[arnesto]

I am planning on getting a DAC with a USB input. Either the Benchmark DAC1 or Wyred4Sound DAC 2.
 
I already have headphones too, but my question is about what type of computer should I buy to use it as a source for music.
 
My plan is to copy all my CDs to an external hard drive and use the computer to play my music. I will only use it for headphones.
 
Question #1. If I buy a pre-configure laptop with Windows 7, will Windows 7 have the software for me to play my CDs. I am hoping it has media player that will be able to play MP3 and WAV music files.
 
Question #2. I noticed when I play it on my current older computer, there are frequent breaks or pauses in the music because my computer is buffering the data and slows down and pauses. Will I have the same problem with my new computer?
 
Question #3. I have seen many new laptops going on sale for around $600-$700 either at Bestbuys, Costco, or Dell. Are these laptops good enough for what I plan to use it for, which is primarily a replacement of my CD player.
 
Question #4. Is there anything else that I need like jukebox software, or special type of sound card in my laptop beside the stock soundcard.
 
Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[kboe]

A MacMini or MacBook is just what you need.  If you need to keep the price below $700.00 then the MacMini is the best choice you can make.  It will sound better than any PC playing over any software. 

 

[Ham Sandwich]

A Mac is an option.  A Windows PC can also do music well.  Use a media player like Foobar2000 or J River Media Center.  Foobar is free while J River Media Center is $50.  Both are proper "audiophile" media players.
 
Most laptops will be able to play glitch free audio over USB to something like the Benchmark.  A few though are just evil and have crappy drivers or configs that won't let you do audio properly.  One option is to ask others that are using a laptop and are happy with its audio over USB performance and then get the exact same laptop.  But most modern laptops should do fine for audio.  There are some basic tweaks you can do to improve audio performance.  Things like disabling the automatic file indexing that Vista/Win7 likes to do, optimizing the processor scheduling, disabling unnecessary services and drivers, etc. 

 

[Roseval]

 
There are a lot of high quality USB DAC’s today.
You’re best bet is probably one supporting asynchronous USB.
http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HW/USB_DAC.htm
 
Win comes standard with WMP, Windows Media Player.
Not bad as a starter.
However, the best audio driver in Win is imho WASAPI.
You need a player supporting this interface like J River
http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/MC14/MC14_intro.htm
 
Playing audio is not very demanding, a CD is 650 Mb in 1 hour.
Even entry level laptops are capable of it.
 
You don’t need a sound card as the USB DAC is your sound card.
 

 

[Gradoman]

rofl copter.
 
anyway you don't need much, something like a MATX or Shuttle computer, with a dedicated sound with quality SPDIF output. Winamp or Foobar with ASIO/WSASPI plugin. Or you could just use a squeezebox. Far better than computer- has a screen, and slimserver software is really powerful
 
Quote:

A MacMini or MacBook is just what you need.  If you need to keep the price below $700.00 then the MacMini is the best choice you can make.  It will sound better than any PC playing over any software. 

 

[beepbeep]

all you need is a really good sound card and thats all..even if you do not have that a amplifier would be good enough...

 

[Gradoman]

any gaming soundcards that zero background noise? With X-Fi get whining/buzzing noise. Don't want to sidegrade to av amp. for digital audio

 

[arnesto]

Asynchronous, good tip. I guess the solution to prevent the music having intermitted pauses and breaks. Foobar2000 and the J River Media Center, are those better than the Window Media Center? I guess that is all I need then? What about USB to SPIF converters, are they only necessary if your DAC doesn't have a USB input?

 

[mark2410]

since you plan to use an external DAC pretty much any old computer will do what you want

 

[joe_cool]

Quote:

since you plan to use an external DAC pretty much any old computer will do what you want

 
That seems correct to me as well. The problem may be getting a quality connection to the DAC. Consider using Linux with MPD if you can have a dedicated PC. If you must use a laptop or notebook PC then you need to study the interfaces available (USB, SPDIF, FireWire, etc.) as many of these computers have poor connectivity in audio terms.
 

 

[RonaldDumsfeld]

 
Quote:

 
Question #1. If I buy a pre-configure laptop with Windows 7, will Windows 7 have the software for me to play my CDs. I am hoping it has media player that will be able to play MP3 and WAV music files.

