2. pc-audio
  3. 130781-3105

Which personal confuser for ultra high end audio, MAC, PC, notebook, tablet or desktop?

Hello all!

Existing circumstances dictate the OS must be either Windows, or MAC, only.

My daily “lots of use” desktop pc is an 32 bit XP OS Dell that was used by the Spanish Inquisition.

I’ve made minor upgrades to RAM and HDD only.

I need a new personal confuser. I’m gonna get one quite soon. I need to know going forward which platform and configuration will serve a digital sourced front end best in 2017.

That is, of course, if there is still any significant disparity between MAC and PC OS with regard to present software, or hardware limitations or other concerns.

My barely used 4 year old windows 7 Dell 64bit box never has run Office 2010 right but does enable PCM file playback via Lynx AES Exp SC and JRiver & Foobar 2K and iTunes infrequently.

I’ve only had exp with Windows machines. However, I own Apple iPad Air II and iPhone 6 S. but I’m a pretty quick study so adapting to a new OS ought not be a big deal.

I do not have a working laptop and one would be a real aid for day to day situations as well as ripping and playing files, streaming audio playing videos, and so forth.

This latest ‘new’ machine will be a daily use computer for office oriented affairs as well. Email. Correspondence. Archiving documents. Data collection. Contacts.

I’m leaning towards a MAC, but not sure which way. IMac or Ibook? Both appear as semi portable and the Imac can sport a 4 or 5K display. The display isn’t a big deal for me bit the RAM and CPU needed to support the far greater resolutions of a 4 – 5K display would be nice IMO. Computer Horse power is always a plus.

The only issue I see with the iMac, is the thing itself. It’s a big display and looks like a problem waiting to happen when wiring it up or into the LAN and audio system.

I have a Synology Disc Station NAS. The plan is to acquire a versatile DAC for DSD and Tidal playback.

Am willing to add whatever else thereafter to achieve the intended goal mentioned above. Apps, additional hardware, etc.

Your experiences and Thoughts would be most welcome.

blindjim
jond's avatar
jond
5,861 posts
 
Jim sorry that is the best autocorrect ever! I would be happy to be your personal confuser as I seem to have been confused a good chunk of my life! :-p
bigshutterbug
383 posts
 
Jim:
Since you already have a Synology NAS drive, I would suggest you purchase a Sonore Microrendu , and let it do all the music workflow between your NAS drive, DAC and computer. With it in place, your music files will no longer run through your computer, which can degrade the sound quality. You computer simply uses a program like Roon, JRiver, etc. to direct the Microrendu and tell it what to do with the music files on your NAS. Your sound quality will improve quite a bit, and you can use any computer, laptop or tablet you wish. The computer will no longer be a limiting factor to your sound quality.
blindjim OP
3,092 posts
 

Jond > that is the best autocorrect ever

Blindjim > actually, no correction was needed, it was the intended phrase. I prefer it over the A B Normally used ‘personal computer’ innuendo.


Bigshutterbug > purchase a Sonore Micro rendu , and let it do all the music work for you…. SQ will then increase.

Blindjim > Bigshutterbug, wow. Really? Thanks.

Why those two in particular? No others?

I’m just getting into these latest greatest aspects of digital as it has progressed to date. I’m unclear on a couple things, some on software, and now your input on this new approach with different hardware.

These two gizmos you mention, how are they accessed? IOS? Computer? From Disc Station apps? Or…?

I’ll presume they are on the LAN via Ethernet and are then intentionally enabled with permissions to see the data storage within the Synology domains options.

Subsequent to that configuration an app of sorts activated by a controller (iphone, ipad, pc, or dedicated remote control) facilitates the transmission of the content to the rendering device or main audio system DAC. Albeit, if necessary, some rendering may occur in either the software or ‘server’ domain, if necessary such as ‘on the fly’ up or down sampling or format conversions, correct? or would any alterations to the files be done ONLY in the hardware domain by the items you offered as solutions instead?

Will the needed software options be limited in any way? OS? IOW, do these devices use only specific app (s) for file playback operations?, eg., ROON, JRiver? A proprietary mobile app?

I must ask because, in my world, a concern always exists which hands me either some grief or a lot of grief, and that is software which does not play well with peripheral adaptive software.

I must use high functioning accessibility (screen reading) apps to get anything done via PCs. MACs have a proprietary Voice Over facility which allows navigation and operation of its apps and hardware, provided when necessary, the third party apps were written with Voice Over functionality in mind. It is suprising to see how many main stream apps simply ignore the VO component, rendering them useless arbitrary . inconveniences
regardless the OS, it happens all the time.

Regularly, I’ve gotta install what ever, and run it to really know if it will work. If not, go a different route and buy or try something else. And so on, etc.

Lastly, OK. I’ll reiterate the obvious, to me anyway, issue. Exactly how are these gizmos environments any better than the one in a computer?

The two items I’ve read about so far which seem to address the possibly degrading issues prevalent in a computer, were
Fidelizer Nimitra Computer Audio Server
And
Aurender W20

The latter requires a lottery ticket and a lot of luck, the former seems as though it has its own learning curve, especially if one trys to employ the PC adjusting or streamlining’ software without the total packaged hardware.

Thoughts?


More to discover