Stereo Tool

I asked that almost 5 years ago

_________________
control point
control point2

Huh! 5 years ago I was say... lightyears behind in my dark ages And it's only recently when I started to mess around with RDS

Newbie question alert: I am about to try ST on a different machine (Dell Optiplex 790), a Realtek audio card, but analog out (1/8" stereo). If it works, I intend to (register ST! and) route the audio directly to EAS then FM transmitter. Doesn't that 'introduce' unbalanced audio? Is is an issue?


Heretofore I was sending audio separately (from a Patchbox) to either the FM transmitter, or a simple limiter than a Barix to stream Internet audio out. But I assume some/many of you simply split the stream after ST, sending one to EAS->FM and the other to your streaming computer (or Barix).

I dont know if you can feed MPX to audio in on your EAS then out to the TX and have it maintain MPX.

I do know if you have digital on your pc you can feed digital to a digital eas and then digital to your TX and MPX to your TX.

I don't have digital on my EAS.
Still trying to work out (before I have it in hand) Marian Trace Alpha out into MPX in on the transmitter.

Sorry to be a newbie here again...

Would someone (in the US) recommend two or three (older) models that have the 'supported' Realtek sound card and run ST well enough? I have tried one or two I found "on my own" but I wasn't satisfied with the sound...

Hi BJ,

If that's the case then I'm guessing that the Realtek just doesn't sound so good. I've never put them side-by-side, on FM comparing to other stations here my Realtek laptop headphone output sounds much better than anything else on the air. But it could be that the Marian sounds better.

What do you hear exactly?

Well it was a brief trial (since the loss of the equipment this week).
But the one computer with Realtek I had, had occasional dropouts. (This was of course without the Marian. I only got to play with the Marian briefly.)

So I can see the "approved" chipsets above...

Could someone, for the benefit of this newbie, post their simplest version of a "production chain" in their ST box? Assume using the onboard realtek, full FM, eventually MPX out. I get that all sample rates need to be either the same or multiples of same; does it have to be 192Khz?
Do I need VAC (which I have used)? MPX tool?

And is the stock 1/8" output OK or do I need a different audio connection out?

I expect to be working in Win7 but would win10 be better? (Hans, has ST been 'approved' for Win10 yet?)

Hm, I dug up a computer of mine with Realtek ALC888 which online says it can handle 192Khz... so maybe I am in business later...