[rx7mark]

Yes another new head.fi member here. Love this forum group, and the great knowledge base here.

I currently have an IPOD based portible rig, and now want to put together my first Mid Fi home system. I just purchased Denon AH-D2000's

. My other cans are in my signature.

I also am pretty sure that I will be ordering a Audio-GD Compass before the initial promotional price expires, after following the mega thread on its development. So that will take care of DAC and amp for a while.

But I need a new source. The family Dell laptop is shared and I have too little access to it for music. So I need a dedicated source and would prefer something to store my enitre music collection in lossless format. I do have a 250 gb external hard drive already that is available for this purpose.

I have been thinking about an Intel MAC mini, due to the optical output, 24/192support, fairly cheap used prices, and the ability to remotely control it with a IPOD touch using the remote app if I use ITunes. I am assuming that I would not even need a keyboard or screen once I have it properly set up.

I also have another Dell laptop that is 6-8 years old but still functional, stock Dell sound card, but no WI-FI. It is unused at this time, and was going to go on E-bay soon, but its not worth alot. This was not a hi-end laptop at the time it was purchased for one of my daughters, and I do not remember the specs, but can look them up when I get home tonight, if this is a option.

So what I was hoping for is some advise from folks that have done this before. I need this to be fairly compact as it will be located in a bedroom.

Options:
1) Use the old Dell with my external hard drive. Scrub the hard drive and load a new operating system and music related software, and do whatever other upgrades might be recommended. I assume I would want to get a new sound card, but I could just use USB output straight to the Compass instead.

2) Buy a Used Intel Mac Mini and use the optical output as described above.

3) Buy a more up to date laptop, not sure what would be best here, but there are some great deals out there right now. What should I be looking for for a dedicated music source?

4) Some other type of media storage device that can be hooked up to the Compass, I've seen some mentioned but they all seem to have faily small hard drive space.

So if you were doing your system from scratch, and incorporating what you have learned over the years of head-fi, what would be your recomendations to this obvious nooby.

Thanks in advance for all advice and recommendations.

Mark

 

[Moontan13]

I'd say to get an outboard USB sound card, and USB hard drive.

 

[edselfordfong]

Do you anticipate using more than the 250 gig for your collection? Personally, I hate external HDs - all the cables and dust and what not, so I'd like a computer with enough space to add internal drives.

I brought up a linux box in the other forum. Does that interest you at all? The old laptop would probably work with linux. Linux is outstanding for breathing life into old equipment, especially since you won't be fooling around w wifi. The soundcard is irrelevant because you'll be bypassing it anyway with the compass.

I haven't seen anything that indicates the optical out is better than USB. Seems like there are too many variables to say definitively which is better. I wouldn't let that be a deciding factor.

But if you're committed to a headless setup and remote control with the touch, the mini Mac sounds like the way to go. However, if you acquire a huge collection of music, you might want to have a full screen to navigate through it all.

If it were me, I'd set up the old lappy with linux, since you have it already. If you like that, you could move up to a small linux box -- maybe get one of those bare bones shuttle pcs, or an old desktop. If you hate it, get the mac.

 

[rx7mark]

Edselfordfong,
Yes I think the 250gb external would do for a while, though it already has about 100gb of backup files, music, and pictures on it. Plus I have the laptop hard drive that I think is 80 gb.

I like the idea of recycling this old laptop, using Linux, but I have never tired it. So this looks like a perfect oportunity to learn. And like you said if I don't like it I won't have much invested and can always change directions.

So what music software do you use and recommend for Linux. You mentioned ubuntu and that looks great. Will I need anything else to rip and play FLAC files?

Mark

 

[edselfordfong]

Just saw your PM, decided to answer here in case its useful to anyone else.

Linux is, for practical purposes, an alternative operating system to Windows or Mac. There are hundreds of variations, of which ubuntu is probably the most common and therefore easiest to start with. It can be installed on most computers, mac or PC, though occasionally you run into problems with drivers, like video or wifi. (that wouldn't be an issue with the compass though, since it won't require a driver. BTW, I want to emphasize that the with the Compass, or any other external DAC, you don't need to worry about the soundcard.)

