Good Setup for music/sound quality NOT gaming

jonny512379 · 21 Jan 2017 at 20:20

i currently have a Creative Sound Blaster Z connected to an Onkyo AV amp by fiber.
Speakers are 5.1 but with 2 full range Wharfdale 10.2 front speakers and a KEF Kube 2 sub.
It sounds quiet good to me but i am wondering if i can get better with a different sound card?

i find i have to tweak the settings on the Creative Sound Blaster Z, to get the best quality. (i have to enable Crystalizer and Surround + Encode output in Dolby Digital Live to get the best music quality. I would rather my AV AMP dealt with this, but if i try no encoding, the sound is terrible no mater what setting i make to the AMP)

i wonder if i am using the right sound card to get the best music quality.

would i be better with a different sound card, as i think the card i am using is more for gaming (i don't play games).

Would one of these DAC's be better for me, and what is a good one at a reasonable cost?

Anyone with more experience of this than me, that can offer any opinions would be greatly welcomed!

Thanks

Kei · 21 Jan 2017 at 20:39

If you are connected via toslink (optical), the DAC on the sound card itself is not being used, it is relying instead on the DAC built into the AV amp. Leaving all processing options off on the sound card and continuing to use optical, any card should sound identical. Presently I'm using my onbaord instead of my xonar essence via optical into a marantz AV pre amp and I can't tell them apart. Have you tried using the analogue output? (Jack plug to a pair of RCA's)

If you set the sound blaster to output plain old 2 channel 44.1KHz 16 bit PCM, do you get sound out of just the two front speakers and the sub? I know I have to set my marantz to output to front + LFE in order to get the sub to work with a plain stereo source.

jonny512379 · 21 Jan 2017 at 21:13

Kei said:
If you are connected via toslink (optical), the DAC on the sound card itself is not being used, it is relying instead on the DAC built into the AV amp. Leaving all processing options off on the sound card and continuing to use optical, any card should sound identical. Presently I'm using my onbaord instead of my xonar essence via optical into a marantz AV pre amp and I can't tell them apart. Have you tried using the analogue output? (Jack plug to a pair of RCA's)

If you set the sound blaster to output plain old 2 channel 44.1KHz 16 bit PCM, do you get sound out of just the two front speakers and the sub? I know I have to set my marantz to output to front + LFE in order to get the sub to work with a plain stereo source.

If i set to "2 channel 44.1KHz 16 bit PCM", yes, i only get sound out of the front 2 speakers.

I find the best sound quality is
- Speaker Properties: 24 bit, 96000 Hz (studio Quality)
- Sound Blaster Setting : Surround Enabled, Crystalizer Enabled, 5.1 Surround Sound, encoding = Dolby Digital Live, + enable Equalizer and push up the higher frequencies a little and mid-ranges. (i probably have too much base for the size of my room, so leaving the low frequencies is usually OK as i set this on the crossover on the sub to around 50 mhz. The 10.2's give a good thud anyhow).
- AMP: i find the best sound quality if to have it on "All Channel Stereo" and the speakers set up to their correct frequencies of course...
The AMP is oldish now (8 - 10 years), but was a good amp in its day (cost over £1200)
(these Onkyo go faulty after a few years, but it is an overheat problem. Just add an internal fan and all is good! They are now cheap on auction sites as they are classed as faulty, but very easy to fix!)

Even though i am connected by Optical, changing the Sound Blaster settings makes a difference (are you saying is should not make any difference?).
if i turn all Sound Blaster settings to off, i cannot tweak the amp to get the sounds as good as i can by enabling some of the Sound Blasters settings. Hence i use both the Sound Blaster setting and the Amps settings.
I find this all confusing and wondering if i am trying to use too much tech to get the sound right or if i am making the most of what i have (as i would not have these issues with a direct CD player :-)

).

Thanks Again

Kei · 21 Jan 2017 at 21:53

Changing settings in the control panel will make a difference even if you use optical as these are changes made to the sound in the software stage. Changing the sample rate away from the sample rate of your music (99% of music should be 44.1KHz) will introduce unnecessary quantization errors. 24 bit or 16 bit doesn't really matter as bit depth just affects noise floor which is well below perceptive levels anyway. Not that any of these settings will have any effect on what you are having to do.

Most music is best listened to in stereo only. Playing it as 6 channel up-mixed isn't ideal. Sounds to me like you are correcting for a lack of top end sparkle. Based on what you suggest, a cd player direct sounds fine without any tweaks? Have you tried the CD player via a digital connection? (Coax or toslink)