PC to Reciever via USB, as good as it gets?

[GennadiyKorol]

Good time of the day everyone,

I've recently purchased Pioneer AX5Ai which allows for a USB connection to my computer (my main music source).

I essentially strive to get the best possible sound out of the PC in a digital way, to not let it "spoil" the sound of other expensive equipment.

I was wondering if the USB connection provides the best sound quality, or I am better off investing into serious sound card (beeing looking into Julie or E-MU) and connecting it via the caoxial connection to the reciever?

Thanks beforehand,

Gennadiy

[wsu99999]

I have my PC hooked up via USB. My receiver (HK AVR 745) allows for it also, but it won't process true dolby digital sources or anything other than regular analog. In my case, I would strongly benefit from a sound card w/ an optical connection. I don't know enough about your receiver to tell you but I can tell you this. USB has enough bandwith to transmit anything an HDMI cable can sound wise. It has enough bandwith for all of the new audio codecs - the problem is when you use a receiver hooked up to a computer directly via USB, the receiver acts as the sound card for the computer. This means you are limited by what the receiver can do, not the computer. Most receivers aren't setup to act as a sound card so they typicaly lack in the USB dept.

[InnerTuber]

I'll venture a couple thoughts -

Getting bit perfect music out of the PC is the goal. USB works fine for transferring that. Sometimes the objective is getting the data stream away from the soundcard.

Your computer's music player (Winamp, iTunes, etc.) can affect things, as can the "resolution" of the music you play (when you initially ripped it).

If you rip AIFF or uncompressed with error correction on that's a good file to start with. Some folks are ok with FLAC files which are a bit smaller.

Using a PC you can explore ASIO to get the data stream out. Windows can fiddle and convert files, which you want to avoid. I don't do it this way, but as I recall, ASIO is a format for data that allows one to sort of fool windows by not letting it know it's really audio. Hence, windows doesn't fiddle (i.e., mess up) with it.

So, if you can get a bit perfect stream out of your PC, you have most of the battle won.

Then you go into a DAC, which might well be the one in your Pioneer, or an external one. That's the next link in the chain.

Then you analog RCA from the DAC into your receiver, which with the Pioneer it sounds like an internal process.

[bliss53]

I will second innertuber about getting the bits out of the computer. I use a M-audio audiophile interface that acts as a cheap dac. I run usb out of the computer to the dac then analog rca connections to pre amp . This set up sounds much better than the headphone out on the computer connected directly to the premap. I am currently using itunes. I have a mix of file densities but a while back I changed to lossless going forward. I have also ripped some vinyl with audicity freeware with good results. I have a friend with a musical fidelity usb dac that I am planing to test to see the difference. I am looking for cost effective improvements in software or anything else if any one has any suggestions.