The ultimate invisible, quite and convenient computer based audio setup

[Fresh]

Greetings CA forum

 

My name is Peter and I am a 23 year old engineering student from Denmark with a great passion for audio.

 

I have passed by this site for articles several times, but now I need some active help from what I hope are the experts of computer audio..

 

See I am on a mission to build the ultimate computer based stereo audio setup for my living room. I am about to kill the physical medias and use a computer based system to replace the CD, DVD and BR player!

 

So far in the project I have (re)build two active high-end floor standing loudspeakers that is very high performing in regard to the relative small form factor, and I am very happy about them in general. Sound is excellent if using a proper audio source.

 

Now I need to make the playback/preamp function for the speakers. My ultimate and non-compromising goals are:

 

A system that features passive cooling

 

A system that has no need to be viewable/visible

 

A system that don't have any other interface than a tablet PC (iOS or Android preferable)

 

A system that is compact (needs to be built in a piece of furniture but more on that later)

 

A system that can play FLAC audio and at least 720p MKV files (1080p preferable)

 

A system that features a high audio quality (jitter minimizing and HQ DAC)

 

A system that can playback audio files from network storage

 

In the end I am hoping to have a mid- to high-end audio setup that also handles video to my 50" Pana VT30. The setup is as good as invisible besides my active loudspeakers and the tablet pc that remote controls everything.

 

The reason for this is partly that I have a girlfriend that hates my electronic gadgets in the living room (I guess you have heard that story before..) and I like the challenge to make a setup that features high audio quality, high convenience and an "invisible" design.

 

So far I have got a Jetway NF9C motherboard with Cedar Tail 2x1,6GHz Atom CPU @ 1mb L2 cache, OCZ SSD drive, 2Gb DDR3 ram and a Intel N6230 WLAN card. PSU is so far a no name switch mode that is to be upgraded later if the motherboard is good enough.

 

I have installed both Win 7 and Ubuntu as test operative systems with different media players to test functionality and performance.

 

And is I now I would like your inputs on how to configure the PC to get the best possible audio out and achieve my goals! I have tried several things on my own, but I would like to hear your opinions before revealing my test results.

 

Aspects I like to get answers on:

 

How do I control the volume? My amplifier system should not get a higher input voltage than 1,5Vrms

 

Which DAC?

 

Which audio drivers?

 

Which media player software?

 

Any DSP settings?

 

Is it possible to also have other audio inputs to the system like the TV tuner?

 

Other aspects I have not considered?

 

I hope to hear from you computer audio experts!

 

Best regards Peter from Denmark

 

P.S. if I have not posted in the correct forum please move the thread

 

[Rockefoten]

Are you "allowed" some kind of furniture? And, can the speakers be visible?

 

Id try the dynaudio focus 110A. No need for an amp. They have pretty nice white stands too.

 

A dac with pre, Hegel (norsk!), bel canto etc. And the computer..

 

Minimalistic or what?

Furniture could be this one:

http://www.hifiklubben.no/produkter/tilbehor/hi-fitv-mobler/unnu_c21_stoffdor_hvit.htm

 

I the speakers dont fly you could go with another danish design.

http://www.moiz.no/produkter/davone/davone-ray-loudspeaker.html

 

[Fresh]

Thank you for your fast answer, Rockefoten.

 

But i think you have might misunderstood my problem. I already have build a active loudspeaker systems that should out perform Dynaudio Focus 110 by some lenghts. Also the design is much better and the speaker systems are "accepted" by my girlfriend to be in the livingroom. The problem is making the player/DAC/preamplifier function invisible and controlable from a tablet PC while having high audio quality.

 

Best regards Peter

 

[phofman]

Had you not already purchased cedarview which IIRC has no decent video playback accelleration in linux (fullhd, H.264), I would have recommended OpenElec running on some passive nvidia ion miniITX MB. A friend of mine is very satisfied with this solution, operating his setup from android phone running one of the several xbmc android clients. Plus it supports DVB-T/DVB-S too, my friend uses a DVB-S2 PCI tuner in the single PCI slot and DVB-T USB tuner. Running from a USB flash (two partitions - one readonly for the system, another for config and db files such as detected channels, EPG etc). He was pleasantly surprised how fast setting up the whole thing was, but he knows his way around in linux.

 

For audio, some decent asynchronous USB DAC with reasonable latency for video playback. The linux (streamlined ubuntu) underneath can be configured the way you need, including the audio stack.

 

[Fresh]

Yeah, i have noticed the problem with video playback in linux with the new intel based boards. The reason for this selection was to the low profile of the motherboard that is not to find with nVidia based intel atom boards as far as i know.

 

Any other comments on my project. I see some problem with the way to control the volume using the smart phones since there are many ways to do it wrong..

 

[realhifi]

Apple is working right now on an invisibility cloaking for speakers and all equipment. They see the need in todays fashion concious world. Oh, and I belive they said it will be totally silent also!

 

[ccclapp]

...but will only play itunes and mp3s, but that doesn't matter because it will look great :-)

 

[crisnee]

Hi Peter,

 

I think you may find it difficult to get answers that satisfy, because you have so many wants and it's hard to figure out exactly what they are, particularly because you include video.

 

For instance most of the top flight software players do not include video. There are several in your neck of the woods. Holland and Germany/Poland. XXhighend, and Jplay, and I think there's even another own in Holland, but I forget the name.

 

There is one player that does it all, JRiver. It's known more for it's functionality in all areas, it's massive capabilities more so than its SQ. But not everybody agrees about its SQ being slightly inferior to XXHighend and Jplay.

 

All the players are available to demo, so you can try them out.

 

If you want something that truly looks good, and your wife would love and that sounds very good with a proper dac; well, forget the computer and get a Logitech Touch. It does everything a computer does, and it looks pretty and works with a remote. No video though, just audio.

 

-Chris

 

[realhifi]

"...but will only play itunes

 

 

...but will only play itunes and mp3s, but that doesn't matter because it will look great :-)"

 

It won't look like anything! It will be invisible!