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Where should I start for computer audio??

I've always been a late bloomer, late on picking up on the new tech, and just generally late where ever I go (especially work), but I have been reading a lot lately about computers replacing our CD players and have been overwhelmed in how it not only works, but how to do it. I currently have a pretty nice 2 channel audio system: Magnepan 3.6s, Tjoeb CD player w/ upsampler, H2O S-250 amp, modified Mapletree Ultra 4A tube preamp. Nevertheless, I see the writing on the wall; the death of CD players is soon to arrive. I can even see a time coming where there will be streaming audio that will function like "on demand" cable, ie., you won't own CDs, but just choose from a list of all albums available and the music on an album will be playing on your system with the click of a mouse. My problem is that I am a computer dummy. Where do I begin to learn about how to put together a comuter audio playback system? I have an iMac, iMac laptop and an Airport express, but have no idea how these things work or how I could set up a playback system (my wife is the computer geek in my house, but more interested in graphic design than music). I realize my question is way too broad, but is there any reading material out there that would be a good place to start to not only understand this stuff, but how to implement it and make it work? Is there anything like Robert Harley's book on highend audio for computer audio (wonder if Harley's book will be revised to discuss this subject)? Thanks for any guidance you might have.
hartwerger
ipy
113 posts
 
Depends but recently I have gone to a PC based system utilizing it as a transport & storage of ripped music from my CD collection.

Before this I had a PC with a wireless router plus a dedicated Transport/DAC (or CDP if it is integrated). I added the Squeezebox 3 by Slim Device & I 'm hooked, with a bit of figuring out on the installing of the SB3 software ie: SlimServer. Now instead of the Transport feeding signal to the DAC, I 'm using the SB3 instead.

Chekout the link below for the SB products which might help
http://www.slimdevices.com/index.html
and a review as well below
http://silentpcreview.com/article287-page1.html
matt8268
92 posts
 
Audiophile computer audio is just in its infancy, if you ask me. There is not a lot of common knowledge yet. A couple places for you to start learning are:

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=59
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue22/nugent.htm

First link is to a head-fi (headphone) forum dedicated to computer-sourced audio. Second link explains why computer audio sounds better than from a CD (if done properly).

There are several questions to figure out for computer based audio:

1. What quality will you encode (rip) with, and what format?
2. Is your stereo system further than a cable's distance from your computer.
3. How nice do you want the sound (i.e. how much do you want to spend).

I have my own personal biases. I would go with a lossless compression for sure, if you're going to take the time to do it, do it right once. If you have a Mac, rip with iTunes' Apple Lossless compression, and check the box for error correction, to make sure you get perfect reads from your CD's.

Squeezebox is a great solution if you need to connect wirelessly. Personally, I am going to buy a usb source (sold from either www.redwineaudio.com or www.empiricalaudio.com - there aren't many commercial products offered yet, it's mostly the modifiers building these right now). I will then feed that source through a DAC. Because a usb source can use a good clock and run from battery power (in the case of the ones I linked to), it can provide a really nice stream of audio. Basically, my understanding is you can spend $1000 (usb source and dac, say), and get something that will best a multi-thousand dollar CD player. Nice.

Of course, if you don't need super-high end, your solution can be as simple as adding a nice sound card with a good analog or digital out (if you don't mind noise added from the computer). I have heard Macs audio outputs are pretty good. My big advice would be make sure you do the data part right (encoding your CD's). You can always upgrade your gear, but I'm almost finished encoding my 500 CD collection, and believe me, I don't want to go back and do it again.
matt8268
92 posts
 
Wanted to add just a bit more. My last post is more of a general answer. For you specifically given the gear you already have, do the following:

1. Install iTunes if you haven't already, and encode your music.
2. Stream your music from iTunes to your Airport Express (you do this directly from iTunes once the Airport Express is configured).
3. Run the Airport Express into your stereo. You have 2 options for doing so. First option (least good) is to get a mini stereo plug to RCA adapter, and plug it into the line in of an amp or reveiver. Second option (best) is to but a mini-toslink (digital) plug, plug that into the Airport Express (it accepts mini stereo and mini toslink), and then plug the other end into the digital input of a receiver (or DAC). That will give you the best sound.
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