# CarPC SQ



## duckymcse

Anyone running CarPC for SQ?
I'm just finish my CarPC setup and the SQ is pretty awesome. It sound even better than my Eclipse CD7200 mkII + Audison Bitone.1.
For my setup:
Viliv S5 UMPC (very sweet little UMPC device, it even came with car kit)
Sound Blaster x-fi usb 5.1 soundcard (for 48khz/24Bit output and optical connection)
Audison Bitone.1 sound processor (nothing but praise about this sound processor)
Using Winamp + Studio Sound FX pluggin (awesome free sound resampling pluggin)

For those running CarPC, what soundcard do you use? What software do you use for playback to achieve the best SQ? What else do you do to make the SQ even better?


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## audio+civic

can you tune the bitone using you car pc?


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## duckymcse

Yes, I had to set the resolution to 1024x768 to see everything.
My Viliv S5 screen size is 4.8". So it is kind of small but it is still very doable.



audio+civic said:


> can you tune the bitone using you car pc?


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## thehatedguy

If you are using the BitOne, then you don't really need a soundcard just a digital output from the computer.

I want to go the PC route one of these days.


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## audio+civic

In car PC with a good cd Player has been in the back of my head for a while. A bit one would be great with it.


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## kapone

Working on one as we speak. This is my modded navigation screen from my 740i. Stock it has a tape player behind that screen, I modded it to hold a PC slot load DVD drive.










The CarPC will go in the trunk. It's already built and tested. I had it in a makeshift shelf under the rear deck, but I'm redoing my install. It survived a 6000 mile cross counrty trek and 120 degree temps in Nevada.. 










Ran the wiring a few weeks ago when I swapped my floor carpet from grey to black.


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## t3sn4f2

duckymcse said:


> Anyone running CarPC for SQ?
> I'm just finish my CarPC setup and the SQ is pretty awesome. It sound even better than my Eclipse CD7200 mkII + Audison Bitone.1.
> For my setup:
> Viliv S5 UMPC (very sweet little UMPC device, it even came with car kit)
> Sound Blaster x-fi usb 5.1 soundcard (for 48khz/24Bit output and optical connection)
> Audison Bitone.1 sound processor (nothing but praise about this sound processor)
> Using Winamp + Studio Sound FX pluggin (awesome free sound resampling pluggin)
> 
> For those running CarPC, what soundcard do you use? What software do you use for playback to achieve the best SQ? What else do you do to make the SQ even better?


I'd ditch the soundcard like H guy said, as well as the resampler plugin. Then just get an inexpensive USB to SPDIF converter that using the windows USB speaker driver which is very stable and will never give you hibernation issue. That would be the most direct best quality digital output you can get with that setup. Then feed it into the bitone and use it for master volume, or the winamp volume will work well also.

One of these if the Viliv doesn't have its own digital output.

http://http://www.twistedpearaudio.com/digital/usb.aspx


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## 14642

Why is it necessary to use an outboard processor? The PC should have enough processing power to do simple EQ and crossover even for several channels. Then, just get a reasonable audio interface--I use an Edirol UA-101, 10-in 10-out interface. You can either use the ASIO direct from your playback program, if it includes ASIO, or run a toslink cable from the PC to the digital inlut of the interface. The outputs are balanced and so long as you use amps with differential input, there's little chance of any engine noise. 

For signal processing, load audiomulch or console and there are enough vst plug-ins to do EQ and crossover available that no additional DSP ought to be necessary.

If you want to go nuts, look at an ESI interface. They include a feature called "rewire" that will allow you to output the WDM stream from multichannel recordings into the ASIO driver.


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## duckymcse

The Audison Bitone.1 does a good job of processing the sound. But based on my experience, it sound even better when combine with a quality soundcard(like the X-Fi). The resampler pluggin totally make all my MP3/Flac sound alive, no way I going to ditch that. I tried Winamp without any pluggin, WMP, Cowin JetAudio and Foobar2000 and none of them came close to Winamp with Sound Studio FX pluggin.



t3sn4f2 said:


> I'd ditch the soundcard like H guy said, as well as the resampler plugin. Then just get an inexpensive USB to SPDIF converter that using the windows USB speaker driver which is very stable and will never give you hibernation issue. That would be the most direct best quality digital output you can get with that setup. Then feed it into the bitone and use it for master volume, or the winamp volume will work well also.
> 
> One of these if the Viliv doesn't have its own digital output.
> 
> http://http://www.twistedpearaudio.com/digital/usb.aspx


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## thehatedguy

So you are going to go analog out of te PC, analog into the BitOne...where as you could have gone digital out and digital in? Makes zero sense.

