Improving PC Sound Quality

[Pickled Piper]

Can anybody advise how best to improve the sound quality from my PC? I'm not looking for true HiFi as it is just to listen to MP3s in my study, however, I'm getting tired of the "transistor radio" quality of the standard kit with the PC.

BTW it's a Dell Dimension 4550.

pp

[Bodo]

When you have HiFi equipment near your PC, you can connect it to the amplifier in order to listen to your music on HiFi speakers. Much better than those small plastic PC speakers.
A cable with RCA connectors and a 3.5mm mini jack will do.

[icamm]

Failing that the usual problem is rubbish speakers. Try buying a decent set of 2.1 speakers (or maybe even 5.1 if your budget will stretch and your current sound card is capable). If that still isn't good enough you will need to uprgade your sound card to something like a SoundBlaster Live (about £20) or Soundblaster Audigy (about £50). Looking at user or magazine reviews will help you decide on what fits for you.

You can go way better but you said you were just looking improvement not hi-fi quality.

[dilbert]

I don't know about you, but I think most of it is to do with MP3.

I have crap speakers on my PC, but if I listen to my vinyl through the PC it sounds sooooo much better than MP3's, even when they're only slightly compressed.

If you have really bad speakers, get some new ones for sure. Don't be expecting miracles though!

[Plotloss]

It could be that the MP3's that you have acquired are encoded at a very low rate hence the quality issue.

Get hold of a high quality (350ksec) MP3 first and then play that to ascertain whether you think you need new speakers.

[telecat]

Plotloss said:

It could be that the MP3's that you have acquired are encoded at a very low rate hence the quality issue. Get hold of a high quality (350ksec) MP3 first and then play that to ascertain whether you think you need new speakers.

Four Problems

1. MP3 is a "lossy" format. Ok when listening via limited bandwidth headphones via a good device but in all a bad way to listen to music as Full range Speakers erplay a wider musical spectrum.

2. The PC is awash with digital "noise". All digital formats are suceptable to RFI(Radio Frequency Interference). It affects the digital signal and degrades it. Modern HiFi have shielded power supplies and DAC's in CD/DVD players and digital Amps.

3. The inbuilt "sound system" probably cost a fiver at most. The amps and DAC's are not only not shielded from the RFI on the board but are also open to the RFI created by the system/video boards and also the motors in the disk drives.

4 Most PC speakers are pretty awful.

[Plotloss]

Compared to clear quality audio at source I would agree.

However the differences for the reasons you state are likely to be far far less than a badly recorded MP3.

Its also the cheapest to resolve.

[Pickled Piper]

Thanks everyone, that's given me a few things to think about.


pp

[PatHeald]

Bodo said:

When you have HiFi equipment near your PC, you can connect it to the amplifier in order to listen to your music on HiFi speakers. Much better than those small plastic PC speakers. A cable with RCA connectors and a 3.5mm mini jack will do.

This is exactly what I do.

Just hook up the PC to the aux input on my HiFi and select the Aux function on the HiFi.

I have all my CDs loaded onto an iTunes jukebox and play them through the stereo speakers on my HiFi.

Cheers,

Pat

[Stamp]

I have a pioneer amp and a pair of Epos speakers in the office just for the PC. Fantastic. This is the way to go.
Pointers though...

Position the amp away from wireless devices and the main box and monitor. This lesserns the noise.

Try to find shielded speakers, like home cinima speakers, again to lessern the noise. For years I had a pulcing noice through the speakers. With the set up now, it is almost silent.

As far as proper music and sound quality, don't even think it is going to be OK. I agree with the comments above. Remember. It's a PC. Good at lots of things, but IMHO music repro is not one of them.

[cirks]

While on the subject of hooking up PCs to hi-fi systems, is there such a thing as a wireless box that would take signals from the PC and could be fed into a normal hi-fi amp via rca?

[Stamp]

I'm sure there would be, but I know you could get a small transmitter from Ebay for a few quid and tune you tuner into it. That would be a cheap option

[zumbruk]

Stamp said:

I have a pioneer amp and a pair of Epos speakers in the office just for the PC. Fantastic. This is the way to go.

I bought a pair of Wharfdale Active Diamonds from Richer Sounds for the PC (they're a bookshelf speaker with an amplifier built in). They're fine.

Stamp said:

As far as proper music and sound quality, don't even think it is going to be OK. I agree with the comments above. Remember. It's a PC. Good at lots of things, but IMHO music repro is not one of them.

I've no complaints. OK, it's not up to the same standard as the proper hi-fi in the living room, but that cost about 5 times as much as the PC and the speakers stand nearly 4ft high.

[rich-uk]

If you want to do it properly, get a decent soundcard like an M-Audio 2496 (about £60) and use high bitrate MP3's or a lossless format like FLAC. Either use your hifi or get some decent speakers and an amp or active monitors.

[MEMSDesign]

cirks said:

While on the subject of hooking up PCs to hi-fi systems, is there such a thing as a wireless box that would take signals from the PC and could be fed into a normal hi-fi amp via rca?

There are two good systems: roku and squeezebox. I like the squeezebox best. They are both supposedly very good (google for a review) and I think will play a wide variety of formats including flac (lossless) mp3 etc.

See here for prices:
www.broadbandstuff.co.uk/index.php?cPath=128_145&osCsid=0d7875b6c35e8fb203a64a68664bd687



>> Edited by MEMSDesign on Monday 3rd October 10:34

[Incorrigible]

rich-uk said:

If you want to do it properly, get a decent soundcard like an M-Audio 2496 (about £60) and use high bitrate MP3's or a lossless format like FLAC. Either use your hifi or get some decent speakers and an amp or active monitors.

is that how much they cost these days, I think I paid £120

The pooter will be good enough at reading the info off a CD or re-playing MP3 files, a decent soundcard such as the M-audio one bypasses the standard windows sound trickery, which you don't really need or want anyway

I agree, cheap amp and speakers would be the best way to go. but if you dn't want the hassle try out some cheaper PC speakers on the standard soundcard/chipset and see if that is adequate, I was amazed how good a £30 sub and 2 sat PC speaker sounded (not good enough for what I wanted but very impressive)

[miniandy]

Get yourself an Apple Airport Express - very good piece of kit. Play your iTunes wirelessly to your Hi-Fi, so that can include cds as well as mp3 files. £80. Bargain! Although if you have a Hi-Fi next to your pc, just buy a lead...

[cirks]

MEMSDesign said:

There are two good systems: roku and squeezebox. I like the squeezebox best. They are both supposedly very good (google for a review) and I think will play a wide variety of formats including flac (lossless) mp3 etc.

thanks. Will look into the reviews etc.