Digital Sound FAQ

[What's your choice?]

What's your choice?
Altec Lansing
	21 (48%)
Creative Inspire
	5 (11%)
Logitech
	5 (11%)
JBL
	4 (9%)
Labtec Pulse
	1 (2%)
Phillips
	3 (6%)
Edifier
	3 (6%)
Sonic Gear
	1 (2%)
Total Voters: 43

[dhiching03]

ok sir..i'll try those.

[mikeer2002ph]

new update:

Finally got myself a Klipsch RW10 Subwoofer to augment my existing Acoustic-Energy Aegis Evo 1 Bookshelves

technically im now a 2.1 audiophile LOL 

Digital Sound FAQ

[mikeer2002ph]

update

listen up Realtek HDA (ALC 2XX,6XX, 8XX) users

just recently discovered a driver that at least puts the lowly onboard Realtek codec from the bottom-rung (audiophile wise) to almost approaching that of creative's legendary X-Fi codec

drivers are here: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=87523

[darkangel]

Thats good news bro mikeer.

i like the x-fi interface and using the x-fi 3D effects and crystallisation on a Realtek chip.

How to know what type of realtek hda we have?

[mikeer2002ph]

well realtek drivers are called Realtek HD Audio. If you remember using it for your computer then most likely it can be upgraded to the realtek X-fi drivers

realtek has several flavors of the HD codec - 2 channel (2XX), 6 channel (6XX) and 8 channel (8XX). The X-Fi driver works with all according to the site

if you want to be certain, you may want to pop the hood on your unit, and look for a small chip at the back of the motherboard back most near the slots (where the motherboard audio usually resides) and look for a realtek chip (icon looks like a silicon crab and legs made of circuit traces. there may also be a word realtek followed by ALC XXX (this is where you determine if its 2 or 6 or 8 channel)

[darkangel]

Thanks bro!

i found another way too.  I clicked the realtek manager on the taskbar then:
clicked the "!" icon

Digital Sound FAQ

and here it is:

Digital Sound FAQ

bro, if this will sound at par or better than the creative sound blaster value i've got, then my upgrade will loose its sense.     

[mikeer2002ph]

hold your horses dark

the x-fi mod for realtek is just to show that its possible (through software/drivers) that the sound come almost CLOSE to that of an SB Audigy / SB X-FI, BUT will never be at the same page or better than these 2 offboard audio solutions

technically speaking, i've been listening to my lossless audio since last night and the verdict is out:

yes it almost sounds like the SB-Audigy / SB X-Fi at first, but comes at a price - there's a problem with the sound (distortion) at normal sound levels (0db at the equalizer, maximum at all other levels), and you can only appreciate it at ultra low to less than half at the equalizer gain area (-12db to -24db) im suspecting the driver is overloading the codec hence clipping the outputs to its threshold 109db ceiling, which is absent when using a true blue SB audigy / SB X-fi card.

also .. there's a bit of overhead on my i7 rig, one of the threads in one of the cores show 10-15% utilization (thread 8 on core 4) seems to be busy with something when listening (understandable and expected since software is processing the sound signal), i wonder how much overhead will it take for dual / single core processors or for single core with hyperthreading

again , we go back to the idea of offboard/onboard sound, you're still better off with offboard sound if you want a no-compromise situation like this

[darkangel]

Thanks for the advice bro mike. I was about to uninstall my audio card when two concerns has brought to my attention. and one of those was your response.

the second one is the X_FI MB which will be on trial for 30 days. that sucks.

anyway, i've installed the SRS Audio Sanbox and my pc came to light using this software. It sounded more vibrant and lively with music.

[mikeer2002ph]

Thanks for the advice bro mike. I was about to uninstall my audio card when two concerns has brought to my attention. and one of those was your response.

the second one is the X_FI MB which will be on trial for 30 days. that sucks.

anyway, i've installed the SRS Audio Sanbox and my pc came to light using this software. It sounded more vibrant and lively with music.

DO NOT uninstall your offboard soundcard, im sure it will sound a LOT better than the realtek x-fi mod.


I have this analogy - if this mod can make wonders with el cheapo onboard codec, WHAT MORE to a full fledged offboard sound card with its own DSP and codec combo that offloads the CPU?

well the xfi mb thingy is another thing .. it sucks that it only lasts for 30 days or so .. then again .. there's the internet im sure someone has already 'done' something about this LOL

SRS audio sanbox is another good applet,but right now im tweaking for the best sound with the least noticeable distortion


well .. a new problem surfaced because of this new development - my existing inventory of MP3s and WMAs, most of them are recorded only at 192kbps, mp3s at 128kbps and only a few are lossless wma and flac

the flacs / wma lossless sounds a lot better (my new baseline for sound quality) as compared to the mp3s / wmas in lower bitrates that now sounds off


so in a way, ignorance is bliss LOL - you might get disappointed that your existing music collection now sounds crappy because the codec has been upgraded with more resolution and frequency response

there's wisdom in investing in larger drives to accomodate larger files of lossless encoded music files

[darkangel]

Thanks for the advice bro mikeer,

well .. a new problem surfaced because of this new development - my existing inventory of MP3s and WMAs, most of them are recorded only at 192kbps, mp3s at 128kbps and only a few are lossless wma and flac

would a software that converts it back to wav or flac or any loss-less format restore its quality? i have about 40k songs also on mp3 and wma and i've converted some to wav. It sounded better. however, i really don't know if it has restored its original fidelity though.

[mikeer2002ph]

well if you convert lossless to wav then there's no 'loss' in the transformation, but MP3s and WMAs are lossy codecs meaning if you convert them back to wav or something lossless then you have lots of blank spaces which can only lead to poor quality

the only way now is to re-record the original material into something lossless so anytime you want to convert it to something else, nothing is added or subtracted