Hi,

I've recently decided to record my CDs as MP3s on my PC and play them back through my PCs sound card 3.5mm jack output into my Panasonic hifi amp phono aux left and right inputs.

After trying this with a couple of CDs I've not been too impressed with the sound quality - seems to lack definition. I'm not after perfection just an improvement.

These are the stages I've indentified and wondered if anyone can shed light as to their influence in the sound quality and alternative products.

1) PC CD player is a Lite-on DVD re-writer:
Don't know how this effects the quality of the files recorded to the hard disk - is it any better to use a dedictated CD drive (rather than DVD re-writer)?

2) File format MP3 - using iTunes:
This can obviously be improved - I haven't got bucket loads of hard disk space but how big are lossless files compared to MP3 and whats the current favourite format?

3) Sound card:
I believe I've got a pretty cheap and cheerful stereo PCI sound card which came with the PC with line in, mic in and line out. I've read lots of recommendations for the Chaintech card but I don't have an optical in on my amp. So can anyone recommend a sound card which produces decent quality analogue output (either 3.5mm jack or left and right phono)? I don't really require multichannel 5.1 sound, just looking for good quality stereo sound on a budget.

4) Analogue lead from PC to hifi:
Ideally I want to put my PC in my spare bedroom - 10 metres away from the hifi - does this seriously effect sound quality, using analogue phono leads - should I look at a closer location? What about using an AV-Sender which wirelessly transmits the signal on the 2.4Ghz banwidth?

5) Hifi amp:
Pretty old Panasonic system with only an analogue aux phono input (left and right) seems to do the job with CD's pretty well, don't really want to replace it - unless anyone could recommend a decent budget one with an optical in that could be coupled with the Chaintech sound card.

Any help/advice much appreciated.

Cheers,
Mike

Wellcome to HA!

The Lite-on will be fine for extracting the audio, since it's digital there will be no differance as long as there werent any errors.
The iTunes MP3 codec is know to be bad. Read the FAQ about lame if you want to use mp3. Consider other formats.
I can imagine that 10 meters will affect the quality but I'm no expert.
The Chaintech sound card does have a analogue output, and many audiophiles are happy with the sound quality of it.

Make sure you read the FAQ and use the search function to see if your questions have allready been answered. Enjoy your stay att HA!

That cheap soundcard may be the culprit but there are other factors like expectation, placebo effect etc. The Lite-on has nothing to do with sound quality, mp3 at >160kbits should be sufficient - especially the Lame encoder, For soundcard try a chaintech or a santacruz, lead length souldn't really affect things either.

Remember also that the sound from most consumer hi-fi equipment is often 'colored' in some way to 'please' the listener while a good soundcard may offer a flatter (more accurate) response. It may sound boring and too flat in the beginning but aftera while you will appreciate it much more. Your amp should do the trick with analogue connections - but it may color the sound slightly. Best way to check is to plug in a good pair of headphones into the analogue out of the card and compare it to the headphone jack on the amp. IMO the soundcard jack will be more accurate .

Get chaintec av-710. It has superior dac at its rear channels and it can be used to get high quality analog audio out of your pc though you need to enable the digital out to get sound out of that specific jack.

You should check that you are not using the phono input on your amp. It would add coloration and distortion.

Also use the recommended Lame encoder/preset.

Personally, I prefer to use a digital bit perfect output connected to a good converter/amp. Nowadays, you can find a pretty good one for a decent price (A/V Receiver).

Depending on the music and which encoder, lossless is roughly 5 megabytes/minute. 128 kb/s mp3 is roughly 1 megabyte/minute.

You can judge how much problem the mp3 is by just playing the CD on your computer and out through the sound card. Itunes should be able to do that.

Favorite lossless? Everyone has one. Flac and Monkey are good. I believe Itunes has its own lossless format which would be a good start if you want to keep using itunes.



Most of those links send the sound as FM stereo. There would certainly be some degradation from a HIFI point of view. Some setups send the sound as mp3 or other compressed data over a 802.11 link, so essentially you have some sort of computer on the receiving end.. often looks like a regular audio component. Linsys sells one for around US$100.

10 meters of line level could be a problem.. try with 1 or 2 meters first then switch the line and see if there is a difference.



If it sounds good with a CD player, then it isn't the weak link in your computer music setup.

...

I agree with Marcan. I am building a jukebox at the moment and I am gonna use the SPDIF output of the onboard audio and I just bougth a Yamaha RX-V650 to play it via SPDIF. This setup is gonna be good for home cinema too. I bet that the DAC in this is sufficient for your HIFI needs. It has awsome features and Yamaha is a good build. I have not tried it yet because I only bought it on Sunday.

Triza

Hi - the problem is the analogue line on your card, for sure. They are nearly always somewhere between adequate and crap.

Get a *good* soundcard, or use something outbord - a USB convertor is the obvious option.

R.

No sound quality loss here, unless you get errors, which will be easily noticeable as clicks in the sound. In that case you can consider using EAC software (free, takes time to set up) or Plextor drives (relatively expensive, easy and quick).

Classical, under 50% of wav size, non-classical somewhat more.
FLAC is the favourite but you can shave off a few percent in file size by using other formats.

You can get significant improvement here.
PCI: Chaintech AV710, EMU 0404
USB: Sonica, Audiophile, Waveterminal U24

You could consider a USB sound card to place it near the receiver. It will need a repeater or hub in the middle.

Look for a used Panasonic SA-XR10, 25 or 50. These go very cheap (<$200) but are said to give excellent sound quality becuase of the digital amplification technology. (The other models are a little more expensive.)
I do not know if the optical signal will go 10m.
I am planning to try out one of these.