New PC for audio room

[Carlman]

I really want to compare spdif coax to USB configured the best I can... I've tried toslink to coax several times and always liked coax better.. so I don't plan on doing that again.

I'm basically on a quest to find the best digital playback possible, comparing what I know along the way. 

My current PC is small and quiet but needs a riser board if were to experiment with my M-audio PCI card.  That might give me a taste of what's possible.. or no difference at all.. but I don't know much about risers... maybe they're standard and easy to find.

-C

[mdconnelly]

I've been toying with this idea as well.  One of these days we really need to do a comparison of Foobar/USB driven music versus Squeezebox - particularly after the new Touch is released.   I want the best sound I can get from PC-based music, but I would love to avoid a dedicated computer in the living room to do it.  I am very curious about just how well the Touch will work directly connected to a hard-drive.

[tmazz]

I have to agree with you, I have never found a TOSLINK connection that I thought sounded  better (or even as good) as the SPDIF output on the same rig. I also think that the I squared bus has them both beat, but practical limitations an cable legnth and units equipped with it does not make it a viable option. I have yet to play with USB based DACs, but a number of the guys from the AudioSyndrome have and they report that the choice of USB cables makes a big difference (why am I not surprised that $400 "audiophile" USB cables have popped up to replace the $5 CompUSA versions) and as Rich said, the USB 2 interface limits you to 48K sampling, so Redbook CDs is basically the best it can handle. Maybe when (or if) USN 3.0 hits the street, that problem will go away.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Hey Ed (ebag),
Can you recall what the computer was called that Ole (the guy from Thailand on the Hawthorne forum) was running? If my memory serves, it was fanless, VERY small, very inexpensive and ran off Windows OS.

Bob

[richidoo]

There will be a rash of new DACs that kill jitter coming out next year. That will make much of the concern about transport connections less critical. But audible differences between memory v HD v CD may remain. I think data source will become less important as the modes of distortion are understood and solved by the marketplace. 

Morningstar Sabre32 DAC looks to be a value leader among modern jitter killers, and I would like to hear Cambridge DAC magic too, but previous products have caused me to think they run cheap with the analog stage. The PS Audio PerfectWAVE DAC also looks very promising. Are you still impressed with it John compared to your other best players? Have you dipped on in special sauce yet?
 

[ebag4]

Hey Ed (ebag),
Can you recall what the computer was called that Ole (the guy from Thailand on the Hawthorne forum) was running? If my memory serves, it was fanless, VERY small, very inexpensive and ran off Windows OS.

Bob

Hi Bob,
I didn't remember however I did find it, this is what he uses:  Norhtec MicroClient Jr.

and here is the link to him discussing his setup:  http://www.diyparadise.com/linux_network_audio.html


Best,
Ed

[richidoo]

http://www.norhtec.com/products/mcjr/index.html

[Bob in St. Louis]

That's it Ed, thank you.  Thanks for the link Rich. 

A little quick OT:
If a fella bought one of these "mini" PCs, and had a outboard USB DVD/CD and a USB HDD (for extra storage), and a monitor, that's all he'd need to replace an existing PC, right?
He could then get rid of this large noisy "suitcase" taking up real estate.
Am I wrong in that line of thinking?

Bob

[richidoo]

You're line of thinking is right on, Bob...

But disk players don't have USB outputs. You would have to source music from the network, and rip from another PC unless you found one with a CD-ROM drive - but setting that up to play music in Linux would be another task to plan for. And you need to choose a micro puter that has the processing power to do the job. The nohrtek is not powerful enough, imo. But the latest Atom dual core should be enough to run linux, foobar, decode flac, convolver acoustic correction and a couple effects DSP plug ins without a problem. In a couple months they will take another jump in power so it will be here soon enough. External power supply, OS on a flash drive, data on network, no fan, low price - tempting!

The article on AC is very interesting and technically detailed.

[ebag4]

You're line of thinking is right on, Bob...

But disk players don't have USB outputs.

Rich,
Take a look here:  http://www.censuspc.com/External-Drives-c-194.html?gclid=CPf5ydblzp4CFYZM5QodC3GLrw
They have a number of optical drives connected via USB.

Best,
Ed

[Bob in St. Louis]

You can't buy an outboard USB optical drive?
Just to clarify, I meant for the outboard optical drive to be used as we would normally use our DVD/CD drives on our PCs. Not necessarily for the use of playing music.

I'm thinking that the next PC I buy, might be something along these lines.
If you think of your existing PC as an "all in one" unit and these minis, with their outboard accessories, as expandable and individually "tweakable" as our music systems, it just makes sense. Seems more more cost effective too.

Hmm.....

Bob

EDIT: thanks for the link Ed. 

[ebag4]

That's it Ed, thank you.  Thanks for the link Rich. 

A little quick OT:
If a fella bought one of these "mini" PCs, and had a outboard USB DVD/CD and a USB HDD (for extra storage), and a monitor, that's all he'd need to replace an existing PC, right?
He could then get rid of this large noisy "suitcase" taking up real estate.
Am I wrong in that line of thinking?

Bob

Bob,
If you want to play with Linux you can do so on your current PC without making any changes to it.  You can download and burn an ISO of a Linux system (e.g. Ubuntu Live ), place it in your drive and reboot, Linux will boot up and you can try it out.  Just do a search for "Ubuntu Live", other Linux distributions may be available in this format as well.  I believe the entire OS is loaded and ran from ram.

Best,
Ed

[Bob in St. Louis]

Good point Ed, but not on this one. 
This (buggy P.O.S.) unit will soon be wiped of it's memory and started over.
Not gonna add more stuff to it. It's bad enough already.
I would like to play with Linux as well as Apple stuff one day though. Kinda getting tired of Windows bugs.

Sorry for the OT Carl.

Bob

[ebag4]

Good point Ed, but not on this one. 
This (buggy P.O.S.) unit will soon be wiped of it's memory and started over.
Not gonna add more stuff to it. It's bad enough already.
I would like to play with Linux as well as Apple stuff one day though. Kinda getting tired of Windows bugs.

Sorry for the OT Carl.

Bob

Thats the point Bob, It doesn't do anything to your PC, simply "borrows" yur ram until you reboot without the live CD in the drive.  Of course if the existing PC is too bad you may not be able to burn the ISO.  If you want a copy of Ubuntu Live PM me your address and I'll send you one.

Best,
Ed

Now back to our regularly scheduled topic....

[richidoo]

I was thinking you meant playing an audio CDP with USB output.  I am not sure how easy it will be to play AudioCDs  through USB in realtime, using Linux OS and available linux media players. But it would be fun to find out. Or maybe Ed's new link spells it out. I'll have to catch up on this fast thread a little later!
Rich