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Recommendation for Computer/Digital

So I've been doing research into various solutions to my issue- most of my music is on my computer. I don't have a pretty low-end CD player right now and instead of spending money on a decent player I have been exploring computer based audio solutions- Squeezebox, Roku, new soundcards (M-Audio etc.). I have a laptop and its internal soundcard is all I have.

I've been getting caught up in the idea of a squeezebox right now, and with the cost of mods it's getting out of my range. I'm looking to spend up to $500 max. An M-Audio transport, which is the basis of the Red Wine Audio USB Select solution (a $500 solution) costs $99. I'm having a huge problem in figuring out how the variety of solutions compare and where the most bang for the buck lies. I've even been using my XBOX as my digital music player for awhile now.

My request- your views on the best way to get great sound in my price range from a computer with a crummy soundcard. Personal experiences are greatly appreciated. Is a stock Squeezebox a good thing? It seems that all the raving is from the modified end.

My system so far: I have a McIntosh MA500 Amp and B&W Nautilus 803D speakers (I think that's the right Nautilus model- I'm away from home for several months for work). Any suggestions to improve that would also be appreciated. I'll admit I bought without knowing too much- my wife's ears were the main reason we ended up with what we did, even though I'm more of the music lover.

Thanks for any responses.

Nick
uzelacn4bc2
karavite
36 posts
 
Hi Ckorody,

Yes, I just discovered the inability of .wav files to contain metadata. Good thing I found out before ripping all my CD's! :-) One thing confuses me - I do have a few CD's ripped into iTunes as wavs (I have iTunes set to import as wav) and yet, these CD's have information on them within iTunes (album, artist...). Is it that iTunes does some type of propiertary "meta tagging" when importing CD's as WAV (or any format), but that the same information would be lost when those same wav files are accessed by something like the SqueezeBox software?

I'm going to do it. When I get my modded SB3 all set up, I will try a "blindfold" AB between ALAC and wav just for kicks. Do you think any human could tell the difference? If ALAC is lossless, then I am not sure how that could be.
ghunter's avatar
ghunter
164 posts
 
I've been hard-disk based for a few years now, and last year I bought a Wavelength Cosecant USB DAC. Absolutely stellar sound quality, minimal hassle. I screwed around with audio interfaces and DAC's for my first year before just getting something that worked well in a single box.

The Cosecant is different in that there's no upsampling/oversampling, no digital filters, just the pure sound from the source. If you've read about the 47 labs Shigaraki and how pure it sounds, the Cosecant is similar in design principle.

It works - there are several of us that have replaced five-figure CD players with Cosecants. My last cdp was a Naim CDX2/XPS2 and the Cosecant betters it by a large margin.
ckorody
643 posts
 
Hi -

I am not sure about the nuances of the tagging issue but clearly it can be a bear. iTunes (which is a database program at its core) - has its own data management scheme for storing the Gracenote data. (Gracenote is the databased that iTunes hooks up to in order to retrieve all the information it populates when you rip a CD, except for album art.)

Based on some quick research it seems that "the Itunes software can store the Gracenote data in it's database instead of storing it a file tag, but then if you switch players (or the itunes database is corrupted) you lose the data from Gracenote (can't move the Gracenote data to another player like you can with true file tags)."

As far as the SB goes - it automatically imports data from iTunes - at least ALAC. I am not sure if it gets it al (eg the composer) but it certainly gets anything you might reasonably need to find and play a cut. But just for the record, though the two applications share a passing resemblance, iTunes is a much more powerful database.

For simplicity, I always create my playlists in iTunes, then access them from the SB. I also find this works well on the iPod. IMHO neither the SB remote display nor the iPod are very convenient for sorting through large collections quickly - and SB software has no facility for creating Smart Playlists.

Finally, I have no idea if any human can tell the difference but please report your findings - there is no doubt that the online community is split on this one! Classic case of YMMV...
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,152 posts
 
For audio, Linux is your best setup. You can configure the kernal for zero latency, which is something you cannot do with other platforms. Then use 'CD Paranoia' to read the CD onto the hard drive. Playing the CD back at that point you will have all the bits and with careful soundcard selection, as close to zero jitter as is possible. This is the best sounding transport we've heard so far and the process is cheap to set up.

This setup works with the Squeezbox, plus it is a Linux platform so it is very stable and secure (no viurses, worms, etc.).
ghunter's avatar
ghunter
164 posts
 
Atmasphere, some corrections are needed to your post:

For playback, zero latency could actually degrade performance if anything should happen to interrupt system resources. A minimal audio buffer is far preferable. Low latency systems are important when considering virtual instruments or monitoring a recording.

Jitter does not impact cd ripping as it remains in the digital domain and out of the audio domain. It is purely a file transfer, and not an audio stream where timing artifacts can come into play.

For a simple task such as ripping CD's, the Linux/Mac/Windows argument really comes down to which operating environment you're most comfortable with. There are excellent choices available for all three platforms.
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