where to go from a hp mini 210 netbook

Hello. Not sure if I'm understanding your question as you intended, but I'll take a shot.

I never used a Mood D300, but from the net I see it has asynch USB. Good starting point!

So you want to record from YouTube? I doubt that will provide good sound quality. Hence I doubt it's worth going beyond what you have accomplished. Just enjoy.

However, try and rip a CD you know. I use dBpoweramp for ripping. Not all software is made equal for ripping or any other goal for that matter. But try and hear if you like what you hear.

You can certainly improve on sonics, but most likely all alternatives will come at the expense of varying degrees of complexity and cost. I used a laptop running JRiver, playing files from a USB external drive and into an asynch USB converter and was very happy with the results. I played mostly ripped CDs.

Using the USB serial bus for both accessing files and streaming music to your DAC is an issue, as it was for me. To get around it you would need an external drive with some other type of connection, or a desktop with internal drive, or a NAS.

Using an audiophile USB card also makes a difference, but that can only be accomplished with a desktop type computer. Hardware can be optimized ad nauseum, but you'll add comlexity.

My server is highly optimized. Very time consuming...but I found a significant impact from using Windows Server 2012 R2 (operating system) and the Audiophile AudioOptimizer. You could run both on a laptop and I would expect significant results. I believe you can try both for free. It will take some work to do the installation and all, though.

Using a laptop that is only dedicated to playing music would be important. That way you can turn off many processes, and that will have an impact on sonics.

I hope I have answered at least part of your question.

Thanks Lewinskih01. You gave me a starting point. I will look at the items that brought up and maybe make a plan of attack. I thought it might be somewhat involved and I am to computer lazy and illiterate to do to much. You made it sound somewhat simple. Thank you.

Glad it helped.

I started with computer audio about 3 years ago. I'm not a computer guy, and I took a step by step approach to see what it was all about. Eventually I found myself only listening to the computer and decided to dispose of the other sources. Yet I don't believe computer audio is the best source for everyone, so I like encouraging people to try it out and then decide. Which is what you have been doing.

I think your next best step is a dedicated, optimized laptop. It doesn't need to be super powerful, but if quad-core, the better. Even a used one will do. I believe it's very important that it will be a dedicated to audio only. 4 GB RAM would be enough.

As a non-computer guy it took a bit of a leapfrog to install Windows Server 2012 as it was the first time I ever installed an operating system on a computer. Go to highend-audiopc.com, click on "manual" and read through the pdf for the Audiophile Optimizer Setup Guide. I followed this to install WS2012 and Optimizer.

Then you will need to install the Optimizer, which is easy. In my system the Optimizer made a very significant impact. The maker, AudioPhil, is a great guy and very willing to help. I highly recommend the guy and the Optimizer.

If you like what you hear you can then consider further optimizing the hardware. Some of the optimizations to consider:
- Disable wifi. This creates electrical noise in the computer.
- Avoid USB for an external hard disk drive.
- Disable the screen for playback. This probably sounds ridiculous, but it's easier to use than you might think.
- Turn Windows Server to core mode.
- Use a small solid state drive in the laptop instead of a HDD, just for WS2012 and JRiver or whichever player you choose. If you were buying a laptop it would be nice to get one with a SSD. Any SSD will be bigger than what you need, so no worries with size.
- Buy an audiophile USB cable.
- Maybe a linear power supply for the laptop. Not sure about the impact of this on a laptop. It had a significant impact on my desktop.

I hope this was not overwhelming. The goal was just to provide perspective.

Cheers!

iTunes plus Apple Airport Express is a great entry point (likely the final destination for me) in combo with your DAC. The simplicity of controlling my MacBook Pro with a remote app on my iPhone to stream wirelessly through the Apple Airport Express then through an optical interface to my DAC. I cannot hear a difference between this setup and my CD player so I am happy.

I am sure thugs could be even better, but it is certainly a great place to start for anyone looking to get I to computer audio.

Lew thanks for the specific steps and in order. That I can follow. Thanks for the solid start. Mceljo thanks for the info.

J River