Computer as a prepro

[prerich]

Originally Posted by onyxbfly

If I understand this correctly. If I wanted to use my computer as a prepro all I would need is one of the sound cards you previously mentioned.

One of the main reasons for having an AVR PRE/pro si that you can have all of your sources into one box and then have the audio out to your amp and or your speakers depending on what route you take.

My question is how do you get your different source audio into your HTPC to have the sound output via your card to your amp then your speakers?

I can see this being a great idea if your only sources that you are concerned with is a tuner card and or movies/music via the HTPC.

Further explanation - I have all of my music on my NAS, (if I want viynl - I can buy a Music Hall USB Turntable - or transfer to digital) what other sources do you need? I play BD disc on my machine, and everything else for that matter. I've taken the sources out of the equation and I've taken the processors out too.

I just attach the amps to the soundcard and that's a rap. What would be really avantgard would be using professional powered speakers (like Adam's or Genlec, or powered Quads) in this configuration.

[onyxbfly]

Originally Posted by prerich

I only have one source ! I play Blu-ray, music, and TV all through my HTPC

Kewl thanks for the clarification!

[pentatonic]

Originally Posted by prerich

Further explanation - I have all of my music on my NAS, (if I want viynl - I can buy a Music Hall USB Turntable - or transfer to digital) what other sources do you need? I play BD disc on my machine, and everything else for that matter. I've taken the sources out of the equation and I've taken the processors out too.

I just attach the amps to the soundcard and that's a rap. What would be really avantgard would be using professional powered speakers (like Adam's or Genlec, or powered Quads) in this configuration.

I get this impression you will end up trying pro speakers at one point . Great for AC power distribution, add a conditioner/suppressor to your main AC panel, or if room permits, you could even add a cheap pro mixing board and run XLR to each channels, powered speakers or inexpensive pro amps for each channels. T

here is no limit to what one can attain this way, just depends how far you want to push it (though this can also be done with a pre/pro and is something I would look into if I ever built a nice sized dedicated room)

[prerich]

Originally Posted by pentatonic

I get this impression you will end up trying pro speakers at one point . Great for AC power distribution, add a conditioner/suppressor to your main AC panel, or if room permits, you could even add a cheap pro mixing board and run XLR to each channels, powered speakers or inexpensive pro amps for each channels. T

here is no limit to what one can attain this way, just depends how far you want to push it (though this can also be done with a pre/pro and is something I would look into if I ever built a nice sized dedicated room)

Yeah, Behringer and Wharfdale both offer some nice inexpensive mixers ! The only reason I put the powered pro-speakers out there was to get rid of the power amps - but that's just a thought. I still love my Cornwall/Heresy combo!!!!

[pentatonic]

Originally Posted by prerich

Yeah, Behringer and Wharfdale both offer some nice inexpensive mixers ! The only reason I put the powered pro-speakers out there was to get rid of the power amps - but that's just a thought. I still love my Cornwall/Heresy combo!!!!

Either way, XLR is a great connection type, and mixed with possibly Speakon or direct to the speaker sounds good to me. But I wouldn't do that in a small room, pro speakers do open up with power, but at close to 100 dB sensitivity, it would get loud real fast. In a dedicated large room though it would be quite visceral of an experience

[prerich]

Originally Posted by pentatonic

Either way, XLR is a great connection type, and mixed with possibly Speakon or direct to the speaker sounds good to me. But I wouldn't do that in a small room, pro speakers do open up with power, but at close to 100 dB sensitivity, it would get loud real fast. In a dedicated large room though it would be quite visceral of an experience

I'm already at 101db sensitivity on my mains and at 98 or 96 on my Center channel !

[prerich]

Ok hears something everyone must know....your power supply makes a difference! Had to change mine out today (pc started acting weird over the weekend..SATA drives dropping, USB not reading ect.). That's why I went this way, I'm my own repairman ! Got a much better PSU and all the problem vanished - I got my money's worth out of first PSU. If I still had a receiver, I'd be out some big bucks for repair....HTPC for the win!!!!!

[pentatonic]

Originally Posted by prerich

Ok hears something everyone must know....your power supply makes a difference! Had to change mine out today (pc started acting weird over the weekend..SATA drives dropping, USB not reading ect.). That's why I went this way, I'm my own fepairman ! Got a much better PSU and all the problem vanished - I got my money's worth out of first PSU. If I still had a receiver, I'd be out some big bucks for repair....HTPC for the win!!!!!

I totally agree with power supplies and is the first thing pre built PCs suffer from, and one thing many people who build their own cheap on. Bad idea, poor power can create havoc and is often the reason for burned caps on mobos, video cards dying, etc. When you think of it, it's the basic heart of a system. Even good PS have a life span but when I see the crap some people use, it just baffles me.

