[JimSmiley]

I'm considering buying a new laptop for the home and use as a music server.
What are some of the features I should consider? I'll be getting a DAC based on what I choose. Looking for any advice or recommendations.

TIA

 

[crappyjones123]

i think the choice of dac might dictate what kind of laptop you should get. some only come with coaxial and spdif inputs, others with usb only and some with both. so once you have decided which dac you will get, just look for a cheap laptop that can feed it with a big hard drive.

just for everyday usage (music, internet, school work, movies) (no games) ive found the cheapest laptop one can get to be the best. most big companies overcharge for ram and hard drives which can be purchased from online resellers like newegg for much cheaper and the new hardware performs much better than the oem crap that manufacturers ship their rigs with. for instance, 1 year ago a 5400rpm 60 gb harddrive from ibm was the same price as a 7200 rpm 120gb drive from newegg. so you be the judge.

with memorial day coming up, there should be quite a few sales

 

[cconnaker]

All Macs have built-in SPDIF and bit perfect output through iTunes.

 

[JimSmiley]

Thanks for the responses guys. I guess my real question is:

Do any laptops (besides Macs) have spdif (is this the same as optical?) or coax digital out?
I saw someone had a dock that connected via usb and gave spdif digital out.

Does the inclusion of a dock in the signal path make the data more susceptible to jitter etc. Or is this handled by the DAC.

What is the optimal path from the laptop to the DAC? Spdif? usb? coax?

Is it all the same?

Do I need to do more background reading? links?

TIA

 

[Dodeca]

If you're chasing sound quality on any computer, be it a laptop or desktop, you should really be thinking about putting in a top notch audio interface. The integrated sound supplied as stock in most units is just average.

The dock you saw was probably a USB/firewire audio interface. Also available are cardbus and expresscard options. It all depends on what you want to spend. E-MU, M-Audio, and MOTU all have reasonable solutions.

_______________

Dell Precision M4300 // 2gb, 2.4ghz dual core // Live 7, Sonar 7

E-MU 1616m // Yamaha MW12 // KRK Rokit V6 + RP10

 

[trekker140]

Any of the smaller sony Vaio laptops would do you well, espcially the newer ones. Mine has the newer dual core processor and still has a standard cardbus slot.

 

[royewest]

Some ThinkPad docks have a coax SPDIF port....

 

[ccfoodog]

Some laptops have an SPDIF output, but most probably will not.

Theoretically, the bits transferred from the computer to the DAC are the same whether they are carried via USB or coax SPDIF or optical SPDIF.

That said, I think optical SPDIF is optimal because there is no electrical conductor, thus eliminating the possibility of electrical interference, RF interference, ground loops, etc.

But.... USB is probably the most practical because unless you select a laptop specifically with an optical SPDIF, most likely it will not have one. And, just because you can have issues with an electrical conductor doesn't mean you will.

In general, I think a DAC with both USB and optical SPDIF is the way to go. Something like the Zero DAC if you don't need portable, something like the iBasso D1 or the HeadRoom Micro DAC if you need something portable.

-john


EDIT: While I know you were looking for a laptop, note that it isn't hard to find optical SPDIF on desktop computers.

 

[Zathan]

You could try an EMU USB soundcard first and decide if it suits your taste. Ebay is your friend

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

My Dell Vostro has SPDIF out but you need a special cable for it.

Btw, I would simply get the cheapest laptop possible, get a cheap USB to SPDIF or USB to optical solution and use that to feed a DAC.

Or get a decent USB dac, there are some really good ones in the market now. So laptop with built in SPDIF shouldnt really be the criteria for deciding on one.

 

[saintalfonzo]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I've heard that output through usb 2.0 is better than optical out since you can bypass the internal sound card and any inherent interference from within the laptop. I have both types of outputs on my Sager 9262 and have been looking at switching from using the optical output => Zero dac to using the usb interface => Emu 0404. There is so much contradicting information on the subject that it is hard to decide which is better.

 

[cconnaker]

There is not a black & white answer to which is better USB or Optical. It all depends on each manufacturer's implementation of the interface. Some USB DACs are much better than SPDIF and vice-versa. You just have to listen to each one in your system to determine what sounds best to you.

 

[saintalfonzo]

well it's going to cost $200 to find out if the emu 0404 is better. if it helps, the card in this thing is realtek. It sounds good going into the digital input on my yamaha receiver, but I heard a little "popping" through my mkV and K701s. I only use FLACs coming off an external HD, but maybe some were just bad rips?

 

[GordonFreeman]

Large storage capacity, maybe if you can find one with optical out, good price. Also I would recommend between 2 and 4 gigs of memory, but if you find a great deal on a unit with 1 gig then you can upgrade the ram yourself.