Re: CD player

[Paweł Kuśmierek <pawel.kusmierek@xxxxxxxxx>]

2010/1/27 Neil Waterman <neil.waterman@xxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> If you go this route, note that the general run-of-the-mill soundcard that
> comes as part of a PC-bundle or laptop is not a very high-quality piece of
> kit

As far as I know these is not true anymore with newer motherboards.
But since good internal or external soundcards from companies such as
E-mu, M-audio, Tascam, Lexington and many others (just look into the
relevant part of  sweetwater.com website) are so cheap, I'd definitely
recommend getting one of these.

The problem with onboard audio cards, even if they improved much in
quality in recent years, is that they may come with various effects,
equalizers, spatializers, TrueBass'es, Wow's and whatever their names
are, which obviousy would interfere with any experiment (and, in my
opnion, music listening as well) unless you explicitly disable them
(and find them in the first place). Semi-pro cards from the companies
like I mentioned above, with their target being recording musicians
not gamers, are much safer in this respect.

For the reasons of flexibility I recommed using a computer and sound
card, not a CD player, unless there are reasons for using a player.

Pawel


. In my experience, if you need good quality sound from a PC (no matter
> the brand or size/shape) you will need to either upgrade the internal
> soundcard or use an external soundcard as your audio source. There are some
> nice USB-soundcards that provide very clean audio for around the $100-mark.
>
> If your source is going to be CD I'd probably steer clear of the $40 models
> - again you'd probably get the best bang for the buck from a PC with an
> external USB-soundcard.
>
> - Neil
>
> On Jan 27, 2010, at 9:02 AM, Bob Masta wrote:
>
>> On 27 Jan 2010 at 7:49, Monita Chatterjee wrote:
>>
>>> Dear List,
>>>
>>> We have a need for a CD player to play audio files (6
>>> kHz BW) for an OAE experiment. Is there a particular
>>> kind of player I should look for? how would a $40 home
>>> CD player, for instance, compare with fancy stuff you
>>> can get for hundreds of $$? Stimuli will be steady-state
>>> and modulated, simple noise and more complex..
>>
>> Cheap players may have more mains hum, in my experience,
>> but it's hard to make a general rule based on selling
>> price.
>>
>> If you are controlling the experiment with a computer, you
>> may find it a lot simpler to generate stimuli with the
>> sound card.  You can use my Daqarta for Windows software
>> (free for signal generation uses) to generate signals in
>> real-time. It can produce a broad range of waveforms
>> (inlcuding arbitrary ones you define) and modulation types,
>> and you can create extremely complex signals by using
>> signals as modulators for other signals.
>>
>> Let me know if you want advice about applying Daqarta to
>> your particular needs.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Bob Masta
>>
>>            D A Q A R T A
>> Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
>>           www.daqarta.com
>> Scope, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Signal Generator
>>    Science with your sound card!
>>
>