[Edwood]

Interesting........

http://www.vxm.com/Aria1.html

-Ed

Quote:

The One Has Arrived—And it isn't Jet Li A PC-based CD/DVD Transport That Wipes the Floor of High-End Audio Francis Vale Big surprises come in small packages, or so the cliché goes. Usually, though, the surprise lies in getting something you thought you desperately wanted only to discover that more tears were shed over answered prayers. But in this Lilliputian case, specifically, an Antec Aria MicroATX Cube PC enclosure wrapped around a tiny Epia M10000 motherboard from Via with an RME Audio HDSP 9632 sound card, the results were more than a small sonic surprise. They were simply astonishing, To save the tedium of your reading this whole review, the bottom line is this tiny, run silent, mini-me rig, which costs less than $1,000, beats the bejeesus out of most high-end audio CD transports costing thousands more. As icing, you also get a top class DVD transport with awesome multi-channel surround sound.

 

[Jasper994]

Oh oh... I can hear Ed's wallet crying from here... dude, don't, your wife will kill you...

 

[Zoide]

In the last page of the review, the guy says:

"For less than a measly grand..."

Oooohhhh.... hatred cursing through my veins..... heheheh

 

[petery83]

This would probably sound even better with the HDSP modded

 

[lan]

I am interested in mini computers but this one just doesn't have enough power to be a HTPC also. Plus no DVI. I rather not have 2 mini boxes. Quiet is always nice. I rather use external DAC.

 

[MikoLayer]

the newer version of EPIA seems to sport a s3 IGP, the same one used in KM400 chipsets. while general 2d quality was better than any nvidia cards, it stuttered somewhat in higher quality wmv files.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Ummm, a stock HDSP in a mini-ITX case...big whoop..didn't we do this over a month ago? Oh well, I guess the acceptance of PC sources is getting better anyways.

 

[Jasper994]

Yeah, but it's nice to see it showing up outside of the "computer as a source" thread hear on Head-Fi.

 

[dinobite]

was my post deleted? yikes, I hope not

Anyways I had asked whether or not it was important to have the same DVD drive to acheive the quality of sound the reviewer experienced.
What drive did he use in that system, or does it matter?

thanks

 

[Mr.Radar]

I don't know, but most people playback losslessly compressed audio files from the HDD so the drive would only make a difference when ripping scratched discs (EAC, CDex, and PlexTools (for Plextor drives) all compensate for jitter caused by the drive reading the disc). If you want the best CD read quality get a Plextor Premium CD-RW drive or if you're on a budget a Lite-On CD-RW would also work.

 

[dinobite]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Radar I don't know, but most people playback losslessly compressed audio files from the HDD so the drive would only make a difference when ripping scratched discs (EAC, CDex, and PlexTools (for Plextor drives) all compensate for jitter caused by the drive reading the disc). If you want the best CD read quality get a Plextor Premium CD-RW drive or if you're on a budget a Lite-On CD-RW would also work.

oh I see, so the reviewer was playing music from the hd, and not from a cd.

Hmm, the author's review is titled "A PC-based CD/DVD Transport That Wipes the Floor of High-End Audio"... so does he even play music from a cd? Eh, whatever.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dinobite oh I see, so the reviewer was playing music from the hd, and not from a cd.

Well, from re-reading the article it seems he was using the CD-ROM drive directly, probably the stock one. He'd probably get better results from the HDD using lossless compression though because that virtually eliminates jitter before it gets to the soundcard.

 

[bigears]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood Interesting........ http://www.vxm.com/Aria1.html -Ed

Excellent article.
Thanks for sharing with us.