Can more powerful computer improve your sound?

[Pancreas]

Even if you are using an audio interface?

I replaced my old 2018 HP pavillion for a much more powerful computer, nothing else changed and I could swear my speakers sound better or maybe is placebo lmao

I mean after all I'm playing music through my computer (Apple music windows app) and my audio interface is connected to a computer via USB, no?

is almost as if the speakers came alive or maybe I need more weed

 

[Blumlein 88]

No.

 

[Chrispy]

More weed.

 

[Pancreas]

No.

I could swear it sounds better maybe my old computer was holding back

 

[Waxx]

Old computers can be noisy themselves (cooling is crumbling), or have software malfunctions (easy to fix), but otherwise it does not matter.

 

[DVDdoug]

I could swear it sounds better maybe my old computer was holding back

Digital usually works or doesn't. It's just numbers... a more powerful computer doesn't give you a better bank balance. A single flipped bit (a one switched to zero or vice-versa) is equally likely to cause a 1-cent error, or a billion dollar error in your bank balance These forum posts go all over the world through all kinds of wired & wireless connections and if there's a typo or spelling error in this post, you can be pretty sure it was my mistake and not some kind of data corruption.

If there is something wrong with digital audio it's usually "glitches" or "dropouts" and obvious. It usually works or it doesn't. It's not going to affect the bass or the "soundstage", etc.

Audio (and video) is more time-critical so it's not exactly the same as your bank account. Multitasking can interrupt the digital stream and in that case a faster computer can help. On the other hand, a single flipped-bit will probably cause a short-duration inaudible defect.

 

[OldHvyMec]

What about a better sound card in your new computer?

What about if you go back to the old computer and listen again after you plugged and unplugged the connections?

Of course, you could hear a difference if the cables had poor connections from being dirty or they had corroded connections.

I just went through a similar problem.

I was using saw tooth gold over copper banana terminal ends with ribbon cable from the amp to the speakers and went to bare ended wires and it was night and day.

The fancy jumper cables a buddy gave me were piles of crap still in the bag. 29 or 39.00 usd Ali Express specials. They worked fine until I moved something that
was the clue. It was a little desktop speaker system for my Laptop

I even ordered another 59.00 amp KNOWING the cables couldn't possibly be bad. THEY WERE! I had a spool of zip cord # 12 cut two pieces 36" long stripped
the ends gave them a good mechanical twist installed them and had to turn the volume down 1/2 of what I was using and no more intermittent problems.

The EQ settings on the New computer. Even if it was bluetooth. There all kinds of reasons that it could have changed the sound. When it's obvious there is a change
check first and confirm.

1000 time bad connection have brought equipment to me for repair in the last 10 years, 5000 times at least in 49 years.

Enjoy you new computer and check to see what is different. It could just be volume matching or the difference in the output from the computer to the amp.

Regards

 

[boxerfan88]

Yes, for a few days.

Then it’ll go back to normal.

 

[Randyman...]

Probably discrepancies between some of the Windows Sound Enhancements, or possibly some enhancements in the audio driver itself. If the PC can play the file w/o dropouts, then it is not bound by compute or other resource bottlenecks. Decoding audio is a lightweight low-bandwidth task that does not require heavy lifting.

 

[dualazmak]

I use two of audio (audio-visual) dedicated rather outdated completely silent Windows PC in my PC-DSP-based multichannel multi-SP-driver multi-amplifier audio setup (ref. here for the latest system); they still have more than enough processing power in my PC-DSP-based audio system!

I usually use either of the two PCs (sounds same, since just feeding multichannel into OKTO DAC8PRO with single USB 2.0 cable; all in ASIO routing); they are backup machines with each other;

 

[antcollinet]

Even if you are using an audio interface?

I replaced my old 2018 HP pavillion for a much more powerful computer, nothing else changed and I could swear my speakers sound better or maybe is placebo lmao

I mean after all I'm playing music through my computer (Apple music windows app) and my audio interface is connected to a computer via USB, no?

is almost as if the speakers came alive or maybe I need more weed

One possibility:

I once had a situaion where I was unhappy with the sound I was getting. After some time I traced it to a graphical EQ app, I had set to "reduce treble" when using with a bluetooth speaker, and forgotten to reset it afterwards.

It is quite possible your old computer had some settings somewhere which (similarly) were set to change the sound in a bad way. Your new PC didn't have those settings.


Or, of course - it could just be placebo/perceptive bias.