High End User Interface for PC Audio

Hmm... Something in a form factor that looks like a piece of audio gear, not a computer. Try A-Tech Fabrication, for example. Heat pipe, fanless technology to limit sound. Quiet, isolated HDDs, or RAM drives for added quiet. Real audio outputs with better reclocking. Better indexing and CD lookup capabilities--song by song, for example. Something that will bring back cover art, lyrics, song, title, artist, genre, tempo, etc.

I'm actually in the process of redoing my computer interface. I've got an old Viewsonic 10" touchpanel that is wireless--it uses 802.11 on a wireless network to serve as a "remote desktop" for WinXP. I picked up a Serener fanless ITX mini-PC with a quiet 120 GB Samsung spinpoint drive, 800 MHz processor, and 0.5 GB of RAM, with WinXP. I was going to run both Cinemar's Mainlobby software and (probably) Foobar 2000 on it, as well as using it as the Slimserver for my Squeezebox 3s. The Mainlobby software, with girder and a USB to RS232 hub, will talk to my dCS stack, my Pio plasma, and HDMI switch. I'll have to use a USB-UIRT to talk to my PS Audio Power Director, pre-amp, and CATV box, but in the end, I should have a 10" wireless touchscreen that serves as a universal system remote and interface to audio. I'll just use the existing waveterminal U24 I have to run audio out of the ITX box to my gear.

Got my wireless link working last night, so now I'm using a Viewsonic Airpanel: http://www.viewsonic.com/products/mobilewireless/wirelessmonitors/airsyncv210wirelessdisplay/ (basically a 10" touchscreen remote desktop for a networked PC) and a hidden small form factor PC (doesn't matter how it looks if you can't see it) to run iTunes. The SFF PC is fanless with a quiet spinpoint drive--inaudible. Its hooked to the dCS gear with a waveterminal... Great fun.

I'm using a WT U24 with great results with a dCS Purcell/Delius combo. Haven't really messed with SRC, but I know there is one person who would say that its a better upsampler than any hardware out there... Audioengr?

I've tried the wireless keyboard and mouse thing. Its kind of cool, but only so-so functionality-wise. Optical mice, for example, don't track well on glass tables.

That is why I revived my touchscreen Airpanel--I can pretty much get away with doing anything or everything with iTunes w/o a keyboard. The airpanel is small enough that I don't mind carrying it around a bit.

The other alternative I've seen is folks running thin-client front ends on pocket PCs--you know, the little Palm Pilot like things. Might be able to figure a path to VNC or remote to your computer off one of those, and do it all with a touchscreen. Those things seemed a bit small to me when trying to index stuff on iTunes, hence the 10" touchpanel.

You really like the gyration thing? Problem is... Don't ya still need to be able to read the monitor and focus on small lines to select items to play? Having a w/less keyboard and mouse work at 100' is great only if you have a Jumbotron to see it on. I've got a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and this doesn't seem that different, other than the funky motion sensor. I can't believe its all that good for fine control, though. Frankly, what is really needed is a good wireless trackball.

I still think touchscreen is the way to go. "Mouse" cursor goes to where ever you touch, double tap selects. Works great for iTunes. I can set the resolution/text size up so its easy to operate, even after fine motor skills are, er, slightly impaired.

I've also got Squeezebox 3s in some rooms, although I haven't really thought of it as an audiophile device. Is the digital feed out of the SB3 coax as good as, say, coax out of a Waveterminal U24? Gotta say, the SB3 has a display that is actually legible across the room...

The Squeezebox is a thin client. It interacts with a server program running on another network machine. Simplistically, the SB3 is a remote control front end that displays stuff as told by the server program, manages commands (like add this song to the current playlist), and is set up to receive music files and output those files through a coax digital port or analog L/R jacks. Its a non-functioning lump without a program running on another machine to support it, but... One server program can support multiple SB3s, and the "program" supporting them runs in the background.

So, I've got the server program (slimserver) running in the background on my XP machine in my study. The SB3 in my bedroom wakes up, sees that program, and starts interacting with it.

Theoretically it can interface with iTunes in the sense that you can tell the server program to look for an iTunes library file to manage the library. That means changes in the iTunes library are recognized by the slimserver program. I say theoretically because I'm spending my morning trying to make that work. There seem to be some issues with finding files over a network... Aie.

I find combining Slimserver and iTunes a headache. I have dual libraries--AAC files for portable iPod and ALAC for home use. The only way of keeping the AAC files out of slimserver and clogging that up (esp. since you can't tell an AAC from an ALAC until it plays) is to restrict the AAC files to a separate directory and *not* use the iTunes library file or to check all the ALAC files in iTunes and get slimserver to only use iTunes checked files. But since you check and uncheck things in iTunes all the time, it means you have to disable the slimserver from updating. Brain damaged either way.

Right now I've separated my AAC files and ALAC files into separate directories, but there are issues there too--I use EAC/iTunes to rip to ALAC, but when I convert to AAC, I've got to copy those files from one directory to another. Total PITA. I thought about resetting the "use this directory" setting in iTunes before doing the AAC conversion, but that seems to take forever, and it scares me because I have no idea what it is doing.

I'm also rethinking my support of the iTunes UI. I really wish the indexing was better and categories could be collapsed--how about a "view by album"? Or "view by album art"? How about a "now playing" queue that can be added to by double clicking on a song, rather than having that cut-off the current song and start the new one?

In some ways, this still has a long way to go...