[pikawel]

I know audio, in general, is a world of compromises and I'm willing to abide. I don't want to deal with the changing of CD's and am willing to take the quality hit, I suppose. Call me lazy but I love having hundreds of albums at my fingertips without opening and closing a tray. I was originally considering a CD deck with a 100 or 300 disc carosel but have since decided, "hey, I don't even what to deal with that."

So, now I'm considering dedicating a computer as my source. While I did say I'm willing to make compromises, I don't want it all to be for naught. If I've got a computer with a 120GB harddrive dedicated to storing whole CD's in WAV format, what do I need soundcard / DAC wise to get a good sound? I mean at least as good as a modestly priced CD player ($300, whatever...).

Is this a failed project already or can I achieve something CD player quality without spending thousands on a soundcard / DAC setup?

And no, I don't completely know what I'm talking about. I know a bit about headphones and I know how to build computers. Sources are all new to me as are amps.

 

[blessingx]

Reaching a moderately priced CD player is pretty easy. Go with a M-Audio Revolution card ($100) and wav/aiff or lossless compression (Monkey's Audio, FLAC, etc.). If you want to improve on that, you certainly can also.

I'm using my computer over my stereo about 80% of the time.

 

[minya]

Me.

M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 soundcard -> Bolder digital cable -> ART DI/O DAC (not modded yet) -> Bolder type II (I think?) ICs -> Gilmore V2 amp -> Audio Technica ATH-W1000

That's my system right now.

I love it.

I listen to mostly lossless files as well as high-quality MP3s. I much prefer this setup to my Denon DCM-370.

Only problem is if you **** your computer up you're left without music.

- Chris

 

[pikawel]

Sweet. When I get serious about this, you'll be my mentors!

 

[Clutz]

Quote:

Originally posted by pikawel Sweet. When I get serious about this, you'll be my mentors!

Might I suggest, if you want to do that - get one of those super-mini cases and mini motherboards (I cannot recall the motherboard standards for the super small form factors right now), and use a Via 1Ghz C3 chip - they don't even require a fan for cooling. Toss in your fancy soundcard (suggested above), use an outboard dac and your golden.

A good 120-160GB HD - 5400RPM would be more than enough and you're flying.

Man, that sounds like a good idea.. Maybe I should do that.

Now if someone would design a Meta that could be pluged into a 5 1/4 or 3 1/2 inch drive bay to go with it..

Sweet.

 

[Clutz]

Hehe.. Perhaps something like.. this?

http://www.ncix.com/productdetail.php?sku=7716

 

[minya]

Quote:

Originally posted by Clutz Might I suggest, if you want to do that - get one of those super-mini cases and mini motherboards (I cannot recall the motherboard standards for the super small form factors right now), and use a Via 1Ghz C3 chip - they don't even require a fan for cooling. Toss in your fancy soundcard (suggested above), use an outboard dac and your golden.

That's kind of pointless. I mean, it's a neat idea, yeah, but how would you operate it? You'd still have to have a monitor and a mouse and keyboard... which is still clumsy and ruins the point of having a small, compact computer system.

What would be cool is if they sold cases with little LCD monitors embedded and you could somehow program software that would rip/encode/play audio files all at once. In effect, a one-box hard-disk-based transport system.

Uhmm... but that sounds a little tough...

- Chris

 

[Clutz]

Quote:

Originally posted by minya That's kind of pointless. I mean, it's a neat idea, yeah, but how would you operate it? You'd still have to have a monitor and a mouse and keyboard... which is still clumsy and ruins the point of having a small, compact computer system. What would be cool is if they sold cases with little LCD monitors embedded and you could somehow program software that would rip/encode/play audio files all at once. In effect, a one-box hard-disk-based transport system. Uhmm... but that sounds a little tough... - Chris

Hmm. I dunno, I think there may be a way to do it- I have seen micro LCD screens that are available, that can be pretty easily wired into serial ports- or a 5 inch colour LCD screen that plugs into a standard VGA port.

I've picked out hte parts.

Micro case - $95 w/ 250-300 watt PSU

1Ghz Via C3 processor on a mobo w/ USB 2.0, Firewire, Video integrated, ethernet - $268

256MB DDR RAM - $50

120GB HD - $190

Like you said, the interface would be the harder part is the interface and control.. But I believe there are wireless external controllers that one could get..

I mean, people here build amplifiers from scratch, this is an off the shelf sort of project.. It's doable.

 

[lan]

It's most certainly possible. For the "source" part, you can go with M-Audio Revolution if you want to keep it on the cheap and leave it at that.

