About to start a beginning audiophile set-up

[tfarney]

I'd buy a $200 hard drive, rip all the CDs to it, put $300 - $500 into a DAC, and then spend the remaining source budget on speakers, cans or new music. I don't care how esoteric your transport is, no spinning disc is as stable as a computer feeding lossless files from RAM, with software constantly verifying a bit perfect match to what's on the hard drive. And what are the odds that a $1000 cdp is going to have a better than $300 - $500 DAC? Low, I'd guess, but regardless, there are some really good DACs out there in this price range. Even if you don't want to use your existing computer for double duty, I'd buy another computer:

Mac Mini $599
Terabyte drive $200
Apogee Duet (or other USB or fire wire DAC) $500

Ok, you're a few hundred over budget for the source, but it will be a lot better than a $1000 CDP, and your entire music collection will be at your fingertips in iTunes.

It's the future, man.

Tim

[feverfive]

Originally Posted by tfarney

I'd buy a $200 hard drive, rip all the CDs to it, put $300 - $500 into a DAC, and then spend the remaining source budget on speakers, cans or new music. I don't care how esoteric your transport is, no spinning disc is as stable as a computer feeding lossless files from RAM, with software constantly verifying a bit perfect match to what's on the hard drive. And what are the odds that a $1000 cdp is going to have a better than $300 - $500 DAC? Low, I'd guess, but regardless, there are some really good DACs out there in this price range. Even if you don't want to use your existing computer for double duty, I'd buy another computer:

Mac Mini $599
Terabyte drive $200
Apogee Duet (or other USB or fire wire DAC) $500

Ok, you're a few hundred over budget for the source, but it will be a lot better than a $1000 CDP, and your entire music collection will be at your fingertips in iTunes.

It's the future, man.

Tim

FWIW, I fully endorse this route.

[mikaronni]

Originally Posted by tfarney

I'd buy a $200 hard drive, rip all the CDs to it, put $300 - $500 into a DAC, and then spend the remaining source budget on speakers, cans or new music. I don't care how esoteric your transport is, no spinning disc is as stable as a computer feeding lossless files from RAM, with software constantly verifying a bit perfect match to what's on the hard drive. And what are the odds that a $1000 cdp is going to have a better than $300 - $500 DAC? Low, I'd guess, but regardless, there are some really good DACs out there in this price range. Even if you don't want to use your existing computer for double duty, I'd buy another computer:

Mac Mini $599
Terabyte drive $200
Apogee Duet (or other USB or fire wire DAC) $500

Ok, you're a few hundred over budget for the source, but it will be a lot better than a $1000 CDP, and your entire music collection will be at your fingertips in iTunes.

It's the future, man.

Tim

i looked into this a little. would the new asus eee pc be sufficient since it would just be dedicated for music only? it has 3 usb 2.0 ports so that would be enough for a cd-drive, an external harddrive, and a usb DAC. also, what DAC's would you recommend so i can look into them?
one more question, i see some of these cd players that control the power so it reduces jitter unlike computers which are said to be jittery because of the power supply. also, i came across a discussion about the clock in a usb dac has to cover a lot, so it's said to not be very precise. what is a way to reduce it?

for those of you who recommended cambridge audio equipment, is there any place around the bay area that i can audition these pieces? the only authorized dealer i can find is in san rafael, which is quite a distance from the south bay.

[m3_arun]

I'm curious to know where you read that USB audio from a dedicated computer is any different from one you use for other tasks too.

To offer a different perspective, I'd say keep the computer you already have. You probably don't need to buy an external hard drive either, unless you want to rip all of your tracks (tedious, no proven sound quality increase) and not play them as CDs.

Check out the Stello DA100 USB DAC, which for sure won't be a bottleneck in your system. There are many reviews from respected forum members that attest to its performance. Shouldn't be more than $700 shipped if you buy used, at the worst its $800 new.

Then you have DIY options and commercial options for amps. I would personally go for DIY (have someone build it for you) because I think they offer better value. Amps that have been recommended to me include PPA, M^3, and SOHA, not to mention the Beta 22, which is supposedly close to the ultimate in solid state headphone amp performance. People on the Amps subforum will have plently of ideas about this.

I think DACs are a sort of do it once, do it right thing because once you get to a certain price level, you will see a MUCH more significant change in sound quality from your amp and headphone selection than from changing your DAC.

[mikaronni]

Originally Posted by m3_arun

I'm curious to know where you read that USB audio from a dedicated computer is any different from one you use for other tasks too.

To offer a different perspective, I'd say keep the computer you already have. You probably don't need to buy an external hard drive either, unless you want to rip all of your tracks (tedious, no proven sound quality increase) and not play them as CDs.

Check out the Stello DA100 USB DAC, which for sure won't be a bottleneck in your system. There are many reviews from respected forum members that attest to its performance. Shouldn't be more than $700 shipped if you buy used, at the worst its $800 new.

Then you have DIY options and commercial options for amps. I would personally go for DIY (have someone build it for you) because I think they offer better value. Amps that have been recommended to me include PPA, M^3, and SOHA, not to mention the Beta 22, which is supposedly close to the ultimate in solid state headphone amp performance. People on the Amps subforum will have plently of ideas about this.

I think DACs are a sort of do it once, do it right thing because once you get to a certain price level, you will see a MUCH more significant change in sound quality from your amp and headphone selection than from changing your DAC.

thanks for the recommendation on the DAC. it certainly would be much cheaper than the cambridge 840c that is recommended. oh, and i found the information about the dedicated computer in a link given in the computer as source section: nugent

[m3_arun]

Wow that is a pretty informative article. Also the USB audio article he links to is good.

However, after reading it, it seems like the only possible problem that could result from using a multipurpose computer is pops or dropouts in the music playing over USB. So, I think unless you actually experience these dropouts there is no loss in sound quality using a multipurpose computer as opposed to a dedicated music computer. I'd imagine most modern computers have enough CPU and memory resources to keep up a continuous stream of 16 bit/44.1 KHz CD-quality audio.

[1UP]

Sorted. Stello D100 Signature, AudioEngine A5, Sennheiser HD-650 running balanced from the DAC

[mikaronni]

Originally Posted by 1UP

Sorted. Stello D100 Signature, AudioEngine A5, Sennheiser HD-650 running balanced from the DAC

for you, how big is the difference between balanced and unbalanced?

p.s. are you trying to use me as a guinea pig? haha, i came across the thread where everybody is wondering how the balanced outputs on the signature sound.

[1UP]

I've heard the Stello D220 and it's lovely, so I don't think there's much to fret about on the capabilities of the D100S - the issue is the improvement the HD-650s get running in balanced mode. Search the headphones forum on "HD-650 balanced"- 99.9% of owners vouch for palpable improvements. You get balanced out for free with this DAC, though you'd be relying on your media player's volume control which may/may not be a hassle for ya

[mikaronni]

just to clear it up, the d100s can provide enough power to run the headphones?
or would it be better to use the stello da100 to go to a balanced headphone amplifier such as the headroom balanced desktop amp?