Luckily you can get decent to very good PS for less than $100 now. Better to have a good 450W than a piece of **** 600W. Most average systems don't need that much, it's when you get into gaming rigs with TOL GPUs that the extra power is needed.

I'm happy to hear it died without killing anything with it.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by pentatonic

I totally agree with power supplies and is the first thing pre built PCs suffer from, and one thing many people who build their own cheap on. Bad idea, poor power can create havoc and is often the reason for burned caps on mobos, video cards dying, etc. When you think of it, it's the basic heart of a system. Even good PS have a life span but when I see the crap some people use, it just baffles me.

Luckily you can get decent to very good PS for less than $100 now. Better to have a good 450W than a piece of **** 600W. Most average systems don't need that much, it's when you get into gaming rigs with TOL GPUs that the extra power is needed.

I'm happy to hear it died without killing anything with it.

Yeah, it was a decent PSU (lasted me 6 years ). I stepped it up this time. Checked my motherboard for popped caps or leaky caps (it's the first thing I do if I experience strange behavior) - no bad caps, actually surprise at the cap quality of this board! I was stuck for a while and then it occurred to me....the power supply! I havent had BSOD's with Windows 7 and when I started getting them this weekend, I knew a piece of hardware was going out...first thought, Motherboard - but then I thought about APCI and the USB issues - PSU !!!!

It's so great to fix your own stuff - oh...I got my 535i up and running too!!!
It's summer time - don't want to drive the big 740iL all the time!

[prerich]

Cool factoid about J. River....you can use your PEQ, Room Correction, the entire DSP Studio suite across multiple platforms (WMC, REW, Youtube, ect)!!!! Sweet!

You use the loopback function to perform this. You would assign the PC to an unused soundcard such as your internal motherboard soundcard. You would then go to File Live in JRMC and then tell it to loopback to the real soundcard (in my case - the Xonar Essence XT+H6). Minimize JRiver, after you do this any audio that you have will be routed to JRiver and processed there.

Second good thing - with the convienece of USB DAC's and the Zoning ablility of JRiver - you can have your cake and eat it too. Lets say you want a multi channel DAC - but you also want a BiFrost or a Benchmark, or some other Dac for music ... no problem - assign your HT zone to something like the Essence while you assign your usb Bifrost or Benchmark to 2 channel music (audio out can use piggy back cables or you can get real tech'd out and just buy another amp for your music DAC). This HTPC as a prepro has just gotten real fun!!!!

[prerich]

Ok EQ filter comparison the first picture is a measurement taken when I had My onkyo with Audyssey with 1/6 th octave smoothing




This one is my new measurement FFT no smoothing applied, without Audyssey, using my own filters (measurements consistent over three listening positions):



Not a bad comparison

[prerich]

Ok, new feature added to my HTPC - Smooth Video Project (for that 120hz effect). One problem - I can only tolerate it with animated films (don't watch Star Trek with it - the scene where they come out of warp into the destroyed fleet will make you !!!! My son loves it, me - I will leave it most of the time. It's still cool to see what are my limits with this.

On the audio side i've replaced all my interconnects...to make them shorter! My old ones were so long because of the large wall unit I had. Shorter cables and fewer cables now.

[Mr. Neverbicker]

Originally Posted by prerich

Cool factoid about J. River....you can use your PEQ, Room Correction, the entire DSP Studio suite across multiple platforms (WMC, REW, Youtube, ect)!!!! Sweet!

You use the loopback function to perform this. You would assign the PC to an unused soundcard such as your internal motherboard soundcard. You would then go to File Live in JRMC and then tell it to loopback to the real soundcard (in my case - the Xonar Essence XT+H6). Minimize JRiver, after you do this any audio that you have will be routed to JRiver and processed there.

Second good thing - with the convienece of USB DAC's and the Zoning ablility of JRiver - you can have your cake and eat it too. Lets say you want a multi channel DAC - but you also want a BiFrost or a Benchmark, or some other Dac for music ... no problem - assign your HT zone to something like the Essence while you assign your usb Bifrost or Benchmark to 2 channel music (audio out can use piggy back cables or you can get real tech'd out and just buy another amp for your music DAC). This HTPC as a prepro has just gotten real fun!!!!

A dream come true. I've been looking for a system wide HTPC PEQ solution for years! Thank you!!!

[prerich]

Originally Posted by Mr. Neverbicker

A dream come true. I've been looking for a system wide HTPC PEQ solution for years! Thank you!!!

