Old PC home audio

[TLS Guy]

Get a phono amp. Mine cost me $70, a Pro-Ject Phono Box MM. Hit to see some choices.

I agree, but he is in Argentina. I don't know what is available to him there and at what price.

 

[MrBoat]

What year/model is your Dell? The last computer right before this one is a Dell Dimension with Linux installed, of all things, using some universal driver and there was no audible noises and the stereo playback was/is awesome. The computer before that one, a Dell OptiPlex from the late 90's, also running even an earlier version of Linux, with even less of a compatible driver database to choose from, worked great as well.

If there was a noise issue, wouldn't that be apparent on any speakers? I had the last 2 PCs hooked up to a set of Harman Kardon Sounstick 2 speakers and sub with it's own built in amp and there was no noise and the sound quality was actually great. It just seems to reason that being I also have no noise issue previously with the PC hooked exactly the same way into the Scott amp, a Fisher amp, and now the Denon AVR, that's a little more than extremely lucky.

Are you sure that the PC isn't just less compatible with some of the other things you guys are running other than the simpler 2 channel systems we use? The reason I ask is, when I start reading about you top-fi guys, I start reading about the need for power conditioners and other hardware so, maybe your equipment is just a lot more sensitive.

 

[TLS Guy]

I have a Dell latitude as a laptop, but that is not used for audio.

The issues of power protection and preventing ground loops and rf noise are totally different issues.

The degree of power protection required is a function of location and climate. I live in North Central Minnesota on the shores of Benedict Lake in the Paul Bunyan State Forrest. The Chippewa National Forrest is on the other side of the Lake. We are on the extreme southern reach of Beltrami Electric Coop. The power comes from power stations in Western ND and huge wind farms at Landon ND on the south side of the Pembina Gorge, and from Lake Ashitabula also in ND near the Charles River. The point is that there are hundreds of miles of line with adverse climate in summer and winter. Actually severe weather can happen here any day of the year. In this situation maximum care and engineering are called for.

To the noise issue, the sensitivity of the equipment is just one issue. If you are two channel and a sub that is generally just three amps. If you have a 7.1 system then that ups the odds, as you now have another five amps to generate noise.

In this system there is a combination of active and passive crossovers. There are no passive crossovers operating below 2.5 KHz. All the others are active. This requires 14 power amp channels, providing a total power of 3 KW. Now if you don't engineer that right you won't even get through the door for the noise. In addition there are more units, in this case around fifty all together.

The computers in the system, are a DAW I built in 2002, that uses an external RME Fireface 800 as the DAC, and it also has mixing and a lot of control facilities. For AV I have an HTPC based on the Intel Ivy Bridge 5 integrated processor that I built in 2013. That just has one HDMI connection to the Marantz pre/pro and a hard wired Internet connection.

At our Eagan residence in the Twin Cities I have recently installed an Intel NUC that also uses the Intel Ivy Bridge i5. Those are essentially a kit, although all you have to do is install the RAM and SD memory. You also have to load the OS, which was Windows 10.

Last but not least, is that the total system is very valuable, with a significant number of rare vintage items many of which I have had since I was quite young. So this also demands as much protection as is practical.

This is the power amp case and if you feed any noise to that it will be well the wrong side of pleasant.