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Music Server vs. PC vs. Transport vs. ?

I don;t really want to add another rack in my living room. If I do, I may end up sleeping on one of the couches. Ideally, I would like to do the following:

1. Either use a pc or a server to store discs and have them accessable.
2. Have a way for the kids/wife to hook up their ipods
3. Have a way to get digital radio (xm, sirius or even computer streaming, doesn;t matter)
4. Do all of this WITHOUT degrading the sound quality ( i know, the ipod, by definition will do this)

My understanding of most high end DACs is that they do not have USB ports, but that is the ideal port to use to negate jitter. As I was researching this, I got the latest issue of the absolute sound, and they address some of this a bit. My feeling seems to be that one pays a HUGE premium for a server, that both their DACs and PCs DACs suck, and one has to get a USB to AES or other adapter, and still use an external DAC. It also seems that if one is willing to use a lossless system, that the universal opinion is that a hard drive rivals or beats any transports.

So my initial thought would be to get a pc with an ipod dock, run lossless, get an additional adapter say from Wavelength, and use the current dac. That adds at least two pieces, maybe three.

Help?????
Thanks,
Chris

Help??????

Thanks,
Chris
128x128mount_rose_music
mount_rose_music's avatar
mount_rose_music OP
116 posts
 
What a great thread for me. I really want to thank ALL of you for your input. It seems everybody has found an ideal solution for what is important to them, and everybody is more than helpful. I have met so many great people on the 'gon, and looking over some of my old threads, what fantastic help. I was pretty apprehensive about posting this thread, as I am, after all an acoustic, vibration and microwave measurement specialist and should probably know more about this than I do, but you all have been beyond gracious and helpful. Keep those cards and letters coming!

Best,
Chris
betterdays
1 posts
 
just wondering if anyone has heard the new Linn Klimax DS ? Supposedly this is going to revolutionise hifi... and initial reviews of it seem to have it sounding extremely good, some of the best digital sound the reviewers have heard. given the negativity toards servers here, I'm wodering how this new pice of kit sits with people.
flex
292 posts
 
The Linn Klimax DS is first of all an extremely high quality dac, and secondly benefits from having a very low jitter asynchronous clock, i.e. the data is sent from the pc, hard drive, or NAS via ethernet and does not carry along the jitter or noise associated with the pc clock. These are exactly the characteristics needed to make a server shine.
mount_rose_music's avatar
mount_rose_music OP
116 posts
 
I just read a review on sixmoons that complained about "pops, ticks, and random outs" on computer based transports, specifically the Empirical units that were under review. It was apparently blamed on the laptop. So my next question is... anybody have a pop/tick problem with their computer based transports?

Thanks,
Chris
kana813
956 posts
 
Chris- with my upgraded SB3 running via a wireless connection, no "pops, ticks, and random outs," with WAV files or Internet radio. Also, no "pops, ticks, and random outs," on my wife's new MacBook using iTunes with Apple lossless, WAV or AIFF.

As I told you, I think the SD Transporter with it's clock input linked to your DAC, I think you'll get outstanding
performance.

Aloha,

Dan
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