Car PC sound, not as good as expected!!

Glyn · 04-21-2004, 01:21 PM

I finally got my car PC togeter and into the car.
I am taking the sound straight from the board into an amplifier.
My problem is that there seems to be a lot of noise/clicking over the speakers.

Has anybody else found this???
Is it likely to be that the auidio out lead is not good enough; ie picking up interference??
Or is it Via's onboard sound????

I'm using a 800Mhz Mini ITX, powered by a 90W Opus.

Thanks

jusatry · 04-21-2004, 02:17 PM

obviously: check your grounding.

But if the noise is not alternator whine, try getting a USB sound card and testing sound with that. I suspect its just the poor quality of the audio out.

falconey · 04-22-2004, 01:43 PM

if you can provide as much information about the negatives as possilbe, that way you can get better answers to your question. an example would be to give more description of the sound and when it happens.

ricpf · 04-22-2004, 01:59 PM

There are some rules:

1st: Try to use industrial quality cables, gold plated on connectos, triple shielded preferrable.

2nd: Try to have them pretty close to the amplifier (shorter cables=better sound)

and 3rd and more important:

Use a good quality sound card, such as sound blaster extigy2 Pro, it has a 2V output (2v is the minimum necessary to avoid noise and let the "gain" on the amplifier to an acceptable level).

If you use a card like this, in addition you're gonna have a "high-end" output, 108dB of S/N Ratio and excellent frequency response... depending on the rest of you equipment (i.e. speakers, amplifiers) you're gonna be able to hear sounds from your favorite songs that you never heard before my friend.

If you like sound, and wanna "match" the rest of the equipment, try B&W or Mcintsoh amplifiers and "focal" (france) 3-way speakers... you're gonna love it!

bubbrubb · 04-22-2004, 03:18 PM

I hear a lot of people recommending usb sound cards, is this because everyone has a mini-itx and cant fit a pci card in there system? Reason im asking this is, its cheaper to get pci cards, and the add-on ones dont have noise from the computer/dvd/cdrom drives like the onboard soundcards.

gospeed.racer · 04-22-2004, 03:25 PM

IMO the usb is better becsuse you can sit it right next to the amps and just run a long usb to the carputer. Makes for really short and tidy connections.

The Durango Kid · 04-22-2004, 03:35 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by gospeed.racer

IMO the usb is better becsuse you can sit it right next to the amps and just run a long usb to the carputer. Makes for really short and tidy connections.

That want most people run either a EPIA or a SFF.. The SFF put the PCI card right in the way of the Video card cause them to heat up and lose airflow.. I know this is why my Home PC has a USB Sound Card..

Glyn · 04-24-2004, 10:55 AM

From what you all say, USB sound cards seem to be the way to go.

The Extigy looks excellent but expensive... Is it really that much better than some of the cheaper ones.
After all, It's only going to be playing MP3's and radio.

Scouse Monkey · 04-24-2004, 11:04 AM

Anyone know what is the CPU usage like with an external soundcard as opposed to an internal one? Thinking about adding one to my laptop but it is pretty slow.

Edit: mainly interested in the extigy ones, seem some reports of cheaper ones using a lot of CPU but more info on these would be good too.

toadster123 · 04-24-2004, 11:09 AM

yea, are there any usb1.0 soundcards... is usb1.0 (1.1?) fast enough for a soundcard???

stuthemong · 04-24-2004, 02:12 PM

IMO there is only ever 1 option.

soundblaster audigy 2 zs in a PCI slot running kxproject (google it) drivers.

I have my PC in boot, giving me a full sound processing active (i.e. 6 channels out, 2 tweets, 2 mids, and 2 subs (Summed)), time aligned, and EQ'd. I run straight from PC to my amp (3 stereo wires) - a McIntosh mc440m ricpf

, which then directly drives my McIntosh speakers - no passive x/o required, so more headroom.

The SQ is better than my old system of a Pioneer DEX-P1r - which is a very good headunit.

HTH

Stu

Lando · 04-25-2004, 10:27 AM

Or if you dont want to go the USB route, ther is always a line driver to boost your output voltage from 2 - 8 volts. Higher output Voltage = better sound

Altimat · 04-25-2004, 06:43 PM

My USB SoundBlaster was crap and I returned it. Bought an Audigy PCI card off Ebay and it sounds better than CDs on my head unit IMO. No noise whatsoever and my cheap RCAs run right up the tunnel along with every other CarPC wire in the car.

pete35887 · 04-25-2004, 07:34 PM

i have a sound blaster live 5.1 what would i use to go out from that to my receivers aux input which is 2 rca's?

Altimat · 04-25-2004, 07:51 PM

2 RCAs after the 1/8" stereo headphone-to-two RCAs adapter.