[Landspeeder_95]

BACKGROUND:
I am a proud owner of Jed’s Clearwaveloudspeaker’s 4T Mains and Center kits. Upstream of this I have an Emotiva XPA-5, an Emotiva UMC-1, and 2 sources.

My secondary source is a DVD player for Netflix rentals. When I play CDs, DVDs, or DVD-Audio through this the sound is fantastic, phenomenal, and ethereal on well recorded tracks. All of my CDs and DVDs (thousands of both) are in long term storage in the crawl space and my home doesn’t have enough room to store them in an accessible location: hence I store the dvd’s as ISOs and the CDs as rips on my network server.

THE PROBLEM:
An HTPC is my main source. When I ran the music through my old pioneer receiver into DCM floor-standing speakers this was fine. Now that the processor, amp, and speakers are fantastic my music via the HTPC sounds harsh and painful… it is not usable through this form at all in the current configuration.

THE HTPC SETUP:
My rips are via 320 kbit/s MP3: I have tried a flac rip and no difference was noticed using the current HTPC, the original HTPC (now gone), or a media streamer.

The source is via either Optical (or HDMI) from my onboard Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard (Windows 7) to the UMC-1 using the highest S/PDIF rate available.  I use Windows 7 Media Center as the WAF, I,  and guests are happy with the interface.

Any suggestions for a source upgrade to the HTPC to allow the music to sound listenable again? I do not mind re-encoding my entire library to FLAC or WAV if it is necessary, but so far my tests have proven no difference and I believe a hardware upgrade is necessary.

My original post was over at http://htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?p=513930#post513930, but Jed recommended I take a gander over here for my specific issue.  So far from what I have read I am impressed.  I can implement a $300 solution immediately, though I'd be willing to spend up to $1,500 if necessary.

The suggestions thus far:
1) A USB DAC (DacMagic, Musical Fidelity V-DAC, Wyred 4 Sound)  I've since seen that emotiva is also coming out with an XDA-1
2) Use a dedicated media streamer such as the Popcorn Hour C-200.  I am OK with this idea if the interface is similar to Windows 7 media center for music and dvd isos.  My current media streamer (briteview cinematube) does NOT have an acceptable UI and it has lockup issues with album playback.
3) Use an internal soundcard such as the Asus Xonar DX2
4) Check for software/driver interferences (all done).

Thank you all in advance.

[Vincent Kars]

My rips are via 320 kbit/s MP3: I have tried a flac rip and no difference was noticed using the current HTPC, the original HTPC (now gone), or a media streamer.

A lot of people don't hear the difference between the original recording (16/44.1) and a high bitrate MP3. However, for testing purposes you might consider to rip a couple of CDs to a lossless format just to eliminate one of those many parameters which might possibly be of influence

using the highest S/PDIF rate available.

Looks like you are using the Windows Audio engine sample rate converter.
This is not the best there is.
Play a couple of your recordings at their native sample rate (44.1)

Check the SPDIF out settings, maybe you have invoked some "enhancements", disable them.
http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Windows/Win7/SPDIF_Win7.htm

[Landspeeder_95]

Vincent,

Thanks for this info.  I've now tested side by side my network high bit rate mp3's, and their equivalent WAV and ISO.

I've set the S/PDIF rate to 44.1, made certain it's volume was set to 100 and double checked that all enhancements have been disabled.  Finally I've made certain that the default format is 16bit 44100HZ.

I've used windows media center for playback as well as J-River (using WASAPI) and gave j-river exclusive control of the driver. 

In each test many portions of the track came out sounding harsh and distorted.

Then through the drive panel I ran the sound 'test' on the various output rates.  I would get random blobs of metallic distortion directly from the driver.  I believe my HTPC's onboard sound card is picking up some very strange noise.   I repeated this test using a set of analog headphones and it blew up one of the cup drivers (not too happy about that).  I again repeated by sending the sound via HDMI to my TV and received the same results.

I believe I must now decide between a different sound card or a USB DAC.

[Landspeeder_95]

Just to double check I brought in my living room's brite-view cinamea tube and hooked up the audio to the same input on my UMC-1 that my PC has been using.  The sound was fine.

[Vincent Kars]

I repeated this test using a set of analog headphones and it blew up one of the cup drivers (not too happy about that).

If it is not blown because you played excessively loud, it probably has a very high DC offset and frying the speaker because of this.
Looks pretty much like a problem with the onboard audio and this might effect the SPDIF as well.

I don’t know much about HMDI but obvious this output is affected as well.
As both analog and digital out is affected, a very noisy power supply can be the cause.
If this is true, a new sound card won’t help.

Maybe a loopback recording using Rightmark audio analyzer?
http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/AudioTools/TroubleShooting.htm

[Landspeeder_95]

Vincent,

It looks like a USB-DAC is out due to the limitation of 2 channel audio.  I'm looking into a soundcard, and if this too has problems, I'll be trying out the loopback via the Rightmark analyzer.

I'm trying to decide between the  $200 Asus xonar essence STX (AV100) with the opamp or the $180 Asus D2X (AV200).  Though the Essence uses the AV100, it appears the 7-64bit drivers are more stable.  I may even lean towards the $80 Asus Xonar DX which shares the AV100 of the essence stx and still has an optical out.

[Landspeeder_95]

I picked up an Asus D2X...
WOW
The analog sounds fantastic!
The SPDIF optical bypass sounds like bum still.

I can live with the AMAZING analog output however

Using RMAA on the SPDIF shows some nasty stuff, apparently in sync with my water pump.
Using RMAA on the analog out shows nothing.

[srb]

Using RMAA on the SPDIF shows some nasty stuff, apparently in sync with my water pump.

If you're talking about a water supply pump or booster to your house in the country, well you need water to live, not much you can do about that.  However, if you're referring to a water pump used to water cool your PC, most HTPC and music servers try to eliminate all or most motors (fans or pumps) if possible.
 
Steve

[Landspeeder_95]

Steve,

My HTPC serves dual duty as a compiling rig.  It is watercooled to eliminate the noise typically associated with such heavy hardware.  The current card does a very good job, however I am looking into building a nearly passive system for HTPC movies/music playback only that uses only a single fan (all on air).  At that time I'll grab a second D2X. 

Thanks!

[srb]

Glad to hear that the Asus soundcard has an analog output that you are happy with.  It is probably a moot point should you build another HTPC/music server in the future, but for my own curiosity, is the water pump AC or DC, as motor electrical noise feedback seems to be mostly attributed to AC motors?
 
Steve

[Landspeeder_95]

The motor is a D5 variable speed DC pump.  As I turn the speed down the onboard sound  (and the optical output) issues decrease.  As I turn the speed up the onboard sound issues increase.
I too think it is very strange, however that is what I observe.

Everything is powered by an Enermax Revolution PSU.  Changing the rail used doesn't appear to negate the issue.