Whats wrong?


Can anyone tell me whats wrong with my system? I play all my music from my computer which has an Audigy sound card, and then there is a Yamaha EQ-70 10 band equalizer, and a Parasound HCA-750 power amp driving Magnepan MMGs. I have some cheap Acoustic Research interconnects, and 18 gauge speaker wire which is also Acoustic Research. I'm just not happy with the sound, the performance is not as magical as I thought it would be with upgrading to MMGs from Bose 201s. Can anyone tell me what to do?
lawbadman

Showing 1 response by onhwy61

Pay attention to the above comments about speaker placement. It's critical with dipole speakers. I also agree with the comments that the Yamaha EQ should be put aside. Quality cables are critical and they don't have to cost alot. Tributaries offers several very reasonably priced products.

What I disagree with are the several comments about getting rid of the computer as your source component. If properly implemented a computer with a high quality outboard DAC can sonically compete with any freestanding CD player at any price. Other than the DAC, the two keys are the soundcard and ripping the music to your hard disk. You'll need to get software that accurately rips your CDs at full 16 bit/44.1kHz resolution. Hard disk space is relatively cheap such that you can store approximately 170 CDs at full resolution on a 120Gb HD. You'll also need software that allows you to organize your music for easy access as playlists. I'm an Apple person, but I'm told that there are readily available Wintel oriented software that can accomplish these tasks. I'm not familiar with your Audigy card, but hopefully it has a coax digital output and doesn't employ any sample rate conversion on its outputs. As long as it puts out a stable and accurate clock signal, it should work well with any outboard DAC.

Once setup in this manner, you'll have instant access to all of your music collection and the ability to easily burn compilation discs. Good luck!