 
Yes. Windows Media Player will do the job. Many knowledable people prefer foobar2000 which is free, quick and easy to install and has it's own well supported website where you can communicate with the developers direct. There are other alternatives. Choice is based on appearance, facilities and apparent ease of use. They all sound the same with the same settings.
 
 
Quote:

Question #2. I noticed when I play it on my current older computer, there are frequent breaks or pauses in the music because my computer is buffering the data and slows down and pauses. Will I have the same problem with my new computer?

 
No. Not if it's set up right and everything is working correctly. You don't give many details regarding your existing computer but I'm surprised you have such issues. If it is less than 10 years old I would suspect a malfunction or incorrect installation. Moving 2 channel digital audio about is a very trivial task on a modern PC.
 
 
Quote:

Question #3. I have seen many new laptops going on sale for around $600-$700 either at Bestbuys, Costco, or Dell. Are these laptops good enough for what I plan to use it for, which is primarily a replacement of my CD player.

 
Yes. Any Windows or Mac device with a hard disk and optical drive (for ripping) will be more than adequate. In fact the cheaper the better really. The two disadvantages of using a computer like device rather than a dedicated CD player to play audio are noise and speed.
The less power your CPU uses the less heat it will produce. Less heat equals less noisy fans spinning up in the background. The smart move at the moment is a n Intel Atom on a mini ITX board such as the Zotac Ion AB. No CPU, GPU, case or PS fans. In fact no fans at all. Cheap HD drives may become noisy. Buy reputable brands.
There are alternatives but if you plan to use an OS like Windows then you have to wait  while it boots up. Don't install Vista. Macs still boot up a bit faster than Win7 but not so you'd notice much. It's still a hassle.
 
 
Quote:

Question #4. Is there anything else that I need like jukebox software, or special type of sound card in my laptop beside the stock soundcard.

 
No. Not really but you will soon software that is useful. foobar has been mentioned and will rip CDs. Some people prefer ExactAudioCopy (EAC) and AccurareRip which is more complicated. Audacity is a good for recording. BeatPort Sync will blend your playlists together. Anything you can think of actually exists. The best free options are always at least as good as the paid for alternatives.
No. Since you already said you are considering an external audio interface you are best advised to disable the on board sound altogether and use USB 2.0 (or Firewire) as data transport.
 
Since you have not yet made a final decision as regards the audio interface I would suggest you consider alternatives offered by companies who specialise in serving the pro-am audio community. The advantage lies mainly in the software. Writing drivers and the like isn't a core competency of Audiophile companies so they tend to use only standard OS offerings for data transfer and use less sophisticated DAC chips which do not require any programming support. Companies like RME, Focusrite, MOTU, TC-Konnect, Presonus, etc have a long history of dealing with digital audio for a demanding professional user base. The savings are also considerable. The benchmark DAC USB is a fine product but look what you can get for less money.
 
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_fireface_uc.php
 
or even much cheaper.
 
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_babyface.php
 
 

 

[Ham Sandwich]

Quote:

Asynchronous, good tip. I guess the solution to prevent the music having intermitted pauses and breaks. Foobar2000 and the J River Media Center, are those better than the Window Media Center? I guess that is all I need then? What about USB to SPIF converters, are they only necessary if your DAC doesn't have a USB input?

The asynchronous vs. adaptive USB is about jitter and jitter reduction methods, not about what may cause intermittent gaps or glitches in the audio.  There is a current thread going on about the adaptive vs asynchronous and jitter.  It's all about gnat wings.  What's more important is if the DAC itself is implemented well, not so much in the methods chosen to implement it.  The ends is more important than the means.
 
The glitches you get in audio are likely caused by DPC latency problems.  The link there explains it and has a tool to allow you to measure your DPC latency.  Run that tool on the laptop that is giving you glitchy audio and you've likely got some very high DPC latency spikes going on.  Those spikes can disrupt audio.  The computer can only process one DPC request at a time.  If a driver gets greedy and hogs its turn at the CPU it will cause a high latency spike.  That can (and often will) disrupt the audio since the audio driver will run out of data while it is waiting for its turn in the DPC queue, when the audio driver runs out of data you'll get a glitch.
 
