2. pc-audio
  3. 126141-9146

Different PCs gives me very different results

Hi All,
I have been following some of the threads in this forum on various topics for a while now, and thank you all for the vast information fed out here, some with lots of "infighting" but makes a good read too. I am an OLD retiree with very little PC skills, thus had not gone into streaming or software like Media Monkey, JR and the likes My system is a basic Pearl Lite integrated amplifier, SA8005 sacd player and a pair of SH5Plus speakers, no fancy cables or power strips.
 
I'm a newbie as far as PC audio, digital and streaming is concerned. I had always been using what's in the software standard (Windows Media ripping my CDs and SACDs to WAV format) to rip and playback my music. If I'm lazy, to play my physical disc, I would use the Windows Media playback and seems to get a reasonable result going directly into my SA8005 player's usb B port using a reasonable cable.

My question here and hope some of you could enlighten me:
A little background:  I have been using different laptops for the playback with music ripped in external hard disk. Two of them are using Win XP, one XP Pro and one using Win 7 Pro.  The only one laptop that shows 44.1 on the SA8005 display during playback is this Netbook, (Also the best result in terms of clarity), while the other 3 all shows 44. Even my DELL Lat 6430s laptop with the latest Windows Media and XP Pro, shows 44 on the SA8005 display and the sound quality is so "muffed" as compared to the old netbook
Q1: Why do I get the best result with a Netbook using Win XP Home (8 years old)?
Q2: What or how could I improve on the current system? WAV is quite bad with media info and I constantly find some tracks from an album get missing on its own!
Q3: Is there a software that requires minimum PC skills to take over Win Media as it will be a paid program from Win 10 thereon?

Sorry for the long winded read and thank you all in advance for any feedback.
RayT
cusco69

Showing 1 response by gdnrbob

gdnrbob
4,417 posts
 
In my humble opinion, I think it is time to upgrade your OS to Win 10.
Your current machines are utilizing dinosaur tech, and aren't even supported by Microsoft- so there are a lot of security issues, to say the least.
You can get a cheap laptop with Win 10 for almost nothing(Okay, a couple hundred bucks), that will give you the flexibility to use current streaming programs at better resolution than you are using now. And, you get better security, to bat.(Forgive me, but I am a nut when it comes to security).
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