Looking for source that uses only Mp3s
Jul 16, 2009 at 11:18 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 13
Jarmel

Jarmel

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I want to use a source to that can connect to my DAC and is solely based around FLAC and ALAC as most of music is that way. It also has to be optical. Any suggestions? Budget is 1000 I guess.
 
Jul 17, 2009 at 8:02 AM Post #2 of 13
Your topic refer to only MP3, while your post refer to FLAC and ALAC. Which one counts?
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Anyway, I would look no further than the Apple MacBook. It fits within your budget, play all the three mentioned audio codecs and have optical S/PDIF out.
 
Jul 17, 2009 at 5:57 PM Post #3 of 13
Which one do you think?
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I already have a MBP and I was wondering if there was something else that had a larger HDD that I could use for lossless that had a real optical out as I believe someone mentioned that the adaptor used for the MBP slightly deteriorates the SQ.
 
Jul 17, 2009 at 6:29 PM Post #4 of 13
Just buy a cheap notebook pc, USB-> optical dongle, sorted. Buy more music with the leftover cash!
 
Jul 17, 2009 at 6:35 PM Post #5 of 13
 
Jul 17, 2009 at 6:43 PM Post #6 of 13
Ok, then I guess MacBook is out of the question.
If you worry about 'that adaptor' used for the MBP then just get a cable with the miniplug, so you do not need to use it.

I guess the ideal may be something like the Olive OPUS Nº4. FLAC support (no Apple Lossless), optical S/PDIF (TOSLINK) out, and storage capacity up to 1TB. Not able to find its price though, so it may be out of your budget.
OLIVE | SAVE THE SOUND. - PRODUCTS - OPUS4 - OVERVIEW
 
Jul 18, 2009 at 3:07 PM Post #8 of 13
What kind of DAC do you have? I wouldn't worry too much about the digital connection and I think the optical out (yes with adapter) of the MacMini is pretty good. Comparing it to an outboard optical/coax thing didn't make adifference. The MacMini would be my suggestion, but seeing you have a macbook you can of course just use that. External drives are cheap and I doubt you'd need more than 1TB
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Jul 18, 2009 at 3:36 PM Post #9 of 13
Quote:

Originally Posted by Jarmel /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I want to use a source to that can connect to my DAC and is solely based around FLAC and ALAC as most of music is that way. It also has to be optical. Any suggestions? Budget is 1000 I guess.


I use a Western Digital HDTV player, you supply the USB hard drive and monitor ( I have a dinky 5" LCD monitor) and it plays FLAC , not ALAC via an optical digital out. Only slight issue is that it is not gapless as of current firmware version. Apparently it also plays some video files.
 
Jul 19, 2009 at 2:56 AM Post #10 of 13
Quote:

Originally Posted by paaj /img/forum/go_quote.gif
What kind of DAC do you have? I wouldn't worry too much about the digital connection and I think the optical out (yes with adapter) of the MacMini is pretty good. Comparing it to an outboard optical/coax thing didn't make adifference. The MacMini would be my suggestion, but seeing you have a macbook you can of course just use that. External drives are cheap and I doubt you'd need more than 1TB
wink.gif



Current DAC I have is a Stellos Signature but I have a GNSC modded Wadia 27 on the way.
 
Jul 19, 2009 at 3:43 PM Post #11 of 13
Quote:

Originally Posted by IPodPJ /img/forum/go_quote.gif
No way. Every implementation of USB I've heard is poor compared to S/PDIF.


My tests of a WAV file ->Opt. Out> Opt. In, and WAV file ->USB/Opt. Out -> Opt. in resulted in identical WAV files recorded by Opt. In (opt. in was on a second pc) i did this as i'd heard that USB/Opt. wasn't supposed to be bit perfect , but the resultd indicated that they are.
 
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