You're welcome

[prerich]

Update, I've left JRiver's parametric EQ in favor of Convolver! I make my correction filters in REW, Audiolense, DRC or some other room correction software and export the resultant filters as a impulse .wav, put them in JRiver's 64 bit convolution engine and bam!!!!! Excellent room correction! FYI the Dayton Umm-6 USB mic works great for measurements and you don't have to calibrate your soundcard with it!

[prerich]

Well its time to wake up this thread. I'm still using my PC as my prepro and I have no desire to leave this configuration. I've experimented with different interfaces and soundcards and have settled on an Evolve 7.1 HDMI de-embedder, my ST/H6 is now my backup soundcard, and the Firefly 808u is used for recording music groups and voice. It's good being off the "upgrade my prepro/receiver" carousel. I've spent money on three interfaces in two years only because of curiosity. I have the fidelity and clarity that I desire, and have all of the features I could want.

My next major upgrade may happen next year when I migrate to Windows 9 (yes the real Start up button is back). At that time I may put my old motherboard to rest - It has been a faithful HTPC 1 year before I joined blu-ray.com (that's about 8 years people). Occasion upgrades of a few dollars are more practical for me than thousands of dollars for a new prepro or high-end receiver.

I will be able to use most of what I have in my 2015 build (with the exception of the my current memory, processor, and motherboard...which will not cost much by 2015...I stay a few behind and work it till end of life...I'm still using a socket 775!!!!). Everything else will go into the new build, I just pray that the new build last as long as this last one! I could even put the old processor, mb, and memory in a different case and keep it as a backup pc (windows 7 has plenty of life left in it).

[pentatonic]

Originally Posted by prerich

Well its time to wake up this thread. I'm still using my PC as my prepro and I have no desire to leave this configuration. I've experimented with different interfaces and soundcards and have settled on an Evolve 7.1 HDMI de-embedder, my ST/H6 is now my backup soundcard, and the Firefly 808u is used for recording music groups and voice. It's good being off the "upgrade my prepro/receiver" carousel. I've spent money on three interfaces in two years only because of curiosity. I have the fidelity and clarity that I desire, and have all of the features I could want.

My next major upgrade may happen next year when I migrate to Windows 9 (yes the real Start up button is back). At that time I may put my old motherboard to rest - It has been a faithful HTPC 1 year before I joined blu-ray.com (that's about 8 years people). Occasion upgrades of a few dollars are more practical for me than thousands of dollars for a new prepro or high-end receiver.

I will be able to use most of what I have in my 2015 build (with the exception of the my current memory, processor, and motherboard...which will not cost much by 2015...I stay a few behind and work it till end of life...I'm still using a socket 775!!!!). Everything else will go into the new build, I just pray that the new build last as long as this last one! I could even put the old processor, mb, and memory in a different case and keep it as a backup pc (windows 7 has plenty of life left in it).

As I told you before, my "dream" setup would be such a HTPC feeding 7 pro monitors. I personally love Adam monitors very much as I do Genelec but it might just be some of the new Behringers (designed by the Rokit designer). Like you, my HTPC is end of life kinda, a 965 business board using my old Q6600, 8 Gb ram and my old Radeon HD 5770 using it's HDMI. And 5 other HDs over the OS Seagate 1 Tb SSHD for storage as it also doubles as my media server (something you could do with yours when you upgrade ). I can even game on it some. All of my left overs with a new "old stock" mobo ($40) as my previous busted some caps

[prerich]

Originally Posted by pentatonic

As I told you before, my "dream" setup would be such a HTPC feeding 7 pro monitors. I personally love Adam monitors very much as I do Genelec but it might just be some of the new Behringers (designed by the Rokit designer). Like you, my HTPC is end of life kinda, a 965 business board using my old Q6600, 8 Gb ram and my old Radeon HD 5770 using it's HDMI. And 5 other HDs over the OS Seagate 1 Tb SSHD for storage as it also doubles as my media server (something you could do with yours when you upgrade ). I can even game on it some. All of my left overs with a new "old stock" mobo ($40) as my previous busted some caps

You know it will only be a matter of time before I get two more Bag End M6's and a Bag End Sub
HT for the Back room!

[pentatonic]

Originally Posted by prerich

You know it will only be a matter of time before I get two more Bag End M6's and a Bag End Sub
HT for the Back room!

Oh how I know that . I'm not sure I would do all of my music listening on that, love the neutrality of monitors but let's face it, they can get boring for music, depending what you listen to. But as a HT or MC music??

Actually I might have to buy 3 more Truth 2030A as I want to start testing MC mixing for a buddy's band. If I can nail the same sale I got I'm in (yep, imagine that, pro gear on sale, that was a first for me ). My only problem is space for now. It might have to wait for my next move which was pushed back 1 year