[sleepkyng]

Hey all, since alotta noobs seem to be doorm rats like myself seem to have powerbooks or ibooks, i thought i'd post my experience getting my laptop audio setup.

my rig is

200 gig seagate (enclosed in a craptastic firewire drive) containing
apple lossless, 320 aac - about 6000 files ->

aluminum powerbook g4 12inch, 867mhz, 640 ram, 60 gig ->

airport extreme ->airport express ->

melos sha 1 ->
HD 600's or [teac tripath -> totem rokks]


I started out with just the powerbook, and some 192 aac files on my internal hard drive, seeking a line out or something bitperfect i ended up with an m-audio sonica which seemed fine but became sketchy and never had the sound i wanted.

the airport express offered too many good things in one package for me to pass up. It gives me a wireless hub, allows me to play music wirelessly, and offers bitperfect sound. The optical out is something i plan on using when i get enough money for a decent outboard dac.

the seagate harddrives are considered some of the best, because they are relatively quiet and offer a 5 year warranty (on the ones that i looked at).

when planning a solid laptop setup, try to think of what music you listen to, how you like to listen to it and how often. I've found that i really only use my cans when i'm critically listening to classical and jazz. Most of the time, i like to blast music through my speakers (my dorm is a 24hr loud house). Maybe you don't need an outboard dac, if all you are listening to are 192 aac files. I happen to enjoy the sound coming from my airport express crappy dac and for most music it is great.

just some thoughts, hope this helps,

 

[dshea_32665]

Hey sleepkyng, do you notice a big difference between the sonica and the airport express (although I see you aren't running an external DAC like I am)? I have the extreme soundcard in my powerbook. Do you need anything but the express unit to get this running or do you have to have an airport hub? Ever since somebody on Audiogon posted that there are problems with the M-Audio Transit for passing through a digital signal to an external DAC, I have been thinking about upgrading this part of my setup. I am not sure their would be that noticeable of a difference since I am not using the DAC inside the Transit.

Also, thanks for the rec on the external hard drive. I have maxed out my powerbook drive so I need to buy a hard drive.

Good tips.

dshea

 

[kaxixi]

I have a similar setup (you don't need to own a mac to use iTunes and the Airport Express). Wondering which DAC you were planning on using with the AE? Thanks,

erez

 

[sleepkyng]

Dshea-
airport express is way less bright (i was using the line out on the sonica) and i think tyrion said that he had no problem with the sound using the optical out to his dac.
the airport express acts as a hub, you don't even need an ethernet connection if you just want to stream music to your system.
so as long as you have a wireless card in your laptop or computer you're good to go.
FWIW, a dac will always help clean up and better the signal. it seems as if you're saying you use the line out on your transit, and i'd say that the line out is not as good as the optical to dac mode (ime)
make sure your hard drive case accomodates the size of the harddrive.
i got a 3.5 inch hard drive case, but it's not 48 bit, so my 200 gig only reads 137 gigs (sucks!)

Kaxixi- i'm looking at channel island, scott nixon tube, and maybe if i some money falls from the sky, a benchmark.
there are sources on headfi who know far more about dacs than i, check out the dedicated source forum. lotsa geezers with tons of money who know way too much