Digital Audio Myths - Listening on a PC

there's no right or wrong here (tube vs. digital). The only wrong thing is to say that ONLY one of those two technologies is good.

I really like the sound of a good tube amp ... I'm not sure why, and I AM sure that it alters the sound of the original recording, but I like it.

oliverstoned wrote: ... THAT TUBE IS BETTER THAN solid state.

You're preaching to the choir here ... again.

cobb wrote: Okay- thanks Mike. So I should pull out the cord then! Not too sure that WindowsDM driver would not be just as buggy as any other Windows product, though

You can remove the connection and test if the audio still works ... it should, unless it's a really old soundcard (like from the 90's).

cobb wrote: MikeEnRegalia wrote: Using the analog connection between drive and soundcard is about 10 times worse. Where does this information come from? I'd be interested to read up on it. Why do we connect the cd and card together if this is worse?

This was done more than five years ago, when sound cards were limited to the ISA bus.

What happens is this:

1. The drive reads the digital audio and converts it to analog. This is not the primary function of a computer CD drive, so not the best D/A converters are used, and the result is a reasonably good signal at best, a bad jittery one at worst.
2. Then the signal is routed via a cheap analog cable without proper shielding to the sound card.
3. The sound card converts the signal to digital again. It's like recording analog audio through the line in - it has to be digitized, and this ALWAYS results in signal degradation.  The signal is also sometimes distorted, or sometimes too weak, because some CDs are "louder" than others ...
4. From here on the signal path is the same as for digitally extracted audio. But in the following D/A conversion (either in the amp or the soundcard) the errors introduced by the previous A/D conversions multiply.

cobb wrote: maidenrulez wrote: There has even been sound card with TUBES on...regardless of how much money you spend on your soundcard it will not sound right as the PCI-INTERFACE in wich the soundcards are put is not designed for optimal sound performance at all The one that is alluded to above. I should have said may in my final sentence, as I don't know whether or not WDM drivers have any inherent problems in sound reproduction. But even if they do, the point is moot if there is an MPC cable connecting the cdrom to soundcard, as the PCI bus will not be used for sound transference.

1. There's nothing wrong with the PCI bus, it does not change the audio data in any way
2. Using the analog connection between drive and soundcard is about 10 times worse.

cobb wrote: Hey guys, I've just done some research on the MPC cable from cdrom to soundcard. I did this because I know for a fact that I have installed computers without a cable attached and they have not produced sound from the cdrom. Now, it appears that the cable is a direct connection to stream audio to a soundcard and if the MPC cable is present this is how the audio will be fed to the card. The CPU has nothing to do with sound other than to start the player. If the cable is not present then WDM drivers must be present on the system so the standard bus can be used. The WDM drivers will encourage the problems that have been discussed. Am I correct in this?

Which problems?