new updates in transports or are they obsolete ?

Audioengr, can you comment on the amount of hard drive storage space that is required per CD in lossless format? Thanks.

Averages 30MBytes, but some tracks may be 50 MBytes. It talks about this in my paper.

This thread really got me thinking.

Apple has a hardware called Airport Express which has optical out from what I read. Even though Positive Feedback's article advised against optical output due to jitter, but I assumed jitter will not apply to this case when data are read from HD and broadcast over WiFi.

Is that the theoretical best setup for sound vs. USB-S/PDIF converter using wire? I still prefer to use a dedicate player like iPod that has digital out feeding DAC directly, but newer iPod does not have digital out.

Another question is iTune read CD multiple times until all data are retrieved, similar to EAC? EAC runs slow, I will rather use iTune if it does the job equally well.

Audioengr: read the paper, sorry I missed this. With lossless compression, looking at about 300 MB per CD. If we factor in RAID/mirroring, then let's say 500 MB per CD or 2 CDs per GB. A collection of 1000 CDs would then require 500 GB of mirrored storage. I am doing the math for a computer with this amount of storage and adding in the cost of your USB-SPD/IF converter at your advertised price and finding the cost is quite high. I can get a brand new CEC TL51X transport - quite good - for $1295. This is only $300 more than just the cost of your interface. Then add in the cost of the computer, disc array (any decent collection is beyond the storage capability of most PCs) and you are paying a lot for convenience. Even the convenience is questionnable since it would take a lot of time and effort to rip all the CDs and add the tags. Is my math off here?

"I assumed jitter will not apply to this case when data are read from HD and broadcast over WiFi."

Yes, the jitter is bad from the AE optical output. It can be modded to add coax out. This is much better.

"Is that the theoretical best setup for sound vs. USB-S/PDIF converter using wire?"

Both the AE and the Squeezebox will give similar results, but they will only pass 16/44.1. They will not do upsampled data. The both need mods to compete with the Off-Ramp.

"is iTune read CD multiple times until all data are retrieved, similar to EAC?"

I believe so. They are both good rippers. I use EAC and I've never had a correction or an error.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer/modder