New Mboard / Cpu got better sounds as unexpected bonus

[danilo]

Fresh Gigabyte board and i5cpu fitted today.
Also involved a convoluted Re-validation of my Win 10 ..and the subsequent nuisance dwnload of Win 10 'Anni version'.
Which at least was free.
Interestingly; sounds from my mediocre (at best) A Lansing desktop sound setup is now improved. Not massively :eyebrows: but noticeably nonetheless.
Who woulda thought?
Finally realised that some music can sound better thru the desktop and MP3's.
Case in point: PJ Harveys' Let England Shake, on videos/mp3 enticed me to buy the Cd.
Which subsequently proved as a Crap quality recording.. sad but true.
Merely Pissed at my naivety
Seems MidFi gear and MP3's are exactly what the stuff was Recorded for.
And TBH it sounds decent on such.
Moderne times.

[realysm42]

Tail waggeth the dog.

[RMutt]

I have that CD and it sounds fine to me. My Rega DAC did a really good job of mp3 I thought. I've just changed to a Yulong Sabre DA8 and whilst flac sounds better mp3 sounds worse. Some chips must just work better with different file types maybe?

[danilo]

Yours sounds good on your Main Rig? Congrats ! Is all I can say.
Mine definitely does not.
Yes it's a genuine CD .. First thing I checked.

Only posted as I'm genuinely surprised that my really basic/free.. on board Realtek chip / cheap A lansing, flanking my monitor, speakers 'setup',
does a surprisingly/pleasing job .. on downloaded MP3 Muzak.
Presumably by glossing over (missing entirely?) detail nuances that otherwise reveal the mastering/recording quality.
Only explanation that comes to mind TBH.
Most other Cd's on my main setup are a whole world superior sounding to their MP3's, as expected

On the other hand... this certainly simplifies aquiring And enjoying sketchy genres. .

[danilo]

Yours sounds good on your Main Rig? Congrats ! Is all I can say.
Mine definitely does not.
Yes it's a genuine CD .. First thing I checked.

Only posted as I'm genuinely surprised that my really basic/free.. on board Realtek chip / cheap A lansing speakers sound setup,
does a surprisingly/pleasing job .. on downloaded MP3 Muzak.
Presumably by glossing over (missing entirely?) detail nuances that otherwise reveal the mastering/recording quality.
Only explanation that comes to mind TBH.

On the other hand... this certainly simplifies aquiring And enjoying .

[RMutt]

I haven't played it yet mthrough my new ( to me) DAC but it definitely sounded OK through the Rega. Some CD's that don't sound that good on my system are a bit of a surprise because they are often lauded by others, Flaming Lips CD's sound thin and tttzzzsssy on mine for example and yet I noticed one in a best albums for hi-if list not that long ago.

[Stratmangler]

New Windows installation?
Which media player are you using?
Have you installed the appropriate hardware drivers?
Have you installed the appropriate ASIO or WASAPI drivers and pointed your audio interface at them?

[danilo]

Thanks; win 10 (ani version, new download install monday)
Have/ use VLC plus a couple of others that come bundled with Win. Nothing special :-).
Not complaining about Sound Quality out of my 'Puter setup.. Which without doubt, could absolutely be improved upon.
An adventure I'll start on, given the suggestions

Initially amazed that the freebie down load MP3 replayed thru the above sounds 'better' than the CD does on my main setup

Which I just looked up by the way:
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=pj+harvey&album=let+england+shake
Clearly it ain't a winner recording.

[Stratmangler]

VLC defaults are to play files no matter what.
You could try Foobar - it's a great bare bones media player with loads of plugins, and best of all it's free.
Foobar does have the ASIO/WASAPI driver support - just browse the available plugins and you'll find them.

It's worth playing with Foobar - it just might raise the bar on your file based audio.

For ripping CDs try EAC (Exact Audio Copy), and get secure, bit perfect rips.
As with Foobar it's worth getting to grips with EAC.
It'll cost you a bit of learning time, but that's all.

[RMutt]

I must admit I've not seen that dynamic range data base before. Interesting. I've looked up a few of my CD's and got mixed results but generally not brilliant according to their scale! The Flaming Lips I mentioned came out bad but a lot of my CD's are in the PJ Harvey averageish sort of range. Maybe the music I'm into just does not get recorded that well according to the scale. The best I've found so far are a couple of albums by Gogo Penguin which maybe had a different ' jazz afficiendo' type production. I'm not going to get hung up on it. In fact perhaps I don't really want to know in case it ruins my enjoyment!

[Stratmangler]

I wouldn't get too tied up on dynamic range values.
Obviously if something has a dynamic range rating of 4 or 5 then it's not a great recording, but the dynamic range rating tells you nothing of the content.
The material, the content, could be absolutely fantastic, just badly recorded.

Quite a lot of decently recorded material doesn't have all that wide a dynamic range.

[RMutt]

I have to agree. That's what my ears are telling me.

[Stratmangler]

The point I was trying to make with regard to the Windows installation is that the sound quality can often be bettered by the simple of expedient of properly setting the machine up for audio playback.
Windows has all sorts of background stuff running, and the audio has to compete with it if you don't take steps to give it priority.
Give the audio priority and you'd be surprised at how much things improve.

[WAD62]

The best I've found so far are a couple of albums by Gogo Penguin which maybe had a different ' jazz afficiendo' type production. I'm not going to get hung up on it. In fact perhaps I don't really want to know in case it ruins my enjoyment!

The last one's on Blue Note, top quality, musically and production wise...:cool:

[RMutt]

Funnily enough, given your avatar. From my random selection of music I have, that I looked up on the data base Joy Division came up as very good.

[WAD62]

Funnily enough, given your avatar. From my random selection of music I have, that I looked up on the data base Joy Division came up as very good.

Another good northern band...:)

It's one of my favorite album covers...and albums too, although I like all sorts of stuff

If you like Gogo Penguin, then you might enjoy 'Get the Blessing', 'Neil Cowley Trio', 'led Bib'(all on Naim), 'BADBADNOTGOOD', 'Polar Bear', 'Portico', 'Floating Points'...all very interesting new jazz crossover stuff, and very well recorded too...:cool:

[RMutt]

I know some of those bands. BADBADNOTGOOD I've followed for some time. They released a free download album some years ago with a blurb that went something like 'and we've done this all on our own and we're only eighteen' or something along those lines! Since, they've become more of a jazz band, the album with Ghostfaced Killah is an interesting one as they still all love rap etc.