banzai Wrote: > In theory you're right, though in practice who knows? You're still > counting on your soundcard driver/manufacturer to pass the signal > through cleanly. > > I've got my living room PC running an ASIO driver through my MAudio > 24/96 card. It sounds exceptional, but I haven't tried to compare a > FLAC/WAV file via the PC vs my CD transport. > > One thing that gave me pause was that I think my sound card's mixer > (I'm not talking about Windows volume control) allows me to attenuate > the outgoing signal. I wasn't happy to see that. The fact that the > mixer is willing to change the signal isn't a good sign. Perhaps at > zero attenuation it is a bit-perfect transfer. But again, who knows?
One way to find out if the digital out is bit-perfect is to play a wav encoded surround file, and connect the digital output of the sound card to the digital input on a surround receiver. The surround sound will not play back correctly if the bit stream is not perfect. Wav encoded surround files can be downloaded from http://www.sr.se/multikanal/english/e_index.stm I don't have proper hardware at the moment to do the test myself, but I am interested in this because I plan to upgrade my soundcard... (When doing such a test, ensure that the volume on your receiver is turned down because if the output is not bit-perfect the resulting output from your receiver might be extremely loud noise.) -- sbjaerum ------------------------------------------------------------------------ sbjaerum's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=237 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22636 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
