I've recently traded my Linn majik amp/mimik cd -with a little money :-)- for a Primare Spa21
surround amp. I really stopped believing in the concept of going to get a disk and putting it in a
device to enjoy some music.

So now I am left with the problem of an audio source. The last year or so I used my xbox with xbmc
to play 192 kbps mp3 through toslink to my marantz sr5300 as preamp, through to the linn majik to my
audio physics virgo speakers.

With the spa21 I soon found out I had not been getting the most out of my speakers in this way to
say the least.
Now I intend to put my entire cd collection as flac lossless compressed audio on a pc as source.
Since the amp and speakers are (not high end bit still) quite nice i don't want to go cheap on
anything that might improve on the digital coax out of my asus motherboard.
Also the dealer of the primare advised me to connect the computer through toslink as an electric
connection between pc and primare might cause a lot of noise to be picked up (maybe he meant hum
caused by ground-loops?).

I keep hearing that producing all the bits and bytes at the right tempo is what really make
expensive stuff stand out against cheap stuff. But I also keep hearing that conclusions to that
effect are never validated by double blind tests and there's a lot of placebo effect and snobism
around. I'm curious if there's some consensus about which soundcard is far superior in producing
digital audio data.

"HanslH" wrote in message


I've recently traded my Linn majik amp/mimik cd -with a
little money :-)- for a Primare Spa21 surround amp. I
really stopped believing in the concept of going to get a
disk and putting it in a device to enjoy some music.

OK.

So now I am left with the problem of an audio source. The
last year or so I used my xbox with xbmc to play 192 kbps
mp3 through toslink to my marantz sr5300 as preamp,
through to the linn majik to my audio physics virgo
speakers.


With the spa21 I soon found out I had not been getting
the most out of my speakers in this way to say the least.

Interesting. Based on what?

Now I intend to put my entire cd collection as flac
lossless compressed audio on a pc as source.

This can work.

Since the
amp and speakers are (not high end bit still) quite nice
i don't want to go cheap on anything that might improve
on the digital coax out of my asus motherboard.

Chances are pretty good that the digital coax output of your
Asus motherboard is a pretty good representation of whatever
you play on your PC.

Also the dealer of the primare advised me to connect the
computer through toslink as an electric connection
between pc and primare might cause a lot of noise to be
picked up (maybe he meant hum caused by ground-loops?).

Good idea - avoid the likely ground loop.

Coax to Toslink converters are readlily availble, even at
Radio Shack, I've heard.

I keep hearing that producing all the bits and bytes at
the right tempo is what really make expensive stuff stand
out against cheap stuff.

I think you're talkinga bout called "pace and rhythm" which
is a kinda strange choice of words because if you have good
digital equipment which is not expensive, correct "pace and
rhythm" are virtually guaranteed, as most people understand
the words.

But I also keep hearing that
conclusions to that effect are never validated by double
blind tests and there's a lot of placebo effect and
snobism around.

How about that.

I'm curious if there's some consensus
about which soundcard is far superior in producing
digital audio data.

There are so many sound cards these days, that the market is
hopelessly fragmented, and there can't be a consensus. I
suggest you see where that motherboard digital output leads
you. BTW, Asus has a toslink optical output bracket that
works with some of their motherboards. Going with toslink is
a good idea, but not all of the better sound cards even have
toslink outputs. For example, I'm really impressed with the
M-Audio 24192, but it only has coax digital I/O. So, that
coax to toslink adaptor could be a good idea, no matter.

On Thu, 27 Oct 2005 11:53:34 -0400, "Arny Krueger" wrote:

With the spa21 I soon found out I had not been getting
the most out of my speakers in this way to say the least.

Interesting. Based on what?

My supplier lent me an Arcam AVR300 and a Primare SPA21 for test listening, together with my
existing setup. I preferred both by far over the marantz-construction but also clearly the primare
over the Arcam.
I did not do double blind testing if that's what you mean... :-)