Building an Audio Player PC

[Carlman]

I found some really cool options to build a small, 12V power supplied audio player here:  http://www.logicsupply.com

I'm not building an HTPC, or a music server, just a music player.  So, a small, atom-based mobo with a SSD and room for 1 PCI card is all I need.  My only 'nervosa' is using a riser card... will it add noise?  I'll use Pro-Gold. ha..

Thought I'd share the link, I like the boxes... they look nice, well made for extreme environments but not super expensive either.

-C

[richidoo]

They do look like nice little PCs. I like the way you're thinking.. the silence, plus the flexibility of PC. Store the music on a fileserver somewhere where noisy disk drives don't matter. It would also be cool to choose player software that is controllable by iPoad app.

Will this be an analog source or digital source to feed an external DAC?

[Carlman]

Digital only... hoping to get a Buffalo dac one day.
I'm thinking of getting that Juli@ card and using it for the digital out, and then the USB out for the USB DAC... so, I could compare the USB and regular DAC's...
-C

[richidoo]

Great! I just ordered parts for my new Buff2 build. Should be running by the g2g.

[TomS]

Carl,

If you want total quiet (electrical and mechanical) and can deal with USB output only, the Alix board with a linear power supply is a great way to go. I'm using that with a separate file server in another room and loving it. Only about $120 plus a power supply de jour, a server to point to and you're in business for 24bit/192khz USB.

Tom

[tmazz]

Great! I just ordered parts for my new Buff2 build. Should be running by the g2g.

I knew it!!!! You're not even done with the new speakers and nervosa has already percolated up another project. (Where do you get the energy?)

Audio projects are just like Lays Potato Chips, you can never have just one.     

[djdube525]

Great! I just ordered parts for my new Buff2 build. Should be running by the g2g.

I knew it!!!! You're not even done with the new speakers and nervosa has already percolated up another project. (Where do you get the energy?)

I think Michael Keaton gave Rich some ideas a few years back about how to tackle so many projects... 

[Carlman]

Sounds great to have the energy... It's good to use it when you have it... Plus, working on something different means new challenges... and it's easy to get behind something that you know is going to sound pretty good already.

I really want digital out.  I've wanted it for as long as I've been using my free (and temporary) PC I have now.  My PC is an old Dell that a company I worked for was throwing out... I was amazed at how quiet it was for a standard desktop.  It makes a little fan whirring but not much.  It's about 10 years old now and I've put nothing into it money or timewise... (Remember, it's temporary)  Now the 2 or 3 years of temporary use are coming to an end.  

So, the new PC budget will be 300-400.  It will have the brick power supply and tiny mobo for sure... likely all fanless... but if there is one, it'll be very quiet.

-C

[richidoo]

Alix is a good option, here is the thread that started the movement.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=62364.0
Will these ultralights run Win7?

You're right Tom, never too many audio projects!!

[Carlman]

So Alix has no monitor output ? ... That is bare!  It's basically getting back to the absolute basics.. a platform to build a specialized computer. 
I need more for my setup... and not willing to go through a steep learning curve for the sake of simplicity.
-C

[hometheaterdoc]

Carl,

I've been starting to head over to the dark side of tablets lately rather than have full keyboard, mouse, and computer monitor sitting next to the listening chair...  these tablets will all run some form of remote desktop apps so you can log into the audio PC itself sitting in the corner and control it if it is a Win7 box (and if you are using MPD as your client on one of those small Alix boxes running Linux, it has a web based interface so you can again use the tablet as your remote control)....

I've been a pretty firm believer in wireless keyboards and having that monitor next to the listening chair because I do so many other things while I listen like surf and return emails.  Tablets have been soooo slow to do the same things I do with my setup because they didn't multitask well and the touch screen keyboards were clunky....  but the last few 10" units I've tried have been pretty decent for keyboards... still slower than I'd like, but getting there... enough to seriously tempt me.  I've got a gift certificate to Amazon burning a hole in my pocket.... it's the only thing (other than her spending some of the wedding money on a new grill) that is mine to spend from the wedding... I knew I should have been involved in that gift registry thing.  99.999% of the stuff she registered for was to needlessly replace every kitchen appliance, dish, glass, pot, pan, and silverware we own, even though between the two of us we had everything already and it was perfectly decent stuff.... anyways, enough on that topic before I get riled up

anyways, I'm seriously tempted to pick up a tablet and do the remote desktop thing... if all you are doing is controlling the audio player on the machine and choosing from playlists of music to play, it works great... even foobar has a remote access control app that you can use with even an iphone/ipod...

