Picking an amplifier
Think this will do anything for PC->(usb)->DAC quality? https://www.extremetech.com/computing/257905-start-engines-pci-express-4-0-standard-officially-relea... |
Naw, the original PCI interface has more than enough bandwidth to support audio. I have no problems doing 24/192 stereo audio through my old Xonar Essence PCI card. PCI-Express is just overkill and is likely to introduce jitter issues. The crystal clocks and power supply have more to do with audio quality than evolutions in PCI Express. PCI 4.0 will have benefits on graphics cards and stuff like multi-disk RAID controllers where I/O is critical. |
That's what I thought. Audio isn't my specialty. It looks to me like the basic flaw in all these protocols is the failure to embed timing within the protocol. While that would expand the amount of data required & storage requirements at the pit stops, it would put a stop to timing problems. It's an artifact of when data storage was e.x.p.e.n.s.i.v.e. |
Yeah, the whole evolution of computers is the goal to transfer as much data as possible in the fastest possible way. Throughput has always been the bottleneck. This is definitely critical when graphics rendering and GPU processes came into play. Now it is also pure data I/O when you look at database servers and such. With audio, we have surpassed the bandwidth limitations a LONG time ago. Audio quality (even digital transfer from SPDIF) is entirely reliant on accuracy of clock signals and smooth voltage from power supply. Switching power supplies (such as in computers) will introduce noise into the signal and also cause electrical resonance in the signal (making the audio not as solid sounding). If you are building a new "audio" computer in the future, these are a couple things you could look at if you chose to: Teradak has a range, but these are the cheapest and most expensive "full computer power supplies". You are not there yet. Still have to get a HT processor, lol. You may be fine with what you have. |