A common suspect for high DPC latency is the wireless network driver.  Try disabling the wireless and see if the DPC latency gets better and the audio glitches go away.  Updating to the latest driver for your wireless may help (or going to an older driver version).  Some laptops (and desktops) have more of a problem with DPC latency than others.
 
Any computer that is going to be used for dedicated audio should get some optimizations and reconfigs to minimize the DPC latency as much as possible.  Things like disabling unnecessary services, disabling unnecessary hardware devices (do you need that web cam on an audio PC?), using a wired network connecting instead of wireless, etc.

 

[AirForceTeacher]

Quote:

A MacMini or MacBook is just what you need.  If you need to keep the price below $700.00 then the MacMini is the best choice you can make.  It will sound better than any PC playing over any software. 

 
I kind of have to take exception to this.  I own a Macbook and love it.  However, I discovered something interesting this year. If I had speakers connected to the headphone jack (1/8"), everything sounded pretty good playing through iTunes.  But, if I booted up my Windows 7 virtual machine and played the same song, through the same headphone jack and speakers, the clarity was amazing.  I absolutely couldn't believe it, and my "Mac is always better for music" bias was deeply offended.  But when I matched lvolume evels exactly, and played the same song through both, A/B/A/B/A, it always sounded better coming from Windows.  Digging deeper I found that OS/X has some kind of headphone profile that took over the sound when something was plugged into the headphone jack, and I couldn't find anywhere to turn it off.
 
Now, if you're using digital out from either you should see this problem at all, and truthfully, Windows and Mac audio should sound identical.  Buy the one that fits your budget and your aesthetics and has the audio playback software you most prefer.

 

[DannyBuoy]

Timely thread for me as I am struggling with computer noise right now and have started looking into building a music server with no moving parts.
 
There are several versions of the Zotac Ion Mini ITX and unfortunately none of them have a regular PCI slot they are all PCIe.
 
I have a HT Omega Claro Sound card which is PCI so I am looking for a solution that will be fanless, no moving parts and allow me to use my soundcard, but the reality is, I may have to go to something else.
 
Currently I have Optical out from the Claro to a DacWow into a WooAudio6SE (to D7000s) and I hear digital artifacts when signal present or not. I know it is coming from the PC, as I also have a TT hooked up to the WA6 via an RSA F117 ighthawk (Battery Phono Stage) and with the DacWow connected, I hear the digital noise when switched to PC or to TT, but when I disconnect the DacWow the background goes very quiet (a slight hiss from the MC cart but 1/100th of the noise with DacWow connected).
 
I also ordered an Audio-GD NFB-2 today and I plan to sell the DacWow and this just puts more stress on the issue of a noisy PC. I am running Win7 32Bit with minimum services, no wireless, indexing or BITS running and I use JRiver Media Center to S/Pdif out. So, I know the Windows chain is as good as I am going to get for now, but the digital clicking, hissing, and rhythmic clicking is just driving me nuts.
 
I may have to DIY the fanless, no moving parts PC though as retail versions of this type of PC seem to be $700 - $1,200 and I think I can do it myself for around $500. I do not care about video quality, or other fetaures that much but having an SSD is paramount to me pulling off the "no moving parts" goal. I may have to write a little .Net app that will allow me to migrate music from a network storage device (no physically connected to the music server at all, so that I can queue up music onto the 64 GB SSD for JRiver to play. Since I go through musical phases, queing up 20 GB of music per week in some kind of rotaion against my 300GB digital music content should not be too bad.
 
I am surprised I could not find a product that was doing this already. No fans, no spinning disks, nothing moves. All passive cooling and storage.

 

[JRG1990]

No fans and spinning disks = A netbook with a ssd drive , or a water cooled laptop or desktop with a ssd drive.
 
Even having a laptop with a 7200rpm disk and a noisy little fan it's never given me problems, i have a hp pavilion DV7 3112sa laptop and a fiio E7 and a well shielded usb cable from lindy , with my 150ohm sennhesier pxc450 no noise at max volume complete silence, with my 12ohm soundmagics at max volume on the E7 i could hear a faint hum which turned out to be the fiio's oled screen as soon as the screen switched off silence and these 12ohm buds are mega sensitive and pick up everything yet no digital noise. So a hp dv7 3112sa laptop , Fiio E7 with it's screen switched off , and well sheilded lindy usb cable , there is 0 digital noise.