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Topic: Any Opinions of the 1999 Sony Vaio Laptop for Audio? (Read 2139 times) previous topic - next topic
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Any Opinions of the 1999 Sony Vaio Laptop for Audio?

Considering the original Playstation has an audiophile reputation (whether or not that is justifiable) I wanted to know if anyone has any opinions or information on what kind of audio performance this laptop has, specifically the Sony Vaio PCGN505VE. I will post a picture of the one I have.



I installed a 256 GB SSD into it and Windows XP. I know earlier audio chips from around this time are known to have uncompromised quality, such as possessing true 44.1 kHz sample rate decoding capabilities, rather than upsampling, to provide true decoding capabilities of CD audio. I personally enjoy CD audio that comes from pressings released in the 1980s because of the reduced likelihood of having dynamic range compression and excessive limiter use. Let me know what people think.

Re: Any Opinions of the 1999 Sony Vaio Laptop for Audio?

Reply #1
such as possessing true 44.1 kHz sample rate decoding capabilities, rather than upsampling, to provide true decoding capabilities of CD audio.
What is wrong with upsampling?
Music: sounds arranged such that they construct feelings.

Re: Any Opinions of the 1999 Sony Vaio Laptop for Audio?

Reply #2
such as possessing true 44.1 kHz sample rate decoding capabilities, rather than upsampling, to provide true decoding capabilities of CD audio.
What is wrong with upsampling?

Well, there is not inherently anything wrong with upsampling as most modern upsampling implementations are very efficient and work very well. I mainly was trying to provide an example of what kind of differences that audio hardware can have. Because, from memory, I am having a hard time recalling my knowledge of how audio chips work. I know there was something in particular that audio chips from this era are renowned for. Unfortunately I cannot remember now.

Re: Any Opinions of the 1999 Sony Vaio Laptop for Audio?

Reply #3
If playing from the analog out (headphone jack), there's nothing particularly special about it.  If playing to an external DAC via USB, it's as good as any.

Re: Any Opinions of the 1999 Sony Vaio Laptop for Audio?

Reply #4
If playing from the analog out (headphone jack), there's nothing particularly special about it.  If playing to an external DAC via USB, it's as good as any.

I suppose I could empirically test the performance by using some kind of analysis program. I could plug the audio out into the line in of my iMac, which has a really good sound card, and use some kind of test tones. I'm traditionally more familiar with testing software used for cassette tape decks, as that is my hobby. Let me know if there is some way to run tests. Although the iMac's sound card would probably influence the results to some degree.

Re: Any Opinions of the 1999 Sony Vaio Laptop for Audio?

Reply #5
I can understand the use of an old computer for the purpose of games and legacy applications that don't run on newer hardware and operating systems.

But to listen to audio files???  If it was a synthesized format like MIDI then sure, that be fine, but when it gets to recordings like .wav or FLAC or MP3, etc. it makes no sense at all as any modern system could do just as good as a job and modern player applications tend to be more sophisticated and flexible.

Re: Any Opinions of the 1999 Sony Vaio Laptop for Audio?

Reply #6
any modern system could do just as good
Probably better. Way back in 1999, it wasn't uncommon for a PC's analog outputs to contain audible noise from insufficient power filtering.

 

Re: Any Opinions of the 1999 Sony Vaio Laptop for Audio?

Reply #7
What is wrong with upsampling?
In case of XP probably everything.
The audio part (the Kmixer) is witten in 16 bit integer.
This is frugal on resources but results in a substantial quantization error.
With Vista they changed to 32 bit float to avoid this problems.

However, the advice at that time was that you can get bit perfect output if:
the volume control is set to 100%.
one and only one audio stream is playing,
the sample rate is supported by the audio device,
the bit depth is supported by the audio device.
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