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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
under1630
3 posts
 
You don't need a USB DAC! I have I think what most of you are looking for. I had a PC Alchemy in Carlsbad, CA who builds home theater PC's, build me a home audio PC. Basically it is a PC that sits in your audio rack with the same dimensions as your audio gear. The PC has a 7" touch screen in the front along with the DVD player/burner. The PC has an 80 GB hard drive for the operating system (Win XP) and 3 750 GB hard drives that is my music storage. That's 2.25 TB of storage for your audio.
The key to the system is the Card Deluxe audio card by Digital Audio Labs. I installed the card myself, and it has AES/EBU, RCA and optical outputs. I use the optical output to my DAC 1 by Benchmark Media. The DAC then sends the audio via Balanced interconnects to my preamp.
I have a 21" flat panel monitor on the end table next to the listening chair. I have a wireless keyboard and a remote control that I can control the pc with.
The system works flawlessly and I will put it up against any CD player/transport. I rip all the music off Cd's in FLAC with a compression of 4. That works out to about 300 MB per Cd. I use Media Monkey as my audio player, as it will play all types of audio and doesn't care if your name is Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, it will just play the freakin' file.
Not only does the system perform flawlessly and superbly, but it looks great in the rack also.
deshapiro
177 posts
 
Hi Kana813,
He'll be exhbiting a purpose built PC with solid state memory and only one moving part, a queit fan. The Vista OS has been massaged both by Ron and his partner, a computer guru who retired at 38, etc. They chose the midlevel MSB DAC, since they thought that it sounded the best. They use EAC to copy CDs as wav files , and use an HP raid server as storage. I heard their prototype on my system, and it was GOOD.They plan to bring the final iteration to my house after they get back from CES.

David
ckorody
643 posts
 
Interesting rig Under1630

If anyone reading this is considering going this route, keep in mind that it would have cost about $10 to install a USB card instead of the Card Deluxe, and then run to your choice of USB DACs...
kana813
956 posts
 
Deshapiro-

Have Mr.Lapporte and his partner seen this:

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/messages/2/27041.html
deshapiro
177 posts
 
Looks like they went down a very similar path.

David
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