Digital MP3 output

[Mave]

Not sure if this should be in computers or here....

Recently started ripping my CDs to MP3, at 320Kb/s, with a view to storing them on my laptop, and playing them back through headphone socket > amp > speakers. Did a quick check and really disappointed with the result. Really lacking any punch, and review of the laptop shows poor audio response in the low frequency range, so I'm guessing my problem is in the laptop D/A conversion > headphone amp circuits.

I've got a spare co-ax channel on a stand-alone D/A converter which I use for running TV through the amp - is there any way to take a digital output direct from the laptop to avoid the built in converter and amp? I'm running Windows 8.1, happy to pay for cheapish software, but don't really want to pay for ££££ audio editing software.

Thanks, Mave.

[telecat]

A lot of DAC's have a USB input these days with associated drivers. Depends how high quality you want to get.

[Bullett]

USB based DAC I would have thought.
Why MP3? This could be an issue, try re-ripping some stuff in Lossless.

[Mave]

Ok, so is it the DAC driver which tells the PC to output a digital signal onto the USB? Does this mean I could wire a USB onto coax lead and run it into my existing DAC using a 3rd party driver?

[Bullett]

No. It doesn't work like that, can't just hack about the cables.
You would need a USB to Coax converter.

[Mave]

Bullett said:

No. It doesn't work like that, can't just hack about the cables.
You would need a USB to Coax converter.

How about hdmi instead of USB? Or is it the same problem?

[Mr_Yogi]

Some laptops have a SPDif/Toslink output, maybe your laptop has one?

I have a very old Dell Inspiron with an S-Video output which doubles as digital coax output. All it needed was a converter cable which I got off eBay for under £2 IIRC. Sounded very good into my Tag DAC/HiFi.

[zcacogp]

I know very little about the tech behind it, but I had a similar problem with the output from the headphone socket of an old lappie I use as a music player in our lounge. I happened to have one of these knocking around:



... and the audio output from that (at line level) was better than that from the headphone output of the lappie. (An aside, but if you have a line level output from the lappie that will do better than the headphone output as it won't be running through the poor-quality internal amplifier.)

You can get the thingummie in question from here.


Oli.

[Mave]

Bullett said:

USB based DAC I would have thought.
Why MP3? This could be an issue, try re-ripping some stuff in Lossless.

Convenience really, and not knowing any better! I'm going to stick the mp3 onto CD as a trial to see if it improves things. Hopefully this will confirm if it's the PC or the format causing the problem

[Bullett]

HDMI - coax = same thing. Basically each of these digital transmission formats has its own protocol with headers and parity bits and error checking and that sort of stuff. So you need a box that understands both format A and format B and can convert between them. Most as pretty cheap though.

What player are you using? A PC can handle most formats so always go for the best quality you can always down convert if needed later on. Something like Monkeymedia will also convert on the fly to other formats when you make a playlist. So I use FLAC day to day but my car only takes MP3 so when I make a playlist I set it to output in MP3 and it takes only a few seconds longer to transfer than just a straight file copy.

If you are using Apple stuff then mileage might vary but other options are available.

[survivalist]

The D/A and Headphone Amp in the Laptop are more likely to be the culprits in terms of sound quality, MP3 less so (although lossless would obviously be better).

You can get USB to SPDIF adapters, but they aren't particularly mainstream. Ebay has a few, as does Amazon. Alternative, as has already been said, is a USB DAC. Best option is likely to depend on the quality of your existing DAC with the USB/SPDIF converter vs a completely separate USB DAC.

Ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MUSE-HiFi-PCM2704-USB-to...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MUSE-HiFi-PCM2704-USB-to...

Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/QLS-HIFI-QA01-coaxial-opti...

[conkerman]

I have found 320kbps MP3 to be absolutely fine.

Go for a USB DAC They work great.

[Mave]

Thanks for the help guys.

My laptop is an ASUS 200E which only has headphones for audio out - no toslink. Only connectors are LAN, HDMI, USB2&3, headphones. I'm currently playing audio through the X-box music app which comes with windows 8.1.

I'm going to try sticking the MP3 onto a CD and try playing it through my CD player - then I think I'll try playing it through my blu-ray which is Toslinked to my DAC. If playing the MP3 through CD and bluray player both sound OK then I'll just be looking for the most convenient USB based option (thanks for the various links), whether built in DAC or not. I'll still be keeping my favourite stuff on hard CD, I just want my MP3 stuff to sound reasoable rather than dreadful!

[Crackie]

This Behringer audio interface http://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-UCA202-U-Control... is similar to the one above but also includes a toslink optical output so you could either use the onboard DAC or use the optical to feed your current DAC.

[barchetta_boy]

It's likely to be the headphone amp that's the culprit here. Search ebay for "cmoy headphone amp". They don't cost much and transform the sound quality if outputting from computer/phone/ipod to hifi.

Joel