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What have you discovered?

Hello, I am James from Chicago. I am facing some problem 

I've had more computers and DACs than I can count. I've owned everything from Dell to HP to Mac, as well as every laptop or desktop form. So...I have a 500GB NETGEAR and Pacific Valve & Electric Company Digital Music Server. In any case, it sounds better than most, however... In the last six months, I've realized that my new HP laptop with 1 terabyte and 10 gig RAM sounds better and trumps audio. I'm not sure what "beats audio" is, but it says on the box that it's the highest audio quality from a computer. Gimmicks? Yes, No? Okay, so the midrange laptop has a longer battery life than the HP laptop. And I tried my hardest to like the music server! I want to like it! It is pretty cool with all of the radio and video on the internet, and it can control your house if it is automated, such as lights, A/C, etc. So, if anyone out there had a music server and discovered they preferred their laptop, please explain why. I'm learning from your experiences as well as my own.

jamesbonds

Showing 1 response by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
6,382 posts
 

I have been in IT most of my career (now retired) and an audiophile longer. I bet I have had more laptops, PC, MACs, streaming and storage devices than you. (I’m not trying to be a jerk, just state where I am coming from).

I resisted buying a high quality dedicated streamer for a couple decades. What a waste. High quality dedicated streamers and high quality dedicated DACs simply are at completely different levels. Designed from the ground up to stop noise and vibration of typical computing environments… they (well made ones).

Every dedicated music server I have owned completely trounced every pc or laptop I have owned. Some examples; Aurrender N100 ($3.6K), Aurlic Aries G2 ($5K), Aurender N10 ($10K), and Aurender W20SE ($22K). I found the latter was so good that it was a bargain (I have associated equipment to take advantage of it).

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I looked up Pacific Valve… and only saw a really inexpensive DAC. In this cost category it is hard to say what is going to sound better. An audio system is composed of all the components. If they are all highly low budget then listening is going to be the only solution… well, that is always true… but what is the rest of your equipment and venue?

 

I suspect a Bluesound, Lumin… or low end Aurender would completely answer your question and you would not be going back to PCs or laptops ever.

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