New PC help please

[Gazjam]

+100 for Jriver.

Main area you want to get right is in Jriver Audio options, where you set up Jriver to get the most out of your Dac and other audio setup options.
As John said above, its not straightforward to get the best out of it.

Happy to help with Jriver setup as well as a few windows tweaks when you get set up Ben.

[Zoidburg]

cheers dude, will take you up on that generous offer.

+100 for Jriver.

Main area you want to get right is in Jriver Audio options, where you set up Jriver to get the most out of your Dac and other audio setup options.
As John said above, its not straightforward to get the best out of it.

Happy to help with Jriver setup as well as a few windows tweaks when you get set up Ben.

[Gazjam]

cushti

[Rothchild]

Foobar
XBMC
Sub/Madsonic

Sorted!

I used to go big on tweaks but as Windows has matured and the hardware has become more ubiquitous the only one I apply now is to turn off all system sounds (they're annoying and tend to mess with sample rate settings).

[Zoidburg]

I've downloaded a 30 day trial version on JRiver to my current pc and have had a little play with it the afternoon for about an hour.

I'm impressed with it so far, straight out of the box it seams it will provide me with exactly what I want for music playback. The whole package certainly looks far better especially in theatre mode giving it a more HTPC look I wanted.

I swear it even sounds better than vlc media player............

[Andrei]

Several things can be done to get good sound from the PC. One that is vital is to get Windows out of the way - so use some solution that supports ASIO or WASAPI. Foobar, or J River and others support WASAPI. Also have a look at Fidelizer http://www.windowsxlive.net/fidelizer/
This program does an on-the-fly windows optimization for music playback.

[Zoidburg]

I'm gonna have a play with fidelizer tomorrow hopefully if I get time

cheers,

[Zoidburg]

New PC arrived this morning and is sitting here waiting to be unboxed, once set up I will purchase a full Jriver download.

I have also just bought an MF v-link II usb to spl/diff converter and intend to have a mess around with that to see if itmakes any improvements to the system. Picked it up cheap off the wam so if it proves to do nothing im sure I can move it on without loss.

[Gazjam]

The Vlink is a very nice bit of kit, USB is (to me) the best way to get audio from your computer to your DAC.
Had the same Vlink as you and the better 192 version, both were great.

Only snag needing a USB/spdif converter to get music to your DAC is putting in another link in the chain, with the variable of the digital cable you need to hook it up.

Nice bit of kit though, sounds great.