Turn your computer into a music machine

[apcarandang]

Wouldn't an outboard USB DAC be more cost effective?

APC
S & V Moderator

[IrritateGuy]

Wouldn't an outboard USB DAC be more cost effective?

APC
S & V Moderator

If you have a receiver or preamp with digital inputs, why would one bother purchasing yet another DAC just for the PC. For music, all you need is to move the data in S/PDIF format from the PC to the Receiver/Preamp without any alteration to the stream. There are $20 sound cards which do that perfectly.

However, if you need analog outputs and you do NOT have a receiver or preamp in the mix, then a good professional sound card is massively superior to ALL of the POS gaming sound cards on the market, especially those Creative Labs toys.

The M-Audio Transit I mentioned has a great DAC in it, and I doubt most would hear a difference between it and a $5,000 Benchmark DAC or custom Tube DAC. However, if you have a near perfect audi system at home whcih doesn't already have a good DAC in the preamp (is that possible), then a better USB or Firwire DAC from someone like Focusrite, Digital Labs, or similar (about $400 to $500) is the way to go.

I cannot imagine anyone being able to justify spending more than $1,000 for a PC connected DAC regardless of the quality of the system it is attached to if the source content is redbook CD quality. Since there is no way to "rip" high-resolution audio to a PC for subsequent playback, those high end DACs are pretty pointless.

[malsackj]

I found a nice usb the Roadie from Turtle beach it supports 5.1 output with a optical input and output. I keep this with my laptop and carry my M-Audio Quattro for the 4 channel work.

[apcarandang]

Do PC laptops have optical ouputs like Macbooks?

I use a mini optical cable to a regular optical cable on my MBP.

A few years ago JVC came out with receivers that will take USB audio too.

APC
S & V Moderator

[IrritateGuy]

Do PC laptops have optical ouputs like Macbooks?

I use a mini optical cable to a regular optical cable on my MBP.

A few years ago JVC came out with receivers that will take USB audio too.

APC
S & V Moderator

Most PC Notebooks do not have optical digital audio outputs, a few do. Many docking stations, however, come with some sort of S/PDIF output and multiple monitor outs. My Dell M1330 notebook PC has an HDMI output which supports audio. While I haven't attempted to use it, I've heard from others it works well.

[apcarandang]

Thanks IG,

I just checked my school laptop docking station and it has a S/PDIF coaxial output. Time to get a cable long enough to get to my receiver on the other side of my classroom

APC
S & V Moderator

[Haywood]

Since I don't have an actual PC in my home theater, I use streaming technology. Some people may be able to tell the difference between a Red Book CD and WMA Lossless streamed to a Squeezebox, but I certainly can't. Now that I've got the right codec pack and configuration, I don't think I could distinguish between audio streamed to my PS3 and a Red Book CD anymore (WMA Lossless transcoded to uncompressed PCM). With all of these technologies available and on-board Toslink or Digital Coax on most motherboards, I see little point in blowing big money on sound cards for music playback. The only expensive sound card I would personally pay for is the ASUS card that supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master over HDMI and I would only do that if I had an actual HTPC.

[Razz1234]

Haywood,
I'm thinking about buying the "Apple Airport Express". I want to load all my music in itunes lossless on my work room PC, then send it wirelessly to the Airport Express which is plugged into my HT via an optical cable. The signal is kept digital so my pre/pro will do all the converting. This way all my music is now lossless and organized with itunes. Now I can access it with an iTouch or iPhone using the free remote control program.

Basically I'll have lossess itunes coming out of my HT wirelessly on an iTouch.

Is that similar to what you are doing?

[Razz1234]

oh I forgot to add.....

HOW FREAKIN SWEET IS THAT???????????????

[Haywood]

Haywood,
I'm thinking about buying the "Apple Airport Express". I want to load all my music in itunes lossless on my work room PC, then send it wirelessly to the Airport Express which is plugged into my HT via an optical cable. The signal is kept digital so my pre/pro will do all the converting. This way all my music is now lossless and organized with itunes. Now I can access it with an iTouch or iPhone using the free remote control program.

Basically I'll have lossess itunes coming out of my HT wirelessly on an iTouch.

Is that similar to what you are doing?

My music is all ripped to Windows Media Audio Lossless, so no Apple for me. On the rare occassions when I buy music thru iTunes, I burn it to disc and then rip the disc to WMA Lossless. That gets rid of the DRM. There are three lossless codecs and they all work about equally well: Apple Lossless, WMA Lossless and FLAC.

I use a Logitech Squeezebox in my main system to listen to music. There is a server component called Squeeze Center loaded on my PC that runs in the background. It can service up to about a dozen Squeezebox devices. I can control and synchonize all of the Squeezeboxes on my network from a web interface anywhere on my network or I can control each individual device with an IR remote. I can navigate my entire music library, as well as a large selection of internet radio and subscription music services directly from the device remote. It is very intuitive.

I also stream music to a pair of PS3s using UPnP/DLNA server software called TVersity. TVersity is great, because it works with the PS3, XBox 360 and a variety of other UPnP devices. Linksys now makes UPnP music clients that work in a similar manner to the Squeezebox. I believe the Roku devices are also UPnP compliant. The main advantage is that a ton of different devices from different manufacturers can all talk to the same server software via common standards.

Squeeze Center transcodes Apple Lossless and WMA Lossless to FLAC. TVersity transcodes Apple Lossless, WMA Lossless and FLAC to uncompressed PCM. The results are about the same. You get CD quality either way.