Help me set up new stereo system


Just bought Revel Studio2 speakers and a Hegel h300 integrated amp (has DAC).

I have a pretty big iTunes library and have no CD's at all. Not sure of the format of the music files when I put my CD's into iTunes. I'd really like to get great sound out of my system and would like NOT to re-buy hundreds of CD's.

I'm OK with buying a Mac Mini but not sure how to hook up everything. I'll transfer over my library to the Mac Mini but then I'm a bit lost. Best to hook the Mini up to the Hegel via USB? And then use something like jRiver to manage the music? What about wanting to buy new music that may not be available on a high resolution site, do I buy the CD and just import it to the iTunes library?

Thanks for the help..
seanile

Showing 3 responses by clio09

I highly suggest not relying on iTunes as the playback engine, especially if you will eventually be downloading DSD. Audirvana Plus will interface to the iTunes library nicely. If you want to divorce yourself from iTunes then go with JRiver which is what I did. I stored my music on an Oyen Mini drive and used FireWire to connect it to the Mini. Then I pointed JRiver to that drive and imported my music. These days I am using a network and wired Ethernet solution that relives me of JRiver and the Mini, but that's another story.
My advice would be to get the MacMini to start. Having a computer dedicated to music playback is better than using a shared computer if you care about sound quality. If you like using iTunes as the library then configure it to import CDs as described previously. Personally I imported using AIFF. Then get Audirvana Plus software as the music playback tool. Hook up the MacMini to the Hegel via USB to play music through your system. There will be a learning curve with configuration but it really is not that hard.
Some of the software packages like JRiver come with EQ and other DSP capabilities but you do not have to use these features. I did not use them but I occasionally used the up sampling features.