MY PC Feb 2, 2009

Corsair HX620
Intel E7200 under-clocked to 1.2Ghz
Asus P5Q Deluxe (BIOS modded, see below)
Kingston HyperX 2x1G DDR2 800
5x 玄人志向 NO-PCI card
Lynx AES16e
Asus E4650
Lian Li aluminum case

Dedicate IRQ for your Sound Card and Prioritize IRQ

IRQ Sharing between Sound card and SATA/Graphic/LAN/USB IRQ is a major cause of pops and clicks. You may swap the sound card to the right slot in order to achieve "dedicate IRQ". If it doesn't work, you either buy another motherboard, or buy a MAC (this is not a joke)

Afterwards, Set IRQ priority for sound card:
1. Find out your sound card's IRQ,( Run msinfo32.exe and view hardware info)
2. In Regedit, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl.
3. Add a new DWORD, "IRQ#Priority" , and the "#" in between is the sound card's IRQ. E.g. If your sound card's IRQ is 21, then the DWORD is "IRQ21Priority".
4. Set Value to 1, then Reboot

ASUS P5Q Series BIOS MODD

For those of you who have strong experience in upgrading BIOS, there are several BIOS modifications available for your P5Q Series Motherboard.

I am using the "m" BIOS for P5Q Deluxe and I find it very stable. BOOT UP time is much faster than original BIOS.

The link is as below:

Link:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=200109

Modded BIOS download link:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5UQRVLTK

Mytek 8x192 - My new DAC

http://www.mytekdigital.com/products/8x192adda.htm


After a few months' consideration, I purchased the Mytek 8x192 to replace the Benchmark DAC-1. Benchmark has been my closest hi-fi comrade for 3 years. Mytek is not cheap and buying Mytek is not an easy process; I ordered it via online but it was out of stock, and I waited for more than a month. One of the Mytek's staff, Michal emailed me to ask for billing details and invoices, I then remitted US$ to their account and waited for another week before getting my new DAC.

Well, at least I get the DAC eventually! After running in for a week, I think it should be a good time and I am excited to give it an initial comment:

• Very accurate sound from bass all the way to treble, wide and deep sound stage. A good DAC for symphonic music. However, female vocal is not as sweet as Benchmark.

• Therefore, I still firmly convinced that Benchmark DAC-1 (non-USB version) has probably the hard to beat price-performance ratio in the DAC market.

• CX797 clock further enhances the accuracy. Currently I am using Lynx AES16e sound card -> Mytek 8x192, but I also connect the clock source is from Mytek to Lynx and let Lynx to use Mytek's word clock. The result is even more accurate sound I cannot listen to music without it.

• The dual AES wire option of Mytek further enhances the accuracy.

• The headphone amp is excellent and it drives my Beyer DT990 very well. In contrast, Benchmark does not have enough power to drive DT990. Turning 24-step attenuator (volume knob) back and forth feels so good and sounds very good :)

• Power is switchable between 110/220 makes it easy to take away to other countries.

• 8x192 has 2 option slots, makes it very easy to add options and future proof. I purchased the optional 1934 firewire module to maximizes its portability but I still haven't a chance to listen to it yet.
  

• I opened the case and took a look inside, the Mytek has a beautiful layout. The workmanship however, it not the top grade. Oh well, who cares when the sound comes out is just excellent.

• I am surprised to see a small fan inside which generates a small hum when the unit is hot (believe the fan is auto switched). The brand of the fan is Sunon, a reputed brand for its reliability, but it is a bit noisy. In general, the unit is not hot at all, so I believe the fan is added "just in case" for Hong Kong's weather.
  

• I also purchased the 3x cable (AES, XLR IN, XLR OUT) for another $549, so I have one less worry about which (expensive) AES/XLR cable to buy. However, only AES cable is essential. There are two XLR analogue output ports.
  

In summary, Mytek sounds excellent, I believe I am buying a very good sound DAC for that price. Mytek 8x192 is a AD-DA so as a normal home user, I am using 1/8 of it's capability only.
After audited dCS, Weiss, Esoteric, Chord, Benchmark, Stello DACs, I firmly believe Mytek worths every penny :)

Current System

Power Source: Sine 2KV Isolation Transformer
Mytek 8x192 w/1394 option, AES/XLR cables
Chord 2600
Audioquest Volcano 72v DBS speaker cable
JMLab Micro Utopia BE on TAOC WST-60H

My PC Setup:
Sine 2KV Isolation Transformer
Li Lian Aluminium Case
Corsair HX620
Intel E7200 Core2Duo (underclock to 1200Mhz)
Asus P5Q-Deluxe Motherboard
Asus E4650 Graphic Card
Kingston 2x1G HyperX DDR2-800
WD250YS
玄人志向 x4,
Lynx AES16e Sound Card

