Advice on improving my computer based system

I would suggest installing Winamp as your media manager/player, and downloading the wasapi output plugin from the winamp addons site.

Select this plugin (Options->Preferences->Plugins->Output) and set the DSP output to 24-bit and you're good to go.

I will try, thanks a lot! Is there any other configuration I need to do on either winamp or pc?

Thanks again

Just the steps above.

(You have to add the media to your library in winamp of course (File->Add Media To Library).

Are you sure the plug-in is WASAPI? because I can't find this plug-in on winamps plug-ins--> output

Thanks again

Hmm - you are right the plugin has disappeared.

Never mind - you can achieve the same thing using asio.

Download and install the asio plugin from the winamps plugin site - http://www.winamp.com/plugin/asio-output-plugin/156466

Download and install ASIO4ALL - http://tippach.business.t-online.de/asio4all/downloads_1/ASIO4ALL_2_10_E...

Run winamp & change the output plugin to be ASIO and select configure. Select ASIO4ALL V2 as the driver, and click on control panel. Make sure your output device is the one highlighted.

Close the config panel, and then the plugins window.

I wouldn't worry too much about being 'bit perfect' I doubt you'll be able to hear any difference. The amount of distortion (if any) created by music playing software is miniscule compared to the relatively massive amounts of distortion created by the speakers and amplifier. MS Media Player, iTunes or any of the other more specialist music players are all so close to having perfect sound quality that I doubt you'll be able tell any differerance between them.

I expect that there'll be lots of people who dissagree with me so my advice is to try it out for yourself and make up your own mind. I'll be surprised if you hear any difference though.

I agree with Steve. Always put the digital volume on your PC at 100 per cent, (use volume control of amp), and off you go, no worries. In Windows 7 it all works quite good, ASIO is not needed for this.

There are two ways I can suggest to improve your sound that will have a much bigger impact:

- Use high quality sources, uncompressed audio if you can  (flac, or wma lossless, or apple lossless). Your system deserves it.

- If you really are missing something in the sound quality, especially with low quality files, internet radio etc, try using digital improvement, and have a look at http://youtu.be/vPLfCNcczjk The srs trial is free.

This is what will have the biggest effect on the sound quality.

If you are paying to use Spotiy Premium make sure you check the option to 'enable high bit rates'. This will make Spotify stream music in 320kbps instead of 160kbsp. It's not a massive difference in sound quality but you will be able to hear a worthwhile improvement. However, a lot of the music in Spotify is only available in 160kbps so won't actually sound any better even if you do pay for their Premium service.

MP3's are good - you probley won't notice any loss in quality if you stick to 320kbps. But with hard drive space being so cheap now a days you might as well use lossless files whenever possible.  Also bare in mind that MP3's ripped from a CD will sound better than MP3's that have been downloaded.

Guys, thanks a lot! I indeed spending too much time trying to find the right plugin for the right software...I will just stick with Itunes and player volumes at 100% (I use only the amp's volume). 

Indeed I play a lot from Accuradio (quality is not that bad) and from MP3. I just realized my MP3 are not that great...I don't have problem on my hard drive (I am anyway planning to buy a NAS soon) so I am planning to get all my music in FLAC...there are different types of FLAC? Do I need to download everything in 24/96 or not need to do that?

Another question on this subject...I saw that there are some files in 24/192...but since I connected my DAC through USB, the max I can use is 96 KHz, right? I think only the COAX connection support the 192...so it is useless to use this level of quality for me, right?

Thanks for all the advices...you are really helping me a lot!

MP3's should sound very good if they're ripped from a CD at 320kbps. What bit rate are your MP3's and where did they come from?

FLAC is just one of several types of lossless codec. Other common lossless codecs are ALAC which is used by Apple and WMA lossless which is used by Microsoft.

Not all computer music players or portable MP3 players will support all of these codecs so it's worth checking compatability. Which codec you choose will depend on which music player you want to use. You've said that you like iTunes which would mean you'll need to rip your CD's to ALAC because iTunes isn't compatible with FLAC or WMA files.

The first number is bit rate and the second number is the sample rate (check wikipedia or google for a detailed explanation). The higher these numbers the better the quality. For reference, CD's are 16/44 which is very high quality and is better than any MP3.

Your rDac specs says it supports upto 24/96kHz via the USB and optical inputs. If you want to use 24/192 you will need to use the coaxial input. Don't worry about not being able to use 24/192 though because 24/96 is more than good enough.

You dont really want to be using Itunes on a windows system. Winamp has a far better built-in codec support including flac. No point limiting yourself unless you have an Apple ecosystem.

Use something like dbpoweramp to rip cds to flac - its fast and makes use of however many cores u have. There are different levels of compression available in FLAC - but you dont need to worry about that  - just use default.

Yes the Rdac is limited to 24/96 over USB - but I doubt you could tell the difference between 24/96 and 24/192 - it can be hard to tell the difference between lossless and high quality lossy in fact.

Thanks again for all your explanations/advices.

Steve, to respond your question...my MP3 come mainly from the web...so not sure what bit rate are they...is there any software which allows to check?

Regarding the player, true that iTunes is not the best solution under Windows, but I have an hybrid system...my main pc is windows based and I have iphone and planning to buy Ipad soon (to use with Sonos Z90 for a multizone). So as you can see it is an hybrid system...I am wondering if it's not best to buy a Mac as main music player....

Funny..I installed dbpoweramp but the CD ripper functionality does not find my CD drive....

Have a read of this thread about the quality of downloaded music. 

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/computer-based-music/downloaded-mp3s-vs-mp3s-ripped-from-a-cd