?  Quantitatively, there is not a whole lot of difference that I hear.  I don't hear any obvious difference in terms of dynamics or clarity.  In fact, I doubt there is any difference in terms of S/N ratio if I could measure it.  The difference once you recognize is it is in the realm of art rather than in science.  However it does it, it reveals a level of artistry in the music that you didn't notice before.  It opens a window that makes it easier for you to connect with the music (those that have something that I want to connect to -- not sure I want to connect with David Lee Roth singing Ice Cream Man   It's the kind of thing that keeps some of us in the vinyl realm.  The ultimate testimony is that I have been listening more and not posting so often here.

[audioengr]

Rim - Where is the silver Bybee?

BTW - you really have to keep checking to see if Foobar2000 still has "realtime" priority.  Some PC's seem to reset it frequently.

Steve N.

[woodsyi]

Rim - Where is the silver Bybee?

I had Wayne put in a silver Bybee on SPDIF out on my SB2.  

BTW - you really have to keep checking to see if Foobar2000 still has "realtime" priority.  Some PC's seem to reset it frequently.

Steve N.

I do check them before each session.  If NAS via ethernet cable works, I plan to build a small and silent PC to go with I2S set up.  I noticed that on a Dell P4 running at 1.8 Hz and 1 GB memory, Foobar with 24/96 SRC upsampling takes 60 to 65% of system resource.  I think I will get a dual core processor for more head room if I build one.

[audioengr]

Digital signals should never have Bybees.  It may screw-up the transmission-line termination or the slew rate or both.  The output slew-rate and impedance matching of the S/PDIF connection is critical to minimizing jitter.

Steve N.