[uzziah]

i have an ibook g3 processor 500mhz. can i use this to make a serious audio setup, or should i sell it an build a pc? i can only afford one computer, and need it to do audio as well as my basic computer functions. i would need an external hd if i was to store all my audio in a lossless format.

 

[uzziah]

oh yeah, budget's around $500. that excludes headphones.

 

[drminky]

An ibook makes an excellent source. Probably even better than my powerbook for one very good reason - no fans. The thing runs beautifully quiet, as you know, and this is a must for an audio source. iTunes is a perfectly capable player, and infinitely more powerful and elegant than a cd changer.

So what should you do with your $500? ..Depends I guess on whether this source is to be for a portable setup, headphone only, or for a speaker system as well.

At one extreme, for a portable headphone-only setup, I would look for a battery-powered usb dac with headamp all included (total bithead or similar), and spend the rest on in internal/external hard disk size upgrade.

At the other, if it were to be a home system, I would spend the bulk on that getting the best DAC you can, which probably means going second hand. You can either go separates or integrated. The separate route will be more difficult to squeeze into $500. It could be something like an ack dack or a scott nixon (these 2 are non-oversampling so redbook only though - no dvd!). You would then have to get a usb-spdif or usb-toslink adapter (these can be had quite cheap), and a headamp (assuming you dont want to or can't run straight from line-out to headphone)

Or you could find an integrated one with a headamp included like a m-audio audiophile usb or similar. (ie trading final quality for integration and cost).

 

[ixeo]

i doubt a total bithead or m-audio audiophile will turn it into a "powerhouse"
maybe soemthing along the lines of the apogee minidac.. any experienced users willing to shed some light on this?

 

[drminky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ixeo i doubt a total bithead or m-audio audiophile will turn it into a "powerhouse"

sure, I was just trying to point out the general directions in which he could go with $500, rather than specifics at this point.

 

[ixeo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by drminky sure, I was just trying to point out the general directions in which he could go with $500, rather than specifics at this point.

TBH is a POS if you asked me. ofc thats me. it adds background noise, which is something an amp isn't supposed to do. and as a source, if it adds background noise, its crap as well *cough my laptop headphone out choke* not much of an upgrade if you gave me a TBH.

TBH impression #1
TBH impression #2

 

[lan]

The better soundcards (emu) aren't available on Mac and on laptops so a PC desktop is preferable. G3 500mhz is slow to rip CDs into Apple lossless files. It also depends if you can get by with iTunes or need more features of a program like foobar 2000.

 

[dshea_32665]

I am currently using an M-Audio Transit, Piccolo DAC and an SR-71 (formerly I had a portable pimeta).

Just do a search on my name and Piccolo, I have written many impressions recently on my iBook setup. You could do the above setup with a portable pimeta for about $500.

dshea

 

[MichaelFranks]

120 bones for the airport express, enough said. It amazes me that not a single person mentioned this yet! Stream everything wirelessly straight to your amp or DAC, no other mac equipment can offer this power!

If you really want some kind of external soundcard I would recommend the terratec phase 26 usb which has native drivers.

Take your choice from the myriad of external hard drives.

Add on a DAC if you like and spend as much as you want.

Don't buy a PC, you would be nothing but disappointed.

 

[sleepkyng]

airport extreme is bit perfect, tack on a solid dac, send to nice amp - tada

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleepkyng airport extreme is bit perfect, tack on a solid dac, send to nice amp - tada

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelFranks 120 bones for the airport express, enough said. It amazes me that not a single person mentioned this yet!

Come on guys he has a G3 500mhz ibook. He can't run the latest itunes without OSX and OSX on that machine would be crazy slow. It would be best if he got a new computer of some type.

 

[MichaelFranks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan The better soundcards (emu) aren't available on Mac and on laptops so a PC desktop is preferable. G3 500mhz is slow to rip CDs into Apple lossless files. It also depends if you can get by with iTunes or need more features of a program like foobar 2000.

the processor is not the bottleneck for ripping cd's.

the 500mhz ibook will work fine with itunes, and with osx IF he has enough memory (128MB+).

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelFranks the processor is not the bottleneck for ripping cd's. the 500mhz ibook will work fine with itunes, and with osx IF he has enough memory (128MB+).

I'm not saying it won't work but it'll be slow for an everyday PC. G3 has no altivec acceleration. The graphics chip on that laptop does no quartz extreme acceleration for the gradphis. The CPU will be handling more tasks.

I have a G4 450mhz, ATI 8500 video card, and 10,000rpm SCSI drive. I can't imagine somebody using a slower version of this as a regular PC doing their word processing, email, etc. while ripping. I used to have the old Rage 128, it was unbearable as I'd have to watch the screen scroll and change.

If he doesn't have OSX and enough RAM already, then that's a deal breaker. You'd have to spend about $200 to upgrade those and it's not worth it in my opinion for that machine.

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan The better soundcards (emu) aren't available on Mac and on laptops so a PC desktop is preferable. G3 500mhz is slow to rip CDs into Apple lossless files. It also depends if you can get by with iTunes or need more features of a program like foobar 2000.

slow! no freaking kidding!!!!!! i just ripped my entire collection
S N O R E.....

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan Come on guys he has a G3 500mhz ibook. He can't run the latest itunes without OSX and OSX on that machine would be crazy slow. It would be best if he got a new computer of some type.

i'm running osx panther 12.4
i have 320mb ram