advertisement


Flac replay diappointment .

J

JOHN VAN BAVEL

pfm Member
Having transferred all my music onto my laptop in Flac format [ Toshiba Laptop 1500 cds 1000 lps 200 cassettes 200 78s ] , I eagerly awaited the day when I could listen to it all via my hifi . System is Astin Trew 3500 cd player Naim XS 2 amp , Mojo Dac and Living Voice Avatar speakers , 1 .5 m usb2 cable and 3 m Usb extension cable . Dis appointment resulted . It was as if a bit of a veil was over everything , slight constriction of sound and the openness was less so . Its not the dac becausee cd player via the dac is better than cd player direct into the amp . So is it the cables or my flac files or my laptop that is the problem ? Suggestions welcome . Someone suggested a powered USB extension cable .
 
What OS are you using on the laptop, what software are you using to play the FLACs, what drivers (if any) are you using and how have you configured the output?
 
@JOHN VAN BAVEL I always recommend a purpose built streamer, this is a good buy and no one says you have to stream but you might want to in the future: Auralic Aries Streamer | eBay I would certainly make a lower offer. You would use this with external storage, it's what I use and I am perfectly happy with the sound, although upgraditus has had me thinking of spending more :rolleyes:
You don't say what cables you are using, although I always recommend pure copper cables I prefer silver digital cables (don't ask me?)
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Did you not even test it prior to ripping nearly 3000 items? Also make sure you have a backup!

Other than that see post 2
 
JOHN VAN BAVEL said:
Having transferred all my music onto my laptop in Flac format [ Toshiba Laptop 1500 cds 1000 lps 200 cassettes 200 78s ] , I eagerly awaited the day when I could listen to it all via my hifi . System is Astin Trew 3500 cd player Naim XS 2 amp , Mojo Dac and Living Voice Avatar speakers , 1 .5 m usb2 cable and 3 m Usb extension cable . Dis appointment resulted . It was as if a bit of a veil was over everything , slight constriction of sound and the openness was less so . Its not the dac becausee cd player via the dac is better than cd player direct into the amp . So is it the cables or my flac files or my laptop that is the problem ? Suggestions welcome . Someone suggested a powered USB extension cable .
Click to expand...
Check the sound settings of your computer. With Windows there may be something funny going on. All the extra features are easy to disable. There is no reason why flac should sound any different from the disc it was ripped from - except the psychological ones, of course.

If you are doing a/b comparisons it is good to remember that they should be done blind. In addition the outputs should be level matched. Level matching by ear is not sufficient.
 
IanRB said:
What OS are you using on the laptop, what software are you using to play the FLACs, what drivers (if any) are you using and how have you configured the output?
Click to expand...

Most likely this. Ensure your software replay chain doesn’t include any unwanted steps. Ideally you need something like Roon (free trial) or other decent software that allows ASIO or WASAPI to talk to your DAC.
 
What you want to avoid is a noisy laptop sending the digital signal. The digital audio signal is not zeros and ones, it is a bandlimited noisy analogue approximation of a square wave. The noise and bandwidth will make a difference to the DACs ability to reconstruct the analogue signal regardless of reclocking of the signal in the DAC.

The above can lead to heated arguments. The best strategy is to test a low noise digital renderer for yourself and make up your own mind.

I recommend a simple inexpensive test as follows:
- Install free trial of Roon on your laptop
- Buy a used Chromecast Audio and an optical cable to connect it to your Mojo. Set up the CCA as a Roon endpoint. CCAs are no longer available new but are available on ebay. There is always a market for them so easy to sell on if you don’t like it. The performance of CCA is highly regarded if you use it as a Roon endpoint. The performance is reportedly not as good using the google casting software.

Another similar option is the Sonore micro rendu in the classifieds. I have no experience with this model but the concept is the same.
 
Your cd player is connected by spdif to your dac and the computer usb, so they are not exactly the same signal path in the dac.

You need a nice clean spdif output from your laptop to compare, and be sure window's is not resampling everything you 48khz in the background (not sure if modern versions of windows still do this).
 
JOHN VAN BAVEL said:
Its not the dac becausee cd player via the dac is better than cd player direct into the amp . So is it the cables or my flac files or my laptop that is the problem ? Suggestions welcome .
Click to expand...

