Pictures of your computer rigs! Post them here! - Page 57

I did not imagine that the EMM Labs front end was getting much use when you have access to so much music via the computer. My CD players are not getting much use either. Basically, I use one to play a disc I have not heard so I can decide whether or not to rip it to the library of music.

I am also looking forward to the rumored Apple tablet computer. It may turn out to be less expensive and more convenient than a notebook for remotely controlling iTunes and of course all around general computing such as email and on-line browsing.

I am new. Mac mini, iomega 1tb drive, wavelength brick dac. I need a good pair of headphones.

Welcome. Freeze your credit cards in a block of ice before you read any further here.

@Azazel90x

My only question is, regarding the huge stereo speakers right next to your laptop, are they magnetically sheilded? I'm guessing not. You might want to think about that. Also, bigger is not always better. Get yourself some good nearfield monitors.

Magnetically shielding of speakers was a concern when you put them near CRTs, those magnetic fields really are not going to do anything to an LCD. The only thing they "may" effect is the harddisk and well while those speakers are large the magnetic field is no where near strong enough to effect the hard disks.

A proper CD player is still the best way to play a CD that has pre-emphasis. Computer playback doesn't handle CDs that have pre-emphasis correctly. And correcting for pre-emphasis digitally is not the right way to do it. Better to let the CD player do it. Fortunately very few CDs have pre-emphasis.

CD players are also handy to bring to meets as a source.

Or you could invest in a lot of SACDs and get to enjoy the ritual of spinning the disc every time you want to listen.

@m1abrams

touche`

Source for this? WAV and AIFF both have pre-emphasis bits you can set wtih no trouble, and then it's handled by the dac. Not that anyone uses it, as you mentinoed.


Computers are pretty handy to bring to meets as sources too, and allow you to have a lot more music readily available.

This I'll grant you.

Source is just my experience. Computer playback has pretty much ignored the issue of pre-emphasis CDs. I don't have a DAC that will do de-emphasis, but even if I did I don't even know how I would rip the CD and play it back in a manner to get the pre-emphasis flag properly set. It's an overly complex situation and the software isn't addressing it properly.

CD playback makes it dead easy. So easy that you would not even be aware that a CD has pre-emphasis unless the DAC happens to have an indicator light for when it detects pre-emphasis.

I handle the de-emphasis digitally using SoX. It's not ideal. And a few times SoX has let me know that a few samples have clipped during the deemph process. I could fix that by making the files 24-bit, but that's an added inconvenience and not the default behavior.

I like to have a CD of music I am familiar with when trying out new gear. If a setup has a CD player I can play my CD(s). If not, I just make do with whatever music selection is available. The option of a CD player is just nice to have. I could put my music on a USB drive to take to a meet. But plugging in thumb drives into some elses computer at a meet is just rude. If I brought a computer as source to a meet I wouldn't want random people plugging in random thumb drives.

I love computer as source at home, and that is what I have moved to. But computer as source isn't the perfect panacea that has completely obsoleted the standalone CD player.

No it is just easier for the lazy, busy, and spatially limited

My "tiny" Polks are just perfect, those huge pioneers...im not gonna keep em like that lol, after the pic i put my polks back up. Th polks sound soo perfect!

Here's my setup









Sources: Dell Precision T7400 desktop, Keces 151 DAC

Speaker setup: Arcam A65 > B&W 602

Headphone Setup: Woo WA3+ Headphone amp, Beyerdynamic DT990 phones with Black Dragon cable

Sweet red WooAudio amp man!

Is that a bottle of Macallan I see on the side table?

And is that a photoshopped baby in the computer desk?

Neil Peart would be proud!