Computer Audio, worth or not?

For me, it started back in late 00's. I will be honest: I was rather biased back then against computer audio. I never liked MP3 in terms of audio quality, but lossless FLAC files eventually had gotten under my attention. Still, I was not ready to accept that a plastic piece of junk that was getting power from another plastic piece of junk could outperform my heavy Parasound DAC with its three independent power supplies. I felt that computer audio could not be audiophile or Hi-Fi.




Parasound D/AC-1000 inside (picture taken from the Web)

Neither was ready to understand that a PC could send a digital stream better than my Pioneer Stable Platter Mechanism CD player, used solely as a transport.




Pioneer Stable Platter Mechanism (scann from Pioneer brochure)

But there was a lot of fuss regarding computer audio, so I thought to give it a try. After all, the opportunity for a comparison test was laying in front of me. I borrowed from Panos an external Creative Sound Blaster (model no. 580270) USB audio card.



View of Pano's Sound Blaster 580270

This card has an optical TosLink out, so I could drive my Parasound DAC with it. In order to make the test as much objective as I could, I followed the following procedure: I chose a good sounding audio file with lossless compression (FLAC 16 bit 44.1kHz). I burned an audio CD from this very same FLAC file. I listened to the music coming from the audio card to the Parasound DAC through an Audioquest OptiLink Z Quartz S/PDIF TosLink fiber optic. I then listened to the CD with my Pioneer CD player acting as transport, feeding the same Parasound DAC through the very same Audioquest fiber. The result? Rather disappointing regarding the computer sound. I listened to it again and again, but the CD was sounding without a doubt superior from the computer. I told Panos about it and he proposed me to go see a psychologist. I invited him to come and listen for himself. Even thought back then Panos was biased towards the computers (no matter what the issue would be) he agreed: the sound coming from the Sound Blaster + the Parasound was clearly inferior from the sound coming from the Pioneer CD transport + the Parasound.

Just for the record, let me say that the sound of the Sound Blaster + Parasound was much superior from the analogue sound coming directly from my Sony VAIO laptop.

To be honest, I had mixed emotions. From one side, I was happy that the “pure” audio CD was better than the crappy looking sound card. But from the other side, how could this be possible? I mean, we feed the Parasound a digital signal after all. The CD was created from the audio file that the PC was sending. How the hell can the CD sound better than.. it’s origin?!?! However, there was no doubt. The CD was sounding much better. But the journey to the computer audio was not over.

With today’s knowledge, I believe that the problem was one of the two issues below - or maybe both of them:
1) I was not sending to the Sound Blaster a “bit perfect” digital stream through the USB. Back then, I knew nothing about Foobar2000 or JRiver. I was using VLC media player and yes, your software music player affects the digital stream you get from your PC.
2) There was a conversion happening to the digital stream, from USB to S/PDIF. Maybe the Sound Blaster was not perfect on that.

Even though I (happily) put a Pause to the chapter “PC audio”, luckily something else happened. A tech guru / electronic engineer we know and respect (let’s call him Mr. C.T. and let me point out that he has a lot of knowledge, but most important he is happy to share it), told me in exacts words: “If you realize how good computer audio can be, there is no turning back”. To make a long story short, he suggested the E-MU 0404 USB audio interface that sounds very nice as it is and can sound superb with a few tweaks. I bought it, I looked at it, I again stubbornly thought that this plastic thing cannot play better than my Parasound DAC and put it in a drawer.



The mighty E-MU 0404 USB. Sounds so good that it hurts. Should be illegal.

Panos was present to the discussion with the tech guru. As I have already explained, Panos is not emotionally attached to the machines. Panos also bought the E-MU but he didn’t put it in a drawer, he gave it a try. “You got to come and listen to this” he told me (by "this" he meant a properly set up Foobar2000 and the E-MU). It was 2011 and yes, when you realize how good computer audio can sound, there is no turning back.

After this conclusion, the next logical step was to mod the EMU and make a proper power supply. We even had the chance to make an A/B comparison between my normal E-MU and Panos modded E-MU, as well as between normal and custom power supplies. More about this at this later post.

Also, more regarding on how to and why of computer audio at the same later post mentioned above.

Other related posts:

- Can HDDs affect the sound quality in computer audio?
- Is there such a thing as an audiophile PC for computer audio?
- CD Vs. computer audio, CD quality Vs. Hi-Res.


Happy listening as always.

Chris