The soundcard’s amount of jitter is actually pretty irrelevant, as any decent DAC (even cheap DACs will reduce jitter to below CD quality and better ones to below 24Bit quality. As long as it’s not a random one you found on eBay, you’ll be fine.
Best PC motherboards for USB Audio?
I need to build a new workstation (Intel 9th gen i7) and was listening to this podcast from Darko on "
Why isn't digital audio simply a matter of ones and zeroes?" (https://soundcloud.com/johnhdarko/why-digital-audio-isnt-just-ones-and-zeroes) where the Director of R&D at Innuous mentions PC motherboards are important for USB audio in terms of the quality of connection they deliver to the DAC. So question: does anyone have evidence (hard or annecdotal) of which motherboards are worse/better than others on their USB implementation for the noise/jitter they deliver on the USB connection?
- ...
- 8 posts total
You know, it’s not IMHO the PC or the motherboard, but the PC’s power supply noise. Try to keep the PC’s power supply outside of your surge protection / AC noise filtering devices. Or at least put the on separate. Also if possible, experiment via the PC’s optical out as well. Kind of tricky part: Keep PC and audio on same AC circuit if using electrical based contacts. In theory, USB is best due to the DAC’s ability to pull based on it’s internal clock, but sometimes the galvanic (electrical) isolation of the optical cable is superior. I use a Raspberry Pi based streamer which uses a little bitty wall wart, and I keep that on a different surge protection. I should consider getting a linear supply for it instead. |
As I was thinking about my streamer, I found that iFi makes a nice range of replacement wall warts you can use for your network components (router, switches, Raspberry Pi) : https://amzn.to/2KLCzre Fairly reasonably priced as far as Audiophile accessories go. |
@sbank streaming isn't the answer to anything as you're still pulling the signal over a wire from somewhere it just moves the problem and USB vs ethernet is a religious war of disagreement that I don't want to get into. Having a dedicated HTPC driving the USB is clearly better than driving it from your main work station with all its other uses and connections but doubles the cost. @erik_squires yes I had already planned on getting a steel case to reduce physical noise - having a good steel enclosure around the power supply does help reduce noise from that source. Moving a PC power supply outside the cabinet is very difficult with current power supplies with their short connectors for the motherboard I also realize that the USB head that drives the connection to the DAC should not have anything else attached to it so I'll look for one with a spare internal head that I can wire the connection to. I'll relocate my question to computer audiophile as suggested |
Sorry, i did not mean to move the power supply out of the PC! :) I meant to locate the PC power supply plug so it is on the "dirty" side of your power conditioner. The "dirty" side of the conditioner is where it connects to the wall. The "clean" side (or inside) are the power plugs on it you attach components to. If you attach a dirty component to the clean side, you risk polluting it. Some nice power conditioners have multiple separate filter banks, which you could also take advantage of if possible. |
- 8 posts total