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Help....I have a blank slate and am flying blind

I am not an audiophile and am trying to get my arms around the whole thing - quickly. The water is deep. I've never had a nice system and am buying a new house. At the expense of all furniture, I want to rig the place for sound to the chagrin of my wife (who hopefully will not discover this post) and 4 kids (though the kids may well opt for music over furniture):

I basically want the system to be PC driven, but also have a couple of components that I would like to include (Teac H500 CD recorder/player and XM receiver). I have at least 4 rooms to rig and am shooting for low to mid-level audiophile grade.

I am thinking of setting the system up something like this: (but am missing a few pieces, which is where I need guidance):

750 GB external hard drive (just purchase new) --> P4 laptop computer (just puchased used) --> DAC (perhaps HAGUSB and/or something else --> cheap/decent receiver (need to purchase or perhaps a pre-amp with A and B channels):

A channel (for room 1) --> good amp (need to purchase - perhaps simaudio i-3) --> totem hawk speakers (just puchased);

B channel (for 3 other rooms) --> cheap amp (need to purchase) --> russound 10 speaker selector (just purchased) --> 8 inferior speakers in 3 different rooms (have them);

The critical threshold at this point is PC to receiver or pre-amp. I use iTunes and have a ton of music in Apple Lossless format, so compatability is an issue I think. My sense is to avoid a wireless connection and soundcards (I've heard they are inferior), so I think I need some sort of DAC, which is where I get off the bus.

I was looking at a HAGUSB (Hagerman Technologies - under $100.00) and a squeezebox ($299 model). The thing I don't like about the squeezebox is it appears that I would have to control it through their box and not through the PC/iTunes. If possible, I'd like to simply use the laptop as the the control center with iTunes as the interface (if that is the right word). I'd rather not spend more than a few hundred dollars on a DAC (I still have to purchase two amps, a receiver or pre-amp, wire, connectors, protectors, rack, etc.)

The second (less critical) threshold is choice between a receiver and a pre-amp. I suppose I could buy a cheap but decent receiver with an A/B channel, but I don't think I want the music filtered through a receiver. Is there a pre-amp with an A/B selector that I could raise the roof by selecting both A and B? This may affect the DAC connection decision from the PC. I have a couple of other components I want to include (CD player and XM receiver) so maybe I have no choice but a receiver - maybe I just answered my own question. You can see I am processing.

Long way to the short question: What is the best way to get from the PC (via usb?) to a receiver or pre-amp in a way that is both compatible with iTunes and would be considered "acceptable" from an audiophile standpoint at a reasonable cost (under $400.00)?

Any assistance is appreciated. Please respond in crayon and do not use "big" words.
graves
sfar's avatar
sfar
1,760 posts
 
The AE is designed primarily as a wireless access point and the ability to connect it to a audio system is an add-on.

There are two ways to get the audio stream from the AE to your receiver. You can get an analog signal by using a stereo mini to RCA cable and connecting to any of the line-level inputs on the receiver. Alternatively, you can use a mini-toslink to toslink cable and get a digital signal which would go first to a digital/analog converter and then on to the receiver. Both the analog and digital outputs come from the same jack on the AE and the output you get just depends on which cable you use.

I've used the AE only with a Mac and can't compare it to the other options you have but I do think it could work.
rcstevensonaz
3 posts
 
Sqeezebox is excellent. I have two in my house.

I can control it from the "box" and equally well from my laptop.

On the laptop, I connect to the machine running the SlimServer. E.g. I type "http://192.168.11.2:9000" in my browswer (or create a link) and my laptop is now "browsing" the slimserver (in much the same way that the Sqeezebox "browses" the SlimServer.

I actually have two different SqueezeBoxes in my house. From any laptop anywhere in the house, I can control either Sqeezebox (e.g., adjust volume, change playlist, play/pause/stop, shuffle, etc.).

The DAC on a Sqeezebox is very good. If you are an audiophile with money, you have an awesome amp and you have awesome speakers, then you may (or may not) want to get an off-board DAC. Otherwise, just connect Sqeezebox staight into your amplifier, processes, AVR, whatever. I'm using RCA jacks into my NAD; but it has optical and coax digital if you want to use the DAC built into your AVR instead.

There are other digital music solutions than Sqeezebox, but I've been very satisfied.

p.s., I'm also very interested in this thread since I want to find an effective solution to drive speakers in four different rooms.
unclejeff
1,313 posts
 
I pulled cat 6 wire throughout my house and I am running two slimdevices (Transporter) and Squeezebox. It is amazing just how many ways I can access my music as the slimdevices software seems to cover all possibilities.
graves OP
8 posts
 
Follow up question re: the squeezebox (best of both worlds?):

All my music will be stored on a large external hard drive, which I envisioned would be connected to a laptop, which would, in turn, access/control the music via iTunes. I have spent the better part of the last two years importing my CD collections and saving each CD in two formats: AAC (for iPod) and Apple Lossless (for home use). I am now married to iTunes.

I envisioned the laptop being stationary - hard wired to both the external hard drive and DAC/receiver. It would nice for the laptop to be mobile, but I prefer not to have a wireless bridge for the music. Perhaps - with the Squeezebox -- there is a way to have the best of both worlds, a hard wired connection to the PC music with wireless/portable control from any room (or on the back porch) via laptop, which brings me to my question:

Can the Squeezebox ($299.00 version) be hard wired to both the receiver and external hard drive, but controlled wirelessly via laptop so that the music is piped to the pre-amp directly from the external hard drive (via squeezebox), but volume and browsing could be controlled anywhere in the house?

audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Sure, you can use a network ethernet cable to the SB3. Then you can access it using a wireless network from ANY computer. It does not improve the audio quality though.

Steve N.
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