Valves and VU meters built into your PC

The product page is so badly written it's hard to know what it actually does: "a sound quality controller that filters the accurate digital signal of sound to a much more harmonic output in a classical way", but the Coolermaster Musketeer 3 sure does look pretty, like a cheapo version of the Panasonic Tube Car Stereo.

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

There was once an Asus (i think) computer motherboard that had a 'hi-fi' tube stuck in it for the 'audio system'. For the japanese market.

It seems that to make something hi-fi, you need to do stuff like:

1) Put a tube in it
2) Encase it in silver
3) Have over-sized power cords
4) Creative use of LED's

hmmm....

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:39 am

Okay, it was 'AOpen'. Here's a URL to the crazy mobo:

http://www.tweakers.net/nieuws/25957

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:42 am

I wonder if there would be a market for my tube (or valve as we say in Blighty)-powered 'Room Conditioner'. It doesn't connect to anything apart from the mains but 'improves the listening experience' through 'Patent-applied-for Psycho-somatic Accoustic Refreshment Technology' (in other words, the placebo effect caused by the warm glow in the little front-panel window).

# posted by

Anonymous : 11:01 am

What does a tube do for the sound when the sound waves have already been digitized? Why would you want something as hot as a tube in your pc? Wouldn't cooling be an issue? Any one who would want this probably already has a preamp of some sort for there system (with cool glowing tubes). Tubes in the front panel look pretty damn cool though. Maybe I should invent a tube powered fridge for truly hifi lettuce.

# posted by

Anonymous : 7:54 pm

Many popular tube designs emphasize even harmonics which are pleasing to the ear. While it is a distortion, it is a plesant sounding one. The theory goes like this: since most D/A converters in PC's are not super-hi-fi they exhibit some types of unplesant sounding distortion (most say 'odd'). Whatever the cause, or if it exists at all, one perhaps can 'balance' the effects of this odd-harmonic (and whatever else) distortion by emphasizing another distortion (even harmonic).
To me, it's a fancy hardware EQ type thing.

Now, I have solid state and tube amps all over the place, and I'd have to say that both sound pretty great. It seems that things like impedence matching matters way more than solidstate/tube issues when both amps are of sufficient quality.

# posted by

Anonymous : 11:38 pm

This is the coolest thing since the 5.25" computer tape deck

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:05 pm