First Steps into Computer Audio

Definitely agree with Jax2 - do not do your audio in a computer unless you are prepared to spend for a very, very good sound card - not worth it IMHO

I favor USB - very standard, nothing too exotic is required in the cable - get a Belkin Gold.

I am delighted with the Valab sold on ebay for $180 shipped to your from Taiwan - for the price and much more its a giant killer. The Keces units are also excellent. No argument about the Paradisea btw.

BUT you will not be able to feed the speakers from the DAC unless they are active (contain their own amplifiers). Sorry I am not familiar with the ones you mentioned. Generally speaking you will need an amp - I suggest an integrated with the preamp built in.

The other alternative which I have not researched are the amps with a built in USB DAC. While not the ultimate, I like these kinds of solutions for several reasons:

1) they work as a unit - no messing with matching

2) it is compact which in a room your size is a significant consideration

3) fewer boxes means fewer interconnect and power cables which add up fast

Let us know how it turns out

Guys - just for history. Apple introduced FW400 - it was very cool at the time since we were living in the bad old days of SCSI.

But the WinTel world (remember that) didn't like it (OK they hated it) because they had to pay a royalty for each computer equipped with FW.

So they backed USB. And pretty soon USB was ubiquitous and FW a niche product. Remember we are talking a global market here which is what put USB over the top. I suspect there are a 1,000 USB machines for every FW machine and that might be conservative.

Later USB 1.1 begat 2.0 and soon there will be a 3.0. There are also five iterations of FW by now.

As long as we are using RedBook and 24/96; speed is not an issue - the audio files are very small, while cache, RAM and busses are very fast. To be sure an old PC which is asked to do some other processor intensive tasks at the same time or whose HD is an overloaded nasty mess may have some trouble keeping up. Same for a 386 PC that is being asked to upsample. This is one of those fascinating things that the bit biters like to bring up over and over but one never finds a concrete example of... YMMV

FWIW the general consensus seems to be that while we can agree that FW is a much better format then USB for some things, the war is long over and FW is and will remain a niche product.

Consider that many of the newer Apple Notebooks like the MacBook, the MacBook Air and the Mac Mini don't come with FW. No argument that its a way to control costs - but it reflects the fact that no one uses it.

There is a reason that Steve, Gordon and most everyone else designs for USB - it's what people use. Which is why that is most likely where the innovations will occur. And is most certainly the choices are.

Thnx - very interesting read. You've got a little of everything and a lot of no one really knows - would love the chance to read the raw responses as well.

PS - here are the individual answers

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue41/ca_moore.htm