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Anyone using i tunes as a computer based jukebox?

The write up in the October Stereophile caught my interest. So I picked up a discontinued G4, 15" monitor and a 100Gb hard disk. I also ordered an RME soundcard with both RCA and AES/EBU digital outputs. I'm currently ripping my CDs onto the HD as uncompressed files and I foresee that I'll eventually need 3 or 4 external firewire HDs to hold the majority of my music collection. What grabbed me is the idea that I will be able to instantly access any song, or combination of songs, in my collection and maintain them as custom playlists.

Just wanted to know if anybody else is also pursuing a similar route? I would like to know your experiences.
128x128onhwy61
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61 OP
5,148 posts
 
Iamnemo, I'm not familiar with any of the compression programs. HD space is fairly cheap, so I figure why compress. Three questions, have you addressed back up issues, have you tried the A/D converters on the Lynx (what's your opinion) and do you find Firewire cables to be directional?

I've only had my system set up for a few weeks, but I love it. It's so much easier to access music.
brianschuster
2 posts
 
I purchased the RME card as well but put it in a homebuilt PC (PIII, 933Mhz, 512 MB) with QuietPC power supply, CPU and case fans and disk drive enclosures. I also put dynamat around the inside of the case and it's virtually silent. I run the Toslink digital out of the RME into a Monarchy Audio DIP 24/96 and then into a CAL Alpha 24/96. I'm using Winamp for now to play all of my CD's which are ripped using Exact Audio Copy (EAC) onto 4 60 GB hard drives. I also upsample some songs using Cool Edit 2000. I've tried Monkey's Audio but had problems with upsampled songs which were then compressed with Monkey's Audio and not being able to be played with WinAmp.
davidaec4
1 posts
 
make sure you're using exact audio cd. only one that makes sure you are getting exact wav file dupes to the hard drive. my question is, if i'm using a sound card to an outboard dac, do i need to have one that does d/a conversion? it's redundant.

are there sound cards that just export digital to spdif or aes without a d/a converter on board. why should i pay for one when i'm going to use my outboard killer chord dac?
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61 OP
5,148 posts
 
David, the RME 96 series audio card does not have D/A converters. It comes standard with S/PDIF and AES/EBU input/output.
kdrofwdcf9eb
2 posts
 
This is just the setup I am thinking about doing - only using an iBook (laptop) with an ext firewire hard drive to store & play the music.

Someone referenced using digital I/O vs analog. How bad do you think the standard analog I/O on the laptop would be? It's just a standard haedphone jack, but, in my quick tests, it doesn't sound very noisy at all.

For digital I/O, what would I need? I know that I can drive the sound output to the USB port (e.g., for USB speakers), so maybe there is a USB-to-spdif converter (or something) so I could use an external DAC.

Thoughts?
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