2. pc-audio
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High quality music server on the cheap...sort of

I bought a cheapo HP computer with Vista Basic. Ripped all my music with Media Monkey as .wav files. I've got 40,000+ tracks that take up about 1.5 TB on a Glyph professional 2 TB drive. I have dedicated power lines running to my gear so the computer and the hard drive are on their own circuit.

itunes is not up to the task of handling a large library of .wav files and will not let you add album artwork to .wav files. Media monkey is very smooth in handling music but will only work on a PC.

Output of the HP is via USB into a Benchmark DAC then into my ARC Ref 1. I have an old NEC 17" LCD computer monitor sitting on the floor that displays the album art full screen and changes with each song. I use the new apple bluetooth keyboard as my "remote" for the system. It works nicely with my PC.

I am a vinyl guy with a VPI TNT setup and have never found a CD player that I've liked but I can't stop listening to my little "server" setup. On well recorded/mastered CD's there is real music coming out of my computer! The Benchmark has gotten great reviews and it certainly is delivering in my system. I am going to get their ADC to convert some LP's.

So for around 3k you can listen to your entire CD library (I have about 3000+ CD's) as .wav files along with a nice visual display. I did have some issues ripping in MM but managed to get all my music onto the Glyph after a month of heavy lifting.

I also have a Sonos system but prefer the "hardwired" approach in my listening room.
ntscdan
ntscdan OP
52 posts
 
itunes running on windows constantly crashed and stalled once the library got large. I also don't like their convoluted file system and heaven help you if you have to move your library.
AIFF only works on macs and I don't think you can "tag" the artwork to AIFF files either. Because Apple is in business with the record companies there are many aspects of itunes that are designed to placate them. itunes is a great program for a modest, compressed music collection but it just doesn't hold up when you have tens of thousands of files and hundreds of gigabytes of data.
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drubin
3,275 posts
 
Thanks for the data point. You are the only person I have ever say that.
herman
2,273 posts
 
Ntscdan I think your situation may be in the minority.

iTunes stores my music in the folder structure Artist - Album - Song so I don't see anything convoluted about that, and I have about 1.5 terabytes of files which it handles with ease. I was up to about 1.3 Terabytes when I switched from a PC to Mac and had no problems with either. If you move your files you can just reload them into a new library.
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