[Saturn94]

I was reading a thread about a new USB-S/PDIF converter.  On the manufacturer's website they advised checking first to see if your computer has any latency issues that could cause dropouts when playing music before purchasing their product.

First of all, I don't know what "latency issues" are other than they can cause problems with the computer streaming realtime data such a music, but I did a quick search and came across this Latency Checker;

http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

Since I'm considering dipping my toe into the computer audio world and am leaning towards purchasing a USB-S/PDIF converter, I figured I would give the Latency Checker a try to see if my computer is up to the task.

When I run the program it reports that my computer shouldn't have any issues, that is until I turn on the wireless to access the internet.  Any internet activity causes the Latency Checker to report that my computer is may experience dropouts due to excessive latency.

So it would appear that I would not be able to enjoy problem free playback through my sound system using a USB-SPDIF converter while surfing the internet.   Interestingly, if I'm listening to music via the built in computer speakers, I don't experience any dropouts or issues while surfing the internet (I'm doing that right now).

Can anyone here share their experiences and knowledge about this and if there is a solution that would allow me to listen to music problem free while surfing the net?

For reference, I'm using an HP laptop I purchased 3-4 years ago running Vista (service pack 2), 1.6ghz AMD Turion 64 x2 CPU, and 2g RAM.  My music players include Windows Media Player 11 and Foobar (I just recently downloaded Foobar and have just started to learn how to use it).

 

[Saturn94]

I take it from the lack of response that this isn't much of an issue to be concerned about?

I appreciate anyone sharing their experience, good or bad, with this.

Thanks.

[toddbagwell]

I don't have any experience with that program or device/connection type. What hardware do you have now? And are you having any issues with playback?

Todd

[pansixt]

Saturn94

If you use your wireless connection and the signal strength says it is good (4 or 5 bars on the
connection ICON), and you don't loose connection often when surfing the net wirelessly, then you should be OK.

If you have a low or weak signal between your wireless device (laptop or whatever),
and the router, then that could cause a problem.

Try connecting with your wireless connection to internet radio or some other streaming
program and see if the connection drops off during use.

If not, then you should be fine.
If so, then we look elsewhere. It is possible that the Latency checker is overly sensitive,
or just wrong.

You can also visit myspeed.com (myconnectionserver), and run any of the several free tests.
Lots of good info there. Feel free to PM me if you want.

James

Edit Note: If the above test site takes an unusually long time to load, then try at another
time.
I tried to access the site on Saturday morning 10:30 a.m. eastern and it lagged considerably.
This appeared unusual, and I assume that it was a very high traffic time on the site.

[Saturn94]

I don't have any experience with that program or device/connection type. What hardware do you have now? And are you having any issues with playback?

Todd

Thanks Todd.

I still haven't purchased a device to connect my computer to my main audio system.  I've pretty much decided to get a USB - S/PDIF converter (probably the HiFace), but had to put that off for now due to unexpected circumstances.

I've been doing some research and came across the program that measures latency and wondered if this was something I should be concerned about.  If possible, I'd like to head off any potential issues before I take my first step into computer audio.

Saturn94

If you use your wireless connection and the signal strength says it is good (4 or 5 bars on the
connection ICON), and you don't loose connection often when surfing the net wirelessly, then you should be OK.

If you have a low or weak signal between your wireless device (laptop or whatever),
and the router, then that could cause a problem.

Try connecting with your wireless connection to internet radio or some other streaming
program and see if the connection drops off during use.

If not, then you should be fine.
If so, then we look elsewhere. It is possible that the Latency checker is overly sensitive,
or just wrong.

You can also visit myspeed.com (myconnectionserver), and run any of the several free tests.
Lots of good info there. Feel free to PM me if you want.

James

Edit Note: If the above test site takes an unusually long time to load, then try at another
time.
I tried to access the site on Saturday morning 10:30 a.m. eastern and it lagged considerably.
This appeared unusual, and I assume that it was a very high traffic time on the site.

Thanks for the information and the link, James.  I'll check that out when I get back from my trip.

I guess I really won't know how my system will actually behave until I get an USB-S/PDIF converter and actually try it out.  Hopefully if I do have an issue I can get help/guidence here from those much more experienced/knowledable.

[charmerci]

The Kingrex UC192 is a good converter box, recommended by Frank Van Alstine here on AC.

[Saturn94]

Saturn94

If you use your wireless connection and the signal strength says it is good (4 or 5 bars on the
connection ICON), and you don't loose connection often when surfing the net wirelessly, then you should be OK.

If you have a low or weak signal between your wireless device (laptop or whatever),
and the router, then that could cause a problem.

Try connecting with your wireless connection to internet radio or some other streaming
program and see if the connection drops off during use.

If not, then you should be fine.
If so, then we look elsewhere. It is possible that the Latency checker is overly sensitive,
or just wrong.

You can also visit myspeed.com (myconnectionserver), and run any of the several free tests.
Lots of good info there. Feel free to PM me if you want.

James

Edit Note: If the above test site takes an unusually long time to load, then try at another
time.
I tried to access the site on Saturday morning 10:30 a.m. eastern and it lagged considerably.
This appeared unusual, and I assume that it was a very high traffic time on the site.

Thanks Todd.

I still haven't purchased a device to connect my computer to my main audio system.  I've pretty much decided to get a USB - S/PDIF converter (probably the HiFace), but had to put that off for now due to unexpected circumstances.

I've been doing some research and came across the program that measures latency and wondered if this was something I should be concerned about.  If possible, I'd like to head off any potential issues before I take my first step into computer audio.

Thanks for the information and the link, James.  I'll check that out when I get back from my trip.