If you want higher quality, you could go with an external DAC but be prepared to spend quite a bit more $$$ because at least you'll need a good coax digital cable. I like the ART DI/O for DAC because it's moddable (for DIY person or get someone to mod for you) but I didn't think a stock DI/O was better than the Revo. The M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 has a better coax digital out than the Revo though.

As for computer, I recommend keeping it quiet. So use quiet harddrives like Seagate Barracuda V, using a cool running CPU like PIII Celeron Tualatin and no fan. Modding the powersupply fan to 7V or 5V from 12V to lower it's noise level. You don't really need a powerful computer for just music use. I use dual PIII 800 but I use other stuff on this computer.

 

[Clutz]

Quote:

Originally posted by lan It's most certainly possible. For the "source" part, you can go with M-Audio Revolution if you want to keep it on the cheap and leave it at that. If you want higher quality, you could go with an external DAC but be prepared to spend quite a bit more $$$ because at least you'll need a good coax digital cable. I like the ART DI/O for DAC because it's moddable (for DIY person or get someone to mod for you) but I didn't think a stock DI/O was better than the Revo. The M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 has a better coax digital out than the Revo though. As for computer, I recommend keeping it quiet. So use quiet harddrives like Seagate Barracuda V, using a cool running CPU like PIII Celeron Tualatin and no fan. Modding the powersupply fan to 7V or 5V from 12V to lower it's noise level. You don't really need a powerful computer for just music use. I use dual PIII 800 but I use other stuff on this computer.

If I was going to do it, I would probably get the M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 instead of the M-Audio Revolution - although I'm not sure if I did make it, I'd use an external DAC right away.. I'd probably wait for a while.


For a proc, I would definately use one of the Via C3 1Ghz processors embedded on a motherboard - they have a passive heatsink built in, and it's all that they require. For MP3/DVD/File Server boxes, they've got pleanty of power.

I don't really have the need for one of these things at home now, but it's really grabbed my attention, seems like it might be fun to do.

But it'd cost $700-$800 (CDN), and I am not sure I want it badly enough to do. I think a 120GB HD is mandatory, though I could save about $150 if I used a motherboard that didn't support Firewire and USB2.0 - but I still need to get the parts to make a small external 5" LCD monitor... all in all, I think it would still be at least $800CDN to do.. and for that, I'd rather have an iPod, my 6 disc changer is enough music for at home.

 

[kelly]

I'm using the PDAC with my PC at work... Sosenthingamajigger. Just email aos for the real name of the thing and how to buy it. It's a portable dac and headphone amp in one small enclosure--if you have a digital output on your soundcard, 'tis not a bad way to go.

 

[lan]

The AP24/96 analogue output is worst than Revo's so I wouldn't use it. It's much greater difference than their digital out. I have these 2 cards.

The C3 would be fine doing playing but if you wanted to use any sort of DSP (crossfeed, EQ, upsampling) on top of that, I don't know if it'll be fast enough. A regular socket is better just for upgrading purposes.

About the harddrive, get 2 and run them in RAID1. It would suck to lose all your songs and rerip them again.

 

[pikawel]

Quote:

Originally posted by lan The C3 would be fine doing playing but if you wanted to use any sort of DSP (crossfeed, EQ, upsampling) on top of that, I don't know if it'll be fast enough. A regular socket is better just for upgrading purposes.

I'm planning on using this box as the source in a real deal system, not just trying to make a computer that happens to excel in audio. Any EQ / Crossfeed / DAC addition will be like a normal headphone setup only without a CD player as the source.

However, that doesn't mean that I'm going to use that integrated CPU motherboard, heh. Do they have any mini-mobo's that have the PCI slots on a perpendicular PCB extention so that an added PCI card will lie parallel to the mobo?

 

[Textual Intercou]

Quote:

Originally posted by minya That's kind of pointless. I mean, it's a neat idea, yeah, but how would you operate it? You'd still have to have a monitor and a mouse and keyboard... which is still clumsy and ruins the point of having a small, compact computer system. What would be cool is if they sold cases with little LCD monitors embedded and you could somehow program software that would rip/encode/play audio files all at once. In effect, a one-box hard-disk-based transport system. Uhmm... but that sounds a little tough... - Chris

not true at all, you could control it from a handheld over the network. that way, all you'd have to hook up is power, a network cable (if no wireless, which you'd have to have anyway for the handheld), and whatever you were doing for sound.

if I had the money I'd be tempted...

 

[pikawel]

I'd have it output to the TV on some line that I could switch to whenever I needed to view it... that's a potential idea, anyway.