Better PC Sound

Posted at: Friday 29th February 2008 by Chris Lee

Just how good can PC audio be? Chris Lee investigates how to get the best audio quality from your computer, then pits the humble PC against one of the best CD players on the market.

The biggest improvement to our PC sound quality resulted from switching from compressed MP3s to uncompressed WAVs. The music from our PC sounded much cleaner than before, with individual instruments easier to discern - audiophiles would describe the sound as more transparent. Sound quality still wasn't on a par with that of our dedicated CD player, though, so it was time to get down to the nitty-gritty.

Cost: Free, although changing drivers is time-consuming

Better Hardware

With our digital music files now comparable in quality to a standalone CD player and our playback software up to scratch, we turned our attention to the Labs Rocker's motherboard audio.

The most noticeable issue concerning on-board audio is its relatively poor signal-to-noise ratio. In order to compare the 840C CD player and the PC, we used a pair of very sensitive Shure SE 530 headphones plugged into the amplifier, and the amp's volume turned up to maximum. With its source set as the 840C CD player, we could hear a very faint, delicate hiss, which became inaudible when the amp's volume was turned down to -19dB.

We then switched to the PC, taking care to mute XP's master volume to avoid having our ears blown off by someone pinging us a link in Messenger. A loud buzzing that constantly changed pitch was audible, and moving the mouse resulted in subtle changes in tone. Each website even had its own style of crackly distortion, and we had to lower the amp's volume to -43dB - more than half-way - before this noise became inaudible.

Installing a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card yielded a dramatic improvement. With the amp at full volume, there was an audible buzzing noise, but it was quieter than the on-board audio, and not affected by a varying CPU load or input from the keyboard and mouse. We only had to reduce the amp's volume to -30dB before the noise became inaudible, providing more 'clean' space in which to play music, and plenty of volume. Still, it's clear that a lot of effort has gone into making the CD player effectively silent at very loud volumes, and it puts the PC's noisy electronics to shame.

With the amp at a comfortable, but still room-filling, volume level, we were ready to pit the X-Fi-equipped Labs Rocker against the 840C once more. While we suspected that there isn't a huge difference between iTunes and kernel streaming Winamp, we opted for the latter, although that was probably due to the power of suggestion and a lack of moral fortitude on our part.

We then coaxed some volunteers into the lab as our judging panel, and asked them to listen carefully to music played on CD from the 840C, and from a WAV file on the PC, both through the same amp and the same speakers. For our test music, we used 'Jigsaw Falling Into Place' from Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' album, as it offers a good mix of lead guitar, vocals, high-pitched drums and bass with a lively tempo. In order that they could listen without prejudice, our volunteers weren't told the origin of each source.