Sound Quality

[DanceswithUnix]

But I would expect a cheap PSU to kill the bass more than the high end?

[peterb]

But I would expect a cheap PSU to kill the bass more than the high end?

Well a cheap PU with a big enough reservoir capacitor will get away with it to some extent. However, the PSU isn't being fingered as the problem in this case - at the moment the problem hasn't been narrowed down to PC, amp or speakers!

The OP needs to test the amp and speakers with a separate source, then if hat is OK, connect the amp back to the PC using an analogue connection, if that is OK, restore the optical connection and provide a line in to the sound card to se if that is OK. If he has another digital source, feeding fast into the amp and testing the sound quality would also be useful.

[DanceswithUnix]

Is there a headphone output on the amplifier? That could eliminate the speakers, assuming you have access to decent headphones and not just cheap ear buds.

[Solex]

Well a cheap PU with a big enough reservoir capacitor will get away with it to some extent. However, the PSU isn't being fingered as the problem in this case - at the moment the problem hasn't been narrowed down to PC, amp or speakers!

The OP needs to test the amp and speakers with a separate source, then if hat is OK, connect the amp back to the PC using an analogue connection, if that is OK, restore the optical connection and provide a line in to the sound card to se if that is OK. If he has another digital source, feeding fast into the amp and testing the sound quality would also be useful.

I used a portable generic dvd player as i dont have a proper cd player to test this out. Plugged them in by a 3.5mm jack to phono's as it does not have an optical out. The lows were too heavy, mids/highs were ok. Everything was set to flat, no eq, no loudness etc. Then I used a ipod (3.5mm to phono) to compare the difference between optical by pc. Both sounded the same. Also compared the analog output of the soundcard and the dac from the amp. The only difference when connected through analog, the volume had to be turned up a lot to hear it. Then I thought why not reinstalled the sound card drivers, so I did, turned every add-on from the creative software to off and to my surprise, the highs/mids are back! I can hear them more clearly like someone pulled the curtains away from it but the lows were still far too heavy, so i started swapping the optical cable with an analog one, thinking it will improve the lows but no avail. At the moment I don’t know if it’s the speakers or the amp as I don’t have a spare one to compare it with.

[peterb]

Sounds (sorry ) as if that was the problem - the sound card drivers. As for the heavy or muddy lows, I fear that may be the result of a budget AV receiver. You may be able to do some correction in the sound card, or any controls on the amp. If the amp has a "loudness" control, make sure that is switched off - that applies low and high end boost to make the output subjectively louder without actually doing anything to the volume levels.

[Solex]

Is there a headphone output on the amplifier? That could eliminate the speakers, assuming you have access to decent headphones and not just cheap ear buds.

The amp has a headphone output but it needs a 6.35mm jack adapter which i don't have atm. I mainly use a Denon C560R so i dunno if thats a good earphone or not.

[Solex]

After tinkering around with the amp with many combination including DanceswithUnix idea (Thxs!) of testing the amp using headphone output which i discovered was crackling while playing tunes from it. I figure i may need a new amp overall as i need to turn the volume to 30 (70 is the highest it can go) just to hear the speakers while the poor transformer is buzzing away like it was stressing out lol. Btw this was all through pcm mode but when switched to dts mode volume increased 10 folds, my guess Teac messed up in the pre-amp stage... Thxs for the help guys!