Lossy rips and crystallisation

strumpusplunket · 14 Apr 2009 at 13:42

I remember in another thread being cautioned of the waste inherent in putting together a nice HTPC system with decent amp and speakers and then using it primarily to play lossy formats.

Now that I am slowly getting used to nicer sounds coming from my hi-fi with a better amp (albeit one currently using cheap speakers), I am minded to address this problem if I can.

The problem is that I have a large number of lossy rips in my music collection - over 5000 last I checked (mostly mp3s at 128kps or slightly better). Clearly for some of these I could just re-rip them into non-lossy formats, but many others are downloaded from mp3 stores and thus stuck in their lossy state.

So... what to do? I remember hearing that soundcards like the Xi-Fi platinum can do some sort of upscaling of mp3s through crystallisation (I think it was called?).

My question is: has anyone tried this with mp3s and a separates set-up? How satisfactory is it? Which is the best card to improve the sound quality of these formats? Are any worth the cost?

MikeHunt79 · 14 Apr 2009 at 14:44

if you have onboard sound with a digital output (optical or coax) just get a DAC instead.

strumpusplunket · 14 Apr 2009 at 14:55

Right. So that would do a noticeably better job than an Xi-Fi or Asus Xonar card?

This would be getting into yet another area of electronic equipment about which I have absolutely knowledge. But, then, this whole HTPC project has been a real learning experience thanks to these forums, so it's all good

Are there any simple pointers you could give me as to what to look for in a DAC, decent makes/models, etc? Presuming 2nd-hand is the way to go, as it was with amp and speakers?

I'd really need to keep my budget to around £75-100, which is why I asked about soundcards at first.

Cheers!

lankymorley · 14 Apr 2009 at 14:56

There are lots of sources for Lossless music if you want to replace your favourite albums in your collection with higher quality FLAC (or similar) files.
EDIT: Seems I can't PM here, never mind, just google Lossless Music Tracker, you're sure to find one which you can get onto.

MikeHunt79 · 14 Apr 2009 at 14:59

strumpusplunket said:
Right. So that would do a noticeably better job than an Xi-Fi or Asus Xonar card?

I'd avoid the X-fi, so go for the Xonar, I think it has a better DAC chip onboard...

strumpusplunket · 14 Apr 2009 at 15:05

lankymorley said:
There are lots of sources for Lossless music if you want to replace your favourite albums in your collection with higher quality FLAC (or similar) files.
EDIT: Seems I can't PM here, never mind, just google Lossless Music Tracker, you're sure to find one which you can get onto.

Ahh. Cheers. I'll definitely check that out. I won't be able to do that for all of them because there're just too many, but having my favourites replaced would be nice.

MikeHunt79 said:
I'd avoid the X-fi, so go for the Xonar, I think it has a better DAC chip onboard...

Great. Thanks for that. I had no idea either even had a DAC chip onboard. Looks like that might be the best option for my price range since I've just been browsing for DACs and the prices even for second-hand are pretty steep.