Unsatisfied with PC sound

Deadear

Active Member
I currently have a no-name PC sound card that doesn't do a very good job of playing music through my amp. I have tried going with a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card, and the quality is better, however I still can't hear all the sounds I can by playing CDs, as though parts of the music is missing. I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this, as I'm trying to determine if it is the MP3's I'm downloading or the sound card itself.
 
Are you comparing the sound between playing MP3s and CDs on your computer, or between MP3s on your computer and CDs being played through a stand alone player?

Could it possibly be that one of the software settings is wrong, say your computer is set for a 5.1 system, but you've only a two-channel hooked up? That would result in holes in the sound, depending on what settings are engaged, esp. if the DSP is running and will remove the low-end.

If it's just something you're noticing with MP3s, I suggest you try out the MAD plug-in. It's a bit outdated and causes a measurable page fault delta, but when you install it and set it up correctly (easy to do), it can make MP3s sound almost as good as CDs. I highly recommend it.

- JP
 
Well I've figured out that the Santa Cruz card does just fine if I play a CD, so it must be the MP3's, and I'm assuming it's the low bitrate. However, would bitrate affect the high's and low's that you can hear in the song? And if so, I'm assuming that this MAD plugin would help with that?
 
MP3 is a lossy compression format and does strip out some of the low and high frequency information. Even at high bit rates you will lose some quality. You may not notice it so much playing them back through some cheap ear buds, but when they are played back through any kind of decent system the difference is very noticeable.
 
Deadear said:
Well I've figured out that the Santa Cruz card does just fine if I play a CD, so it must be the MP3's, and I'm assuming it's the low bitrate. However, would bitrate affect the high's and low's that you can hear in the song? And if so, I'm assuming that this MAD plugin would help with that?
MP3 compression in the simplest sense seeks to remove the parts the algorithm assumes we won't notice if missing. This typically tends to lop off the highs, remove most of the low, low bass, and emphasize the mid-bass (50+ Hz) a little to compensate for what is missing. You're never going to get it back, but if you have a standard decoder, a great deal more information that is still in the MP3 will be lost again.

The MAD plug-in is the most accurate decoder I know of that is so easy to use and so low of a drain on the computer resources. While it will only barely help a 128kbps sound more like a 160kbps, it really shines with the higher bitrates. 192s sound more like 320s and 320 sounds eerily close to CDs. While it won't make the MP3s sound as good as CDs, it can come close enough that you won't notice much of a difference unless you do an A/B comparison.

The first time I installed the MAD plug-in with a good stereo hooked up to my computer, I could not believe the difference. I ended up relistening to a large percentage of my MP3s just to hear what I hadn't been hearing before. Just be fore-warned, though, that because this plug-in hasn't been updated in a while, it doesn't support ID3v2 tags, just ID3v1.

- JP
 
If I were you, I would burn a CD to wav format and see if you are still missing the sound you are expecting.

If you are, then it is your sound card. If not, it is the compression of the mp3s.
 
That Turtle Beach card is a pretty good middle of the road card. Hercules makes another MOR card with a Yamaha chip called the maxi-sound fortissimo II. I'm not dissing either card (I have the herc, and use it in my home studio.) There are some more high-end cards/interfaces available. Best source I know of is an on-line retailer called "musiciansfriend.com" We're talking $400-$1000 here. But, I think JP and the others who suggest making sure the mp3s are as good as they get, and then realizing that mp3 is not the same as cda (music cd's) is the answer to your question.
 
Chaintech soundcard

If you don't play games on your computer I would seriously consider the Chaintech AV-710. It sells for around $25 and can't really be beat for what its costs. I have the Santa Cruz and will be getting the AV-710 soon.

If you do a search over at head-fi..org there are a ton of articles on the AV-710.
 
I'd be willing to bet the fault lies with the MP3's. Downloaded music is convenient as all get out but not much for listen'n IMHO. There's a couple of things you might want to do. Try rippin one of your CD's to an MP3 file and then rip the same song to some uncompressed type like wav or flac (lossless compression). Compare these to the ones you've downloaded. It would be best of course if you could find the same song from wherever you've been downloading your music from so you can do a more direct comparison. Most of the downloading sites will say which CD the song is from so try to get one from the same CD that you ripped from.
 
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What Player are youusing in your puter?.....Windows Media Player , Real player, musicmatch, winamp,...???? :scratch2:
 
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