Hi Guys,

I`m looking for some general help on what would be the best setup for listening to music on my PC with headphones. I`m looking for as good a sound quality as I can.

I want the benefits of storing my music collection on my pc hard disk in mp3 or wmv or whatever works out best. Which format and compression rate is best these days considering I want to store a decent sized collection on a 20-40 gig hard disk. At the moment I`m storing as 192k mp3s or wmvs.

Also another query. Considering I have some good hifi headphones what is the best way to play the mp3s at best sound quality? Do I need to get a very good soundcard? Or is there a hardware device that works best. Also if a soundcard is the way to go are USB2 soundcards of equivalent quality?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Andrew

Here's a "best sound quality PC setup" for you:

Source (File format): FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Compression) ripped with EAC or (PlexTools if you have a Plextor drive)
Source (Software): Foobar2000
Source (Hardware): EMU 1212m (possibly modded but it sounds good stock).
Headphone & Amp: You can find some good reccomendations over at Head-Fi.

EDIT: I didn't notice you said you already had the headphones. Which ones are they?

The Headroom Bithead is what you want for excellent sound quality from your computer to headphones.

Review at Dansdata.

My headphones are Sennheiser HD477s at work and 497 at home. However because I listen to so much music with headphones I was thinking of upgrading.

So then I looked at headphone reviews, HD600s look pretty tasty. However everyone says that they need a headphone amp. Then I found out if you get one of those your soundcard will probably let you down for the input. So then I`m thinking what sound card.

The thing is I dont want any surround/game stuff etc as at work all I do for sound is listen to music. Is the EMU 1212m overkill just for listening to stereo as I see it has other input/outputs, or is it the case that no other card exists for solely getting best audio. Also do you know if the EMU 1212m comes in a USB 2 external version. I`m not my work will be happy with me opening up the pc, although it may be possible.

When you rip to FLAC, what sort of sizes are your files compared to mp3 at 192?

btw Thanks for all the info, its very helpfull.

FLAC bitrate would be around 750-950.

Just had a look and it would seem for what I need a nice compromise would be the Headroom total bithead and sennheiser HD580s.

What do you guys think? From what I have read people are saying that the HD600s would not be worth the extra cost if using the total bithead.

bit ot: are there any good blueprints for building similar usb headamp on the web? (the total cost should be mucho under 200$)

I just made the first set of prototype PCBs for my own USB DAC design. It uses the Texas Instruments PCM2704 integrated USB controller and 48/16 DAC and their TPA152 headphone power amplifier IC. Running off a wall-wart (not powered over USB in other words), the noise and distortion performance is really good, as far as measurements go.

I will see how it sounds when I have my first PCB built. Total cost looks like about ZAR300 (about $50). I would be more than happy to share my design (not tested completely yet though).

There are many similar designs, mostly using the older PCM2702 and driving the phones straight off the DAC (which is absolutely fine for 32ohm phones). You can find one floating around at diyaudio.com.

The 1212m is not only a great digital card but it's also one of the best analog cards on the market today. It compares to many $1000 external dedicated DACs in terms of sound quality.

Also, you shouldn't be afraid to open your PC. Installing a PCI card is merely opening the side of the case, removing the slot cover, and sticking the card in. It may require a little force. If you feel you're using too much force or you're very uncomfortable opening your computer then you should and have a computer technician install it (could be anyone from the guy at CompUSA to the kid down the block who knows everything about computers).

Thanks for the help, I like the look of the EMU1212m but would then probably need more money for a headphone amp. It would be nice to have them both in the same unit if the bithead is good enough quality.

I didnt make my previous email clear, the reason I dont want to open the pc up is because its a corporate machine and the it department may disallow me putting it in.

I have Grace Design Model 901 as DAC/amplifier. It works very well but it's expensive (around €2000). You can feed it with spdif (coax or optical), then the precision is very high and the noise floor is very low. You have several ways to transfer the digital stream thru spdif. Personally I use my Emagic Emi 2/6 thru USB. Other persons on the forum could help you on that.

For the headphone I have an HD650 and the Ety 4S. Ety's are very precise and can reveal the harshness of a track. HD650 are more colored in the bass and less detailed in highs (a new cable like Cardas is solving a little bit the problem) but they are very spectacular though.

Thanks Foobar with asio output, I have a bit perfect output.

With this configuration, you can't make a mistake. The sound with ety's is probably one of the more precise sound you can hear on this planet.
Fortunately, I have to use it for my company, so money wasn't a problem, but if quality count...

I keep hearing BS on Head-Fi about how optical out is better than SPDIF, and that the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 needs an external reclocker (or else an external DAC is a waste of money without it). Can anyone confirm or deny these (seemingly) BS statements?

It sure has nice RMAA specs. I don't know about comparing to many $1000 external dedicated DACs, this seems to be a matter of social agreement rather than any formal blind testing. IMO a $1000 external dedicated DAC is probably a waste of money in terms of minute, probably inaudible improvements over much cheaper DACs.