玄人志向 Kuroutoshikou NO-PCI

The Kurotoshikou NO-PCI is a cheap and excellent noise reduction Board. It comes in either PCI or PCI-Express form. It is used in between Video card and sound card to isolate noise generated at CPU/Video cards, as well as PCI power buffering for the PCI sound card.

http://www.kuroutoshikou.com/products/etc/no-pci.html

RAMDISK

Original post for RAMDISK:
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/messages/18574.html

(1) Get the RAMDISK from http://www.ramdisk.be/ Go for the "enterprise" solution.

(2) Goto Control Panel -> System -> hardware -> Device Manager -> RAM Drive
Build your own RAM disk, choose a drive letter say B:\

(3) Copy wav files to the new B:\ Drive

(4) Playback the songs on B:\ directly from Foobar or Samplitude

Result: install 左 RAM Drive 後同老闆玩估歌仔, 在 foobar 放 (1) 在 HDD 的 Best 100 Piano 的 Fantasia Impromtu 和 (2) 在 Ramdisk 的同一首歌, 估左兩次都中, RAM Disk 明顯 Detail 多左. 然後在 Samplitude 再 play 一次 Ram disk, 清到演奏者的抖氣聲都聽到...

Audiophile Grade HTPC 建造要點

如何計算所需火牛大小:

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp
http://www.eu-energystar.org/en/en_008b.shtml

Audiophile Grade 的 HTPC 不需太快, 中等速度而可, Motherboard 也不太講究, 大路的 Asus, Intel, Gigabyte 也可以. 但留意火牛必須優質而足火.

一般來說要達到 CD player grade 的 HTPC, PC+Sound Card 部分只出 digital signal (AES 或 Coaxial), DAC 則交由 External DAC 負責. 即 PC -> Sound Card -> DAC -> AMP -> Speaker.

如 PC 部分只出 digital out, sound card 的 jitter 需留心. 建議留意 sound card 的抗 jitter 能力, 及選擇良好 digital cable.

另一的玩法是用 Apogee Big Ben 等 master clock, 張 PC sound card 同 DAC 的 clock sync 起.

Desktop PC:
1) CPU 不用好勁，只需有SSE2 or SSE3 指領；
2) Mother board 要有 3條或以上的 PCI 糟；
3) 火牛要過火和有２組獨立 +12V 輸出；
4) ATA hard disk 比 SATA hard disk 好聲；
5) 如用 ATA HDD, IDE cable 要選用有水線的 cable；
6) 火牛電源線要夠粗大；
7) DVD-rom 最好用 Plextor, 因 Plextor 閱讀力著名

Hardware:
電源: 要優質及有 +12V 兩組比 PCI 用底版:
無大分別, Gigabyte, Asus, Intel 都有人用
DVD-ROM: 最好 Plextor
HDD: Maxtor 7200RPM/16M/SATA2 ( Or Seagate 沙魚)
Video Card: X1600 Pro 128MB (優質如 Sapphire, Asus, Leadtek)

Sound Card Options:
RME 9632: 貴, AES breakout cable 要另買
RME 96/8PAD : 平過 9632,
Lynx Two : 更貴, 但包 AES Breakout cable
Sound Card Interface: PCI better than Firewire better than USB 2.0
Digital output: AES ＞ Coaxial ＞ Optical
M-Audio 5.1, 7.1: Good for non-audiophile.
Creative 1212m: AES 是非平衡的, 評語一般, 勝在平過 RME
Creative 0404M USB Sound Card - Good comment with excellent jitter figure.
Trend Audio UD-10: 優質港產 USB Digital output, Recommend 外置 DAC

USBDAC:
USBDAC 最大優點是方便簡單及對 PC 要求較低. 如用 notebook PC 更加可有最強 mobility. 缺點是 USB 傳訊力弱, 直接影響音色.
Stello DA220 MKii: 已包 sound card 的 DAC, 惜 interface 是 USB 1.1, 只能用 ASIO4ALL
Stello DA100: Lower version of DA220
Apogee Mini DAC USB:


Software:
Ripping Software: EAC + Accurate Rip
Playback Software: 一般用 Foobar + ASIO
File format: Wave or lossless compression like APE or Flac

Building of an HTPC

The purpose of this blog to store the documentation and related information for building an Audiophile grade PC and Hifi System. Anything that relates to computer-based playback technology or discussion can be included here.

Please kindly feel free to post any information that I am not aware of!