Sound quality of RuneAudio (rpi-IQAUDIO_DAC+) vs Win tablet

gerardgerard

Hi there,

Not a post of runeaudio per-se, but of sound quality improvements by using Runeaudio and a DAC, in this case a rpi+IQAudio DAC+.

I have a system where I can switch between two "systems", a tablet Dell Venue 8 pro with Windows 10, standard tablet-DAC I suppose, and a rpi2 with an IQAudio DAC+ with Runeaudio.

I am reproducing both systems with streams like http://5.135.178.219:8003/stream (europaradiojazz), http://radio.cesnet.cz:8000/cro-d-dur.flac (Cesky rozhlas D-dur) or http://mediaserv33.live-streams.nl:8084/ (Hi On Line Lounge Radio). Both systems are connected (RCA cables, the tablet using the standard headphones output) to an old stereo system philips-mcm250 (http://www.cnet.com/products/philips-mcm250-micro-system/).

Then, the question is, I am unable to notice any difference at all when switching between the two systems (I have a RCA splitter where I can select the system with one button). I am clearly biased towards noting anything positive in the DAC system, but I just can't.

Is it normal? Expected? Is the stereo just not enough to capture the differences? Is the DAC of the Dell tablet extremely good? Is Windows 10 (VLC) as good as Runeaudio?

I mean, I didn't expect this. What is the most reasonable explanation?

peters

You should try playing some higher quality audio such as cd quality, for example a FLAC file ripped from a CD or one of the high quality free downloads mentioned elsewhere on this forum. http://www.runeaudio.com/forum/free-resources-f20.html

Internet streams are normally 96Kbits and as such are of low quality and playing them through a DAC makes no audible difference as the subtle audio details you will normally hear when playing through a DAC, have already been masked out by the audio compression.

Devox

It's not that easy i think. The First stream he mentioned already comes in a very high resolution (for a stream). "Jazz in Vinyl - Audiophile Channel - FLAC 1000Kbps." I think there are more factors to this.

How something "Sounds" is a very subjective thing, but in most of the listening situations you already have a decent signal (like that one from the Windows-tablets DAC), that hasn't any noticeable flaws, even in a direct comparison to a "bit perfect" source like the rune audio player. But that "bit perfect" is where it gets interesting: The rune doesn't "transform" your music to sound "better". It delivers it as true as possible to your connected DAC, without any equalizing or "bass boost" or some of that "enhancement" you find in a lot of players out there. It's more about having control over your desired sound-experience than it is about "sounding better".

Maybe you could also hear a difference on a different Stereo System/amp, with bigger Speakers that cover a wider range. The Stereo you are using seems to be a rather decent one, but after all it's a micro-stereo-system with tiny speakers, most certainly engineered to sound "good" for the small amount of space that it occupies. As I already said, that doesn't make the stereo "bad" in any way. It just makes it difficult to hear nuances.

What also could have made it difficult for you to hear a difference is the choice of Music, as a stream is very random. When I direct-compare two sources, I use a Song I know in and out, (In my case "Suicide Demo For Kara Walker" from Destroyer

), start it on both sources at the same time and concentrate on one instrument at a time. Maybe even on different volumes, as this can also be a factor. The Source file should be high resolution. I'm no audiophile, it's just to exclude variables like compression artifacts.

But as I said, your windows-tablets DAC will already be a good one. I wouldn't expect major differences.

gerardgerard

Well, I have downloaded one of my favourites in flac and start playing in one system and in the other with my headphones, a bayerdynamic custom one pro.

While at the beginning everything sounded the same, after several repetitions of each time shorter fragments I've begun noticing the differences, which mainly are cleaner noise and very noticeable bass. With the tablet the main voice almost floods the rest of the sounds, with the rpi this is not the case, and you actually hear better the soft battery during all the song. This one is much less noticeable in the tablet (the song is Nude from Radiohead).

So yes, definitively my ear was not really trained. The thing is that one can imagine how good a system can be. You see some improvements here, but the song is far from being clean. Is it the DAC? is it the headphones? Where should my money go?

Well, then I've thought what if I hear the song with my computer, shouldn't I see a difference there as well? Again with the headphones and there with my computer I've heard the bass as well, surprising. Then I was listening the song and thinking, is it really sounding better? I was biased towards hearing it worse, but at the end I've come to the conclusion it is not equal but better. The last part of the song has convinced me, I've actually noticed more sounds there and already at the first time. It is also true that while the music sounded cleaner, I'm still not sure which one I like more, but at least it's definitively not in the tablet division.

Then I've checked again the board that I have, an Asus Maximus VIII, and googled for it and well they are proud of the audio they've put there, a DAC ESS ES9023P, and people seems happy that now the boards are packing very good audio solutions. So probably my conclusion is an expected one.

Tomorrow I'll check that with the stereo to see if I notice the same. But more importantly, thanks a lot for your comments and suggestions, I was about to give up!