It has a (not-entirely undeserved) reputation as having a high learning curve. However, you'll just be using it only as a music server, so it'd be pretty easy to set up. It only gets hard when you want to completely replace your windows or mac experience, or do otherwise complicated computer stuff.

One of its advantages is, as I said, it's very good on older equipment. You don't need that much computer power for a music server (which is why I would also say that you don't need a new laptop), so you can use an older machine with linux. Dells actually work pretty well because they don't use particularly obscure hardware. Another advantage is that its free software.

Of course, there are numerous actual media player programs that you can use with linux. that seems to be a particular strength of linux. I've recently found that there are many, many programs out there, and have been playing around with them.

From what I've read the sound out of linux is pretty much optimal, as least compared to windows. Macs have the optical output, but I've never read that they have better sound than linux.

I actually have 2 external dacs set up on my linux box. (don't ask) I have it set up so my standard computer sounds run through the sound card, while different media player programs output to the different DACs according to my specification.

does that help?

 

[edselfordfong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rx7mark /img/forum/go_quote.gif Edselfordfong, Yes I think the 250gb external would do for a while, though it already has about 100gb of backup files, music, and pictures on it. Plus I have the laptop hard drive that I think is 80 gb. I like the idea of recycling this old laptop, using Linux, but I have never tired it. So this looks like a perfect oportunity to learn. And like you said if I don't like it I won't have much invested and can always change directions. So what music software do you use and recommend for Linux. You mentioned ubuntu and that looks great. Will I need anything else to rip and play FLAC files? Mark

we seem to be writing at the same time.

I'm actually still experimenting with music programs. Right now, I like jajuk for my big library. I put toddler music on rhythmbox which is pretty simple, and mother isn't intimidated by lots of features. I also like Songbird. Amarok 2 looks promising, but I'm not totally happy with it. There are a lot of other lightweight programs, too.

Also, most all of these will work with your iPod, so that's not a concern.

There are linux rippers as well, of course. I actually use EAC, which is a windows program. That's the gold standard of rippers, and it can be used with Ubuntu quite easily. There are some new linux rippers that are supposed to be up there with EAC, but I'm happy enough with what I've got.

 

[rx7mark]

Ubuntu sounds like a good start then. I'll do some research on Media players for Linux to see what looks the best.

I am going to have to con my daughter out of her old laptop, she has a brand new one, so this should be easy.

If anyone has a favorite Linux media player or other Linux software for music lets here about it.

Edselfordfong,
Thanks you very much for getting me started in this direction. Its folks like you that make this forum so great. I'll let you know how this goes, as I get it setup and tested over the next couple of days.

Mark

 

[edselfordfong]

well, I hope it works out for you. Let me know if you have any questions. I would also google some variation on "things do do after installing Ubuntu". There are a number of little tweaks you should make. They'll tell you how to install some of the basic media playback stuff, which isn't included for arcane reasons. Since you're using an old machine, I wouldn't try the eyecandy stuff (which, BTW, is way more advanced than windows or Mac).

BTW, I'm sure it's possible to set up the iPod touch as an RC with ubuntu. of all the operating systems, Linux offers the most flexibility for things like that. However, that falls into the category of "steep learning curve" that I mentioned before.

Generally, starting off with ubuntu, the best thing to do is keep it simple. You'll encounter people saying "I do this and I do that", and you get to thinking about it too, but then you spend forever in front of the computer trying to figure it out. (For example, I've never bothered to figure out how to make my music collection available to myself remotely over the internet.)

Is your daughter old enough/inclined to provide tech support? I can't wait for my son to scornfully solve my computer issues. I plan to get him started by giving him my compass. in about ten years.

 

[mow_the_hawk]

For playing music on linux, I am a big fan of Songbird. For ripping, I really like Grip.

 

[rx7mark]

Quote:

Originally Posted by edselfordfong /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is your daughter old enough/inclined to provide tech support? I can't wait for my son to scornfully solve my computer issues. I plan to get him started by giving him my compass. in about ten years.

Yes she is old enough, but not that into computers, if I ever wanted to know about texting or face pages or my spaces, then she'd be all over it.

I don't think she has ever heard of Linux! She would probably think it was a band or cartoon character.

Mow the Hawk,
Great name by the way. Thanks for the sugestions, I'll look into Song Bird and Grip.

Mark