Andy, what would it take computer-wise to do processing and a music server?


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## t3sn4f2

duckymcse said:


> The Audison Bitone.1 does a good job of processing the sound. But based on my experience, it sound even better when combine with a quality soundcard(like the X-Fi). The resampler pluggin totally make all my MP3/Flac sound alive, no way I going to ditch that. I tried Winamp without any pluggin, WMP, Cowin JetAudio and Foobar2000 and none of them came close to Winamp with Sound Studio FX pluggin.


My bad, I though the fx plugin was a resampler since you mentioned the higher bit rate and sample rate. I guess its fine as a soubdfield DSP if you like it. I would however look into the soundblaster card though, they are known to resample audio to 48 which in my experiance degrades the highs significantly. You might be able to get even more quality if it is not being resampled like that. I've measure 10% IMD at 10kHZ on my EMU mixer when I resample that way. Creative should but without the option to not resample output.


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## sedtc

if you use a sound card like the m-audio 1010LT coupled with console software, you could do all the tuning directly on the carpc.


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## duckymcse

I'm using the digital out of the X-Fi usb into the digital in of the Bitone.1. 



thehatedguy said:


> So you are going to go analog out of te PC, analog into the BitOne...where as you could have gone digital out and digital in? Makes zero sense.


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## duckymcse

I don't need to do any EQ/Crossover from the PC since those are all done from the Bitone.1.
The ESI interface and audiomulch looks interesting. I gotta looks into that.
Thanks for the info.



Andy Wehmeyer said:


> Why is it necessary to use an outboard processor? The PC should have enough processing power to do simple EQ and crossover even for several channels. Then, just get a reasonable audio interface--I use an Edirol UA-101, 10-in 10-out interface. You can either use the ASIO direct from your playback program, if it includes ASIO, or run a toslink cable from the PC to the digital inlut of the interface. The outputs are balanced and so long as you use amps with differential input, there's little chance of any engine noise.
> 
> For signal processing, load audiomulch or console and there are enough vst plug-ins to do EQ and crossover available that no additional DSP ought to be necessary.
> 
> If you want to go nuts, look at an ESI interface. They include a feature called "rewire" that will allow you to output the WDM stream from multichannel recordings into the ASIO driver.


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## duckymcse

That is a nice soundcard. Wish I can use it. But I don't think I can use that with my Viliv S5. I need a USB soundcard.



sedtc said:


> if you use a sound card like the m-audio 1010LT coupled with console software, you could do all the tuning directly on the carpc.


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## duckymcse

I tried 44Khz/16Bit, 44Khz/24Bit and 48Khz/24Bit and I found that 48Khz/24Bit sound slightly better. 



t3sn4f2 said:


> My bad, I though the fx plugin was a resampler since you mentioned the higher bit rate and sample rate. I guess its fine as a soubdfield DSP if you like it. I would however look into the soundblaster card though, they are known to resample audio to 48 which in my experiance degrades the highs significantly. You might be able to get even more quality if it is not being resampled like that. I've measure 10% IMD at 10kHZ on my EMU mixer when I resample that way. Creative should but without the option to not resample output.


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## thehatedguy

Reading > me today...lol.


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## audio+civic

Just out of curiosity do any of these sound cards offer a digital coaxail out?


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## 14642

thehatedguy said:


> So you are going to go analog out of te PC, analog into the BitOne...where as you could have gone digital out and digital in? Makes zero sense.
> 
> Andy, what would it take computer-wise to do processing and a music server?


I'm not sure, but I do think that keeping the signal digital is the most overrated of all possible considerations. I think I have about 45 conversions in my signal path and it sounds fine.


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## 14642

audio+civic said:


> Just out of curiosity do any of these sound cards offer a digital coaxail out?


Almost any interface worth its salt includes this feature--the creative cards I've used for noebooks do.


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## duckymcse

I felt the same Andy. I don't hear much different when I used RCA analog vs Digital connection. I actually prefer RCA analog over digital, it seem to me it sound slightly better with analog connection on my system. If I didn't got those weird noise when the PC is being access from the hard drive, I would have kept the signal using RCA analog. With digital connection, I don't have any of those weird noise issue. Maybe I playing mostly MP3/Flac and with digital connection, you hear more flaw I guess.



