Building a music server - newbie

My MAC Book Pro computer is connected to the Furman AC-215 power conditioner. The MAC has 4 GB RAM and the 120GB solid state drive. I am using the Seaport Free Agent Go Pro 500GB external hard drive to store my music files (a 2nd one for backup). The Furman is required so the MAC does not interfere with the audio components. See www.furmansound.com/product.ph.

The MAC USB output is connected to my Ayre USB DAC. Wow! I was very impressed with the way it sounds. It is better sounding then my Ayre CX-7e CD player. The highs are better and so is the bass. The music is clearer and more engaging. The unit still has to burn in and so do my new Synergistic Research TESLA Quad speaker cables. Music Lovers Audio (Berkeley, CA) said everything will sound better after some time.

I am using the Transparent USB Cable from the computer to the Ayre DAC. My retailer reports the Synergistic Research's Tesla Tricon USB cable is excellent but the Synergistic Research USB Cable is $550. He said my Transparent USB cable is an amazing performer and the Synergistic USB is the next step up and it provides significant improvement. This is a very expensive cable so I am going to keep the Transparent USB Cable and review again in 4 months.

I have about 60 CD's loaded into my MAC Book Pro computer and many more to go. It takes between 3 to 5+ minutes per CD using the AIFF format. This is a very boring time consuming process.

I followed Ayre's MAC Book setup instructions and they worked. The Audio MIDI setup was a little different from their instructions but we finally figured it out. The QB-9 is connected (balanced cables) to my Ayre AX-7e Integrated amp connected to my Sonus Faber Auditor M Speakers.

The major issue was the computer in terms of what model, how much RAM, hard drive and external drives. Ayre was very helpful (http://www.ayre.com/) and so was my audio store, Music Lovers Audio in Berkeley, CA.

I checked and double checked everything to ensure I made no mistakes. Everyone I talked said to get the MAC and not a PC. Ayre recommended I use the external drives for better music quality and not the hard drive on the computer.

If you decide to move in this direction, I suggest working with a high quality audio store to help you configure the needed components.

I am a PC person and this is my first MAC computer. It is very easy to use and iTunes does a great job of managing the music. Please email me if you have any questions.

I forgot to state that I use a 1tb usb drive to store my music...and a program called "Orb" to stream my music to other computers in my home.

Dave

Any one can explain How will be the noice/jitter level while playing laptop as the transport? Is there any other way to play the music to avoid such problems.

Very difficult to predict. Connecting your laptop to a Benchmark DAC1 would be a solution if you suspect you have jitter.

Jitter is common but not always audible. Random jitter is the least audible. Correlated jitter (related to a signal of some sort) is much more audible. More than 250 psecs is roughly the threshold where it can become audible on most music when it is random (but many people might not hear it until it got to 1 nanosec). For correlated jitter it is probably much worse and some have suggested as low as 20 psecs (but of course it all depends very critically on the frequencies involved and many types of correlated jitter may not be audible so easily). Correlated jitter seems likely when you have electronics, data and a spinning transport involved.

Benchmark DAC1 is around 7 psecs - it seems very much designed around eliminating the jitter problem but that is no help unless it works well (synergy) with your speakers.

You better use a core 2 quad computer for optimized performance, or at least a core 2 duo computer, be sure to have enough storage space for your files. Creative labs soundcards are pretty good. Look for the high end ReakTek/NVidia onboard audio processors, such as supplied with ASUS. These probably outperform low end audio cards such as Creative Labs Audigy.

I would second the comments about using a USB DAC. I have a PS Audio Link DAC III and it works very well.

Alternatively, a friend of mine has a Logitech Transporter--no computer required. For the same price as a dedicated music computer and a DAC you get a very good sounding device that pulls music off of a hard drive (even over you home network). Sound is wonderful and it looks pretty too!

-Carl