[DavidMahler]

Just wondering.....I'm thinking about buying a Mac or PC which I will use almost exclusively as a music server.....I have a laptop for internet and stuff...........

Anyone else have a computer they use solely for music?

 

[Zorander]

I do. I own no dedicated CD player nor vinyl player nor tuners. PC all the way.

 

[DavidMahler]

I guess what I'm asking is, does anyone use a computer strictly for music and hardly anything else

 

[iriverdude]

Seems a bit silly not to use a computer for anything else. But I do have a PC, I'm using it now, so I use it for net, e-mail, and it stores my flac music, it has slimsever installed so controls my squeezeboxes, also has winamp so can listen to music directly, and have mediaportal so used with the HT.

Clarift what you mean strictly for music, just the storage (like a NAS) or music playback as well (music stored on internal HD, using winamp)?

If you just need to store music on your LAN for all other devices to access it, I'd look into a NAS.

 

[auradud3]

i do, i have a macbook pro, its my second, but most used music station, i say station just because it has the full sound of my entire ht, but with so much more flexibility, both of my setups are high end, and sound pristine, but, i just love the intimacy of my can setup. my system (speakers) are mainly used a an ht, this works well. ht is for sitting and staring, while being carried away by sound. on the other hand i use my digital music anywhere in my home that i feel like settling into, the flexibility of this set up is soooooo cool, having audiophile music anywhere in the house with very little fuss. plus almost unlimited musical selections at your command without that continued up and down to change cd's or lp's.

 

[IceClass]

I have an old beat up Power Book G4 12" that is used for nothing more than as a brain for my music server plugged into a 2TB external drive.

 

[EnOYiN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif Seems a bit silly not to use a computer for anything else. But I do have a PC, I'm using it now, so I use it for net, e-mail, and it stores my flac music, it has slimsever installed so controls my squeezeboxes, also has winamp so can listen to music directly, and have mediaportal so used with the HT. Clarift what you mean strictly for music, just the storage (like a NAS) or music playback as well (music stored on internal HD, using winamp)? If you just need to store music on your LAN for all other devices to access it, I'd look into a NAS.

He means something like this: BeoSound 5 - Bang & Olufsen

And I don't think it's silly. The concept works quite well I would say.

 

[Kees]

I use an Asus EEE notebook, with a 1Tb mybook external harddisk as music server in my main setup, along with my CD player and turntable. I use a M-Audio Transit to connect it to de optical input of my DAC. The coax input is reserved for my CD transport.
Ripping and downloading I do on my main PC, on another Mybook drive and once in a while I copy the drives and switch them. I also make a backup copy of my main PC (not the music) on the other drive to keep it save (the music server is off-line and in another room).
Work perfectly fine for me.

 

[iriverdude]

Quote:

And I don't think it's silly. The concept works quite well I would say.

I'd at least use it for ripping/encoding. Perhaps not e-mail and web browsing incase of infection. My NAS also has slimserver, have two slimservers on my LAN so if I'm rebuild lib, wiping the PC, or updating firmware on the NAS I can still play music on the other slimserver.

 

[xaval]

I've got one for music and movies. HDMI out to a plasma screen (no audio) and coaxial to an offboard DAC. Using it just for music and nothing else is a waste of resources imo.

 

[Aynjell]

Not yet, but I will in about a month or two. The idea is to use my old 3800X2 as a media server, so not JUST a music server, but also a video server. I need to buy a few drives for it, or maybe just one. Pick up a 2TB drive or something for it. It'll probably run Gentoo linux, or ubuntu Linux.

 

[fzman]

i built a pc solely to play music, using the cics recipe, with some variations. i also use my main pc for music, but the purpose-built one sounds better, and works great -- just because it could do other things, doesn't mean it is being wasted just playing music!

 

[linuxworks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMahler /img/forum/go_quote.gif I guess what I'm asking is, does anyone use a computer strictly for music and hardly anything else

yes.

fanless, driveless, noiseless, mini-ITX box. just for music (pretty much).

via epia chipset, truly fanless and silent. fileserver is off in 'the noisy room' which has computers and other things that are left on all the time.

 

[salannelson]

Hmm... I don't really do much else on the computer. I just listen to music and go on Head fi. So I guess I do. I had to put a separate hard drive in just for music.

 

[KingStyles]

I have a hp touchscreen laptop that I have stripped all firewall, security, antivirus/spyware programs and anything else that isnt required to make it run and use it as only a music server. I dont see any problem in doing this since a lot of people are paying 500 on up for a cd player, and you can get a good laptop for that price. You dont have to swap out cds all the time and you have the added bonus of having a usb output, eq options, upsampling/oversampling options, and if configured correctly with the right dac, can get as good as or better than stand alone cd players.