I guess I really won't know how my system will actually behave until I get an USB-S/PDIF converter and actually try it out.  Hopefully if I do have an issue I can get help/guidence here from those much more experienced/knowledable.

Life threw us quite a curve ball, so it's only been recently that I was able to purchase a USB-S/PDIF converter (M2Tech hiFace) and try it out on my laptop.  I'm happy to report that I've not had any issues playing music while surfing the internet.  The only issue I have is if I'm only playing music on the laptop and doing nothing else, after awhile the virus protector wants to use this "idle time" to run a scan and causes the music to drop out.  In this case I just disconnect from my network and turn off the virus protector (is this a bad idea??).

Like pansixt said, I think the latency checker is a bit too sensitive.

[GarfL]

I have no idea why USB-S/PDIF converter would care what your internet connection latency is, unless of course you are streaming music from the internet.  I assume you are going toslink out to an external DAC or receiver?

 Glad to hear it is working for you. What equipment are you connecting to? Which USB-s/PDIF converter is it?

[toddbagwell]

I agree that the internet latency is not the issue, rather latency within the computer doing other processing while sending a stream of audio data to the DAC.


Todd

[Saturn94]

I have no idea why USB-S/PDIF converter would care what your internet connection latency is, unless of course you are streaming music from the internet.  I assume you are going toslink out to an external DAC or receiver?

 Glad to hear it is working for you. What equipment are you connecting to? Which USB-s/PDIF converter is it?

I agree that the internet latency is not the issue, rather latency within the computer doing other processing while sending a stream of audio data to the DAC.


Todd

Sorry I wasn't clear.  Todd is correct, my concern was about latency within the computer, not the internet connection.

I'm using an M2Tech hiFace connected to my Anthem AVM20 processor via RCA digital connection.  So far I am very happy with the results.  The only let down has been my Anthem AVM20 apparently doesn't have enough processing power to apply Pro Logic IIx Music to higher resolution files such as 24/96 files.  I can use Anthem's proprietary "Anthem Logic" music mode although it's not designed to be as aggressive as PLIIx and mainly just provides a little ambience in the rear channels without touching the front channels (this can be a good thing depending on content).  This limitation is not a dealbreaker for me and doesn't warrant updating my processor that I otherwise still love to use.

I'm using Foobar2000 v1.1.8 to play my music files.  The only issue I have with it is that for some reason it won't remember the output device I've chosen when I shut down my laptop.  Each time I boot up I have to select the output device again.  I've posted this on a Foobar2000 forum linked to Foobars website; hopefully there will be an easy fix.

 



Edit:  I got a response saying my drivers are broke.  I think I'll start a thread here to see what other hiFace owners are experiencing.

[Saturn94]

Sorry I wasn't clear.  Todd is correct, my concern was about latency within the computer, not the internet connection.

I'm using an M2Tech hiFace connected to my Anthem AVM20 processor via RCA digital connection.  So far I am very happy with the results.  The only let down has been my Anthem AVM20 apparently doesn't have enough processing power to apply Pro Logic IIx Music to higher resolution files such as 24/96 files.  I can use Anthem's proprietary "Anthem Logic" music mode although it's not designed to be as aggressive as PLIIx and mainly just provides a little ambience in the rear channels without touching the front channels (this can be a good thing depending on content).  This limitation is not a dealbreaker for me and doesn't warrant updating my processor that I otherwise still love to use.

I'm using Foobar2000 v1.1.8 to play my music files.  The only issue I have with it is that for some reason it won't remember the output device I've chosen when I shut down my laptop.  Each time I boot up I have to select the output device again.  I've posted this on a Foobar2000 forum linked to Foobars website; hopefully there will be an easy fix.

 



Edit:  I got a response saying my drivers are broke.  I think I'll start a thread here to see what other hiFace owners are experiencing.

OK, this is strange.......

I commented above that it seemed my AVM20 processor didn't have enough processing power to apply DPLIIx Music to hi rez files (24/96).  Since purchasing my hiFace a couple weeks ago, it's always been the case when I try to apply DPLIIx to a hi rez file, it would be very distorted.  I just concluded I cannot apply DPLIIx to files high rez files.

Last night and tonight I noticed that when I selected DPLIIx on my processor, it wasn't using the correct speaker configuration I set in the settings (the AVM20 allows you to set separate Cinema and Music speaker configurations to be applied to any input as desired).  After reseting the speaker configuration settings a couple times, saving the results, and rebooting the processor, it now seems to apply the correct settings to DPLIIx.  It's odd that this issue only appeared on the input I'm using for the hiFace.  I never had this issue with my other inputs.  Also, if I switched from the hiFace input to the CD player input, then back again, the correct speaker configuration would now play on the hiFace input.

Now this is where we get to the really strange part; tonight after dealing with the above issue, I was playing some mp3s via my hiFace and had the processor set to DPLIIx Music.  Without thinking about it, I switched to play a few hi rez files (24/96) without changing the surround mode on the processor and they played fine!   So apparently my AVM20 can apply DPLIIx to 24/96 files.

I won't pretend to know what is going on here, but hopefully it will work properly now.

BTW, my issue with Foobar2000 not remembering the output device seems to be related to my startup sequence (I discovered this thanks to help from my fellow AudioCircle members ).  I was booting up the laptop first, then plugging in the hiFace, then starting up Foobar.  Doing that Foobar would not remember the output device.  If I plug in the hiFace first, then boot up the laptop, then start up Foobar, it remembers the output device setting.

Aren't computers fun?

Sometimes I miss the good old days when everything was analog and as long as you had your wires hooked up properly, it just worked.