using the tablet as monitor and remote control adds to the cost compared to buying a cheap wireless keyboard and monitor... but it does present a cleaner look in the room which is something I'm getting more grief about since she locked me into this lifetime contract thing

just something else to think about....  I can show you a demo if you want....  I have a feeling that before the week is out I'll be using that gift certificate....

[ebag4]

I am using an Alix pc running Voyager/MPD>Tranquility DAC and use the iPod touch running MPod to control it, works great!  Of course not too good for surfing the net.  The music server is a NMT (networked media tank) sitting in the closet I house all of my HT stuff downstairs.  I am very happy with this setup.

Best,
Ed

[Carlman]

That all sounds good, and like what I want to do, Shane... but.. How do you run Foobar on a Linux box?  Isn't the Alix just Unix?

I'm still considering building an Atom-based box with a good sound card.  I think that would be ideal... no monitor or keyboard would be great... because I've never had a good place to put that stuff anyway.

If I could run all this on an iPad, that would work for me too... but expensive!  I have an extra iTouch I could use to get started... but I would be interested to see the tablet in use too.  Thanks in advance!

-C

[hometheaterdoc]

That all sounds good, and like what I want to do, Shane... but.. How do you run Foobar on a Linux box?  Isn't the Alix just Unix?

I'm still considering building an Atom-based box with a good sound card.  I think that would be ideal... no monitor or keyboard would be great... because I've never had a good place to put that stuff anyway.

If I could run all this on an iPad, that would work for me too... but expensive!  I have an extra iTouch I could use to get started... but I would be interested to see the tablet in use too.  Thanks in advance!

-C

You don't run Foobar on a Linux box... if you go the Linux box, you go with MPD and control it via web browser....  which can be done from any smartphone device, ipod touch, tablet, or laptop at the listening position...

If you stay with a windows based box by getting one of those Atom based ones or whatever, you use foobar...  you can control it two ways... one is to have a device like 4th gen Ipod Touch, Iphone, Ipad, android based tablet, etc. and use a remote desktop client to log into the PC sitting over there by the audio rack (assuming high enough version of Windows that has remote desktop capability) and display the desktop on that mobile device's display.... this way you can see the playlist in foobar and work on it as if you're using that machine.  I have 6 Windows 7 machines spread throughout my house in various rooms and I "remote desktop" into all of them from one another and do various things on them.  I'm taking this approach with the tablet so that I can "remote desktop" into the audio PC sitting in the corner and have plenty of screen real estate on the tablets 10" display to see everything on that Windows 7 based machines desktop...

The second option is that Foobar has a component add-on called "UPnP/DLNA Renderer, Server, Control Point".  You can control Foobar from an Ipod/Iphone and control what is being played back on that machine.  So it continues to route out the USB or coax output, you just use the iphone/ipad like a remote control for the software....  This component has other features, but that's the key one you want.

I ordered up the tablet I'm hoping will work for me.  It should be here before long.  I'll show you a demo as soon as it arrives...  I could have done the exact same thing the tablet is doing with a netbook or laptop...  but the form factor is slightly better with the tablet, I think she'll enjoy using the tablet around the house instead of having to use her work laptop or the main machines in the offices, and it will be slightly easier to transport on travel trips.  I know it would have been much preferred to the awful Ipod Touch I used while in Italy for the honeymoon...  tablets are more expensive than more powerful netbooks...  it's because they're the hot thing right now... it aggravates me to have spent so much more for what I consider a better machine in a netbook.... but hopefully she enjoys the form factor better and I get some use out of it to feed digital music to my various DACs in the two music room setups....

[richidoo]

It's just as important to choose what player software you will use before choosing what hardware will run it. There are a lot of new audiophile tilted players now, claiming superior SQ to foobar et al. Do any of them run on Linux?