Andy Wehmeyer said:


> I'm not sure, but I do think that keeping the signal digital is the most overrated of all possible considerations. I think I have about 45 conversions in my signal path and it sounds fine.


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## audio+civic

Andy Wehmeyer said:


> Almost any interface worth its salt includes this feature--the creative cards I've used for noebooks do.


I am not a PC genious so I had to ask. I wanted to know because I could use the optical in for the head unit and the coaxail in for the CarPc on the bit one. That way I can have my cake and eat it too or Pumpkin Pie it being thanksgiving afterall.


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## t3sn4f2

If you have the digital option, use it. If you don't have it readily available, try the analog route and see if it suites your needs.


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## Patrick Bateman

duckymcse said:


> I tried 44Khz/16Bit, 44Khz/24Bit and 48Khz/24Bit and I found that 48Khz/24Bit sound slightly better.


Probably something in the stream is resampling the output, and badly. I've found this a lot with my measurement rig for speakers, the measurements will go to hell, and I'll find that they're getting resampled.

As the other poster noted, it REALLY wrecks the signal.

I have Itunes installed on my computer in the garage, and I wrote a shell script that resamples MP3 files from 16/44 to 24/48, just so I have peace of mind that the sampling rate of my files is the same as the output rate of the soundcard.


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## Patrick Bateman

duckymcse said:


> Anyone running CarPC for SQ?
> I'm just finish my CarPC setup and the SQ is pretty awesome. It sound even better than my Eclipse CD7200 mkII + Audison Bitone.1.
> For my setup:
> Viliv S5 UMPC (very sweet little UMPC device, it even came with car kit)
> Sound Blaster x-fi usb 5.1 soundcard (for 48khz/24Bit output and optical connection)
> Audison Bitone.1 sound processor (nothing but praise about this sound processor)
> Using Winamp + Studio Sound FX pluggin (awesome free sound resampling pluggin)
> 
> For those running CarPC, what soundcard do you use? What software do you use for playback to achieve the best SQ? What else do you do to make the SQ even better?


Damn, this would work really nice in my car.

I haven't removed a single bolt to install my stereo, and I don't want to replace the head unit. Because the system is half-finished, it spends most of it's time hooked up to a computer in my garage. When I'm on the road I use an Ipod for a source (gasp!!!)

Up until five minutes ago, my longterm plan was to purchase a Behringer EQ/crossover, build my own DAC, and use a Zune HD for source.
















​
WANT


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## t3sn4f2

Patrick Bateman said:


> Damn, this would work really nice in my car.
> 
> I haven't removed a single bolt to install my stereo, and I don't want to replace the head unit. Because the system is half-finished, it spends most of it's time hooked up to a computer in my garage. When I'm on the road I use an Ipod for a source (gasp!!!)
> 
> Up until five minutes ago, my longterm plan was to purchase a Behringer EQ/crossover, build my own DAC, and use a Zune HD for source.
> 
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> WANT


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## duckymcse

The Viliv S5 is a sweet little UMPC. It's small but powerful(Atom 1.33Ghz processor with 1 Gig of RAM). It can even handle Windows 7.
It's expensive, but worth every penny IMO. It work great with the car and you can easily take it along with you out the car. It had build in Wi-Fi and GPS.
Tried the Ipod with USB connection, give that up in a day (SQ just not up to my standard).
Tried Zune HD because of the build in HD radio, didn't work too well and SQ just not up to my standard. Give that up also.
Tried Eclipse CD7200 mkII + Audison Bitone.1, great sound but too bad only support MP3. 
I think I might be happy with this Viliv S5 + X-Fi USB. Fit perfectly in the car, play all kind of music/video format, GPS etc..and sound is the best I ever had in my setup. I'm still seeking for better SQ (this is endless, glad I still had a job to feed this expensive hobby), but this will be hard to beat for now.



Patrick Bateman said:


> Damn, this would work really nice in my car.
> 
> I haven't removed a single bolt to install my stereo, and I don't want to replace the head unit. Because the system is half-finished, it spends most of it's time hooked up to a computer in my garage. When I'm on the road I use an Ipod for a source (gasp!!!)
> 
> Up until five minutes ago, my longterm plan was to purchase a Behringer EQ/crossover, build my own DAC, and use a Zune HD for source.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> ​
> WANT


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## thehatedguy

Interesting...have to learn more.


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