First step as suggested by Whaleblue. Download Asio and/or Wasapi driver and enable it in your music player.

Secondly, DAC. Although CDs sound better through the DAC, that does not suggest the DAC cannot be improved. FWIW I left CDs about 10 years ago. FLAC sounds much better than CD playback in my system but the DAC plays a pivotal role.

USB cable comes last. In my limited experience (I didn't try a lot), they bring a subtle difference, nothing massive. Power cords bring a more significant difference in my experience but your Mojo can't take a full sized one.
 
Before I forget, the laptop will matter too. If you have another laptop other than the Toshiba, you can try running it with the hifi. You may get a slightly different experience.
 
The quality of the inputs on the mojo is pretty much identical. So any difference, if actually real and not just perceived, should be down to a data difference.

Download a trial of audivarna which bypasses all the Windows internal audio software and if that doesn't fix it you just have an attrociously specced USB port on the laptop, which no cable will fix.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...hord-mojo-2-review-portable-dac-hp-amp.34160/

See if it sounds any better running the laptop on battery. It could be ground leakage via the laptop psu.
 
ryder said:
First step as suggested by Whaleblue. Download Asio and/or Wasapi driver and enable it in your music player.
Click to expand...

Well it may be better to find out which OS (and the version of the OS) is in use as a fully patched version of Windows 10 doesn't require ASIO or WASAPI, if fact their presence may cause problems. Any version of Windows 11 should be OK.

Once that's done it's a case of ensuring whatever player software is in use directs output to the Mojo in exclusive mode.

No need to spend any more money.
 
I've not used Windows for decades. With other OSs the key thing to check is that your computer isn't resampling the audio before it sends it via USB. One quick check is to use a USB DAC that has das blinken lighten that show the sample rate the DAC is getting. Then play files of various rates. if the light follows the rate OK, that's one source of possible problems cleared. Check for any 'gain controls' the OS is applying and turn them off. Check your playing software to see that is going 'direct' to the DAC. How you do that with Windows, others will know. With Linux the key may be to find 'Pulse Audio' and beat it to death with a big stick. :) ALSA rules. :)
 
What software was used to transfer the music to your laptop? There can be numerous settings within is type of software, particularly with regards to compression. Default settings may compress a little to preserve space on the hard drive. Check the file size to that of the original CD.
 
His files are flac, its lossless, settings during ripping flac make no difference at all to playback.
 
JOHN VAN BAVEL said:
So is it the cables or my flac files or my laptop that is the problem ?
Click to expand...

I think we can confidently say, none of these, unless the laptop is faulty.

I don't think a Windows laptop is ideal for streaming but it can work. Needs WASAPI or ASIO and a player than won't mess with the sound, I use Foobar 2000. I also always set Windows to "No Sounds" in the Sound Scheme in Control Panel.

Tim
 
Not so much offering advice, but letting you know how I got on when I started out as your story reminds me of that time and quest for good sound.

Matching, or improving over a CDP can be a bit of a minefield. I started using a laptop about ten years ago. I had a Naim CDX2 & 555PS but wanted to get away from the piles of disc all over the floor etc. My first attempts were frustrating as the results weren't anywhere near the quality of the CDP. I used FLAC files and Foobar2000 from a laptop, but it sounded flat and rubbish. I moved to Media Monkey and finally JRiver. A friend brought over a Chord USB cable to try which I didn't expect to make a difference when connected between the laptop & Dac (Naim Ndac & PS555), but it did make a difference. More open and musical sound. I ended up buying a secondhand Chord Signature USB lead and was now closer to the original CDP combo. I next read about the IFi Micro USB 3 and decided to give it a try. It plugs in between the source and dac. It turns out this really did bring much better definition and an even more open sound to my system. I was finally getting a better sound than the original CDP.
Back to a couple of weeks ago I bought a new laptop to replace my dying 9 year old Acer Aspire V5 17" with another Acer Aspire 14" laptop. The idea was to soley use it for playback and nothing else. It worked ok but after a week I realised the sound just wasn't hitting the mark, rather lifeless and flat sound stage. I put the old laptop back in and wow, there's the music and space again! Different laptops sadly sound different, even though I'd used the same settings!
 
I don't have a Mojo but does it need to be placed into some kind of line level mode? If so that would be worth checking?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top