Wavelength Brick

You will be very happy with a Mac - and guess what the new ones "play" Windows too - what's not too like? LOL

As for the Opticis - main reason is to provide the highest degree of isolation possible - if you are going to be snooty about it, you will want to use a better power supply then the one they used to sell - write them, the proprietor Fast Eddie spent some time posting here and on Asylum. Gordon can fill you in as well. The secondary reason is if you want to put the Brick more then 15 feet from the computer (USB requires all kinds of fancy footwork after that)

The way I see it, you spend your money once and eliminate another variable - really does sound very, very good

Thanks again...So you are saying the powersupply for the Opticis cable is just so-so? I will have to contact them directly if thats the case before I spend my money with them.

Heres a question for you...If you set up a computer (of any sort) as your server, and you decide to use an external USB or Firewire drive instead of the internal drive, does it add or take away any performance from the USB to the BRICK? I am most likely going to use an existing Western Digitial (320GB) located in the bottom of my rack, and since I am splitting hairs over everything else, this got me to thinking.

Also, how are you displaying your music? I want to stream out of the Mac to my TV, problem is, it is a CRT (Tube) with Component inputs at best. No DVI or VGA. Wondering how this is going to look. Wanted to be able to sit at the couch and just tool around from a wireless keyboard.

The purists among us felt that the stock power supply was a bit noisier then it might be - you might never even hear it... Take a look at The Socket which is a battery power supply. No point in being too picky since there is nothing else like Opticis out there. If you don't want to bother just get the premium Belden gold USB cable.

The choice between an external and an internal drive will make no difference. You need to understand that there is a new paradigm here - this is truly digital. Computers push data in and out all day long - its what they do 24/7/365 around the world. The amount of data involved and the speed of data transfer required to make perfect audio is absolutely trivial. Consider that on my rig I can in digitze a CD (rip) at the same time as I am playing back two different songs - one via USB and one via Ethernet... and surf the web...

If you stress your computer by asking it to do a lot of other things at the same time - particularly data intensive things like process large photoshop files, you may get it to hiccup now and again. You will hear it, it will be momentary and music will resume automatically. You will then have the choice of turning off the music or stopping/reducing your other activities.

There are very few things that will impact the quality of computer served audio. First and foremost is how the data is ripped and compressed. Apple Lossless with error correction "on" and all choices under Preferences/Playback "off" is all you need to do. Second is of course how you get the audio data off the disk and back into music. The Brick is as good as they come, perhaps a bit better with Opticis particularly if you live in a RF/EMI noisy environment or have ground loops. End case.

As far as display, I run iTunes on my computer display. Take a look at the new Apple TV product - it may solve your problem.

http://www.apple.com/appletv/

Honestly, you have been incredibly helpful, and I really appreciate it. I can't say I won't have more questions, but for now I am one satisfied customer. : ) !

Thanks again, and I will write again soon once I get the Brick to share some of my impressions. I just ripped a bunch of music in to the PC as my auditioning music. Will let you know.

First off, you are going to like this and it is going to work a whole lot better then you ever expected. Be Happy!

Be sure to read everything on Gordon's site - a few times if need be - so it all makes sense and feels comfortable. Honestly, if you are at all comfortable with computers, this is truly simple but knowledge is power and at the very least will heighten your appreciation.

From a hardware perspective, the paradigm I have offered in previous posts is imagine you know have a perfect source for your system. So that part of the battle. and that set of excuses is over. Everything downstream of the Brick is all about analog audio as you know it. Cables, isolation, power, speaker placement and most certainly room tuning will all come into play and are required to optimize the potential of the new source. Take your time, its the fun part for most. Just know that whatever you hear Day One can only get better.

From a software perspective, there are a few things you can do to make life simpler - and IMHO ultimately better. First, I would buy a dedicated hard drive just for my music library (assuming you are going to have more then a few hundred CDs). Under iTunes Preferences/Advanced/General you will set that hard drive to be the iTunes Music folder location. (Dead easy just hit change and select the HD when it is connected) I named mine Bird.

EVERYTHING GOES IN THERE!!!!

Check (turn on) Keep iTunes Music Folder organized and Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library.

The net result of all this is that everything you ever rip will always be exactly where it is supposed to be. Also, back-up, for which you must get another hard drive for is vastly simplified. Back up one drive and you know you have backed up all your music. BTW iTunes will also put all the album cover art on that drive too.

BTW I am sure like everyone else you are lazy about back-up. So don't go an buy that drive till you rip your first couple of hundred disks. If you are like most people you will decide that back-up however onerous is preferable to doing that again. Backing up once a month or even once a quarter, or after you add another 100 titles (assuming you are starting with a brand new high quality drive) is plenty.

Check out a Mac application called ChronoSync which will handle the mechanics for you admirably and ensure a better backup then you can get by just dragging files from one drive to another.

http://www.econtechnologies.com/site/Pages/ChronoSync/chrono_overview.html

BTW a real back-up, ohhhh that I practice what I preach, is one that is located in a physically different location - you are as much concerned about fire and water damage, theft etc as you are about drive failure.

Once you've set this dedicated drive up, you never have to think about it again. And of course you can access all this with an iPod too. Also, if you ever decide to add a Squeezebox once again you can point it at this single library. And if you want to go over to your buddies or wherever, just grab the one drive and you are on your way.

Enjoy the music!