Noob's Proposal For New System - A Request For Assesment & Wisdom

[bluesman]

As both my hardware and my ears are a decade+ older than yours, I recommend that you stick with your current audio hardware (checked and cured of any of the ravages of time, of course) and get comfortable with the digital end before worrying about what will almost certainly be little more than minor incremental improvement unless you break the bank........and I'd keep your ears.

 

A Mac Mini is a great idea, as is a CAPS. I think you can get fine sound from almost any PC or Mac with a current processor, 4G of RAM, a half-decent sound card (or even from most MB's digital out) or a good USB DAC and appropriate file storage. I use separate 2 TB x 2 (RAID 1) NAS units for music and for photos, and my "front end" is currently a 3 year old AMD-powered Gateway running Vista because I was too lazy to upgrade it to 7 the right way (i.e. reformat the HD and start fresh). My CD transport is an LG external USB drive (horizontal with tray) that I got on sale from MicroCenter for about $30.

 

I'm not as DAC-sensitive as many on this board, but the USB Bifrost looks good to me - I use an Emotiva DAC that keeps me happy, but the Bifrost should sound a bit better. I strongly recommend starting with Foobar 2000 both for ripping and for playing. It's free and works extremely well. That's my 2c - have fun!

 

David

[bluesman]

1. Computer, monitor, and wireless keyboard/trackball (as I currently use)

2. iPhone or iPad

3. Android-based contrivance, such as our Kindle Fire

 

Hi, Gary -

 

We have all of the above, and I think I like our Android tablet best for this purpose. My iPhone works great, but having the larger tablet display obviates the need for reading glasses. I have a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse on the PC in my listening room, and having to walk over to the rack to see the display is a major drawback. Of course, using Foobar means having to use the computer's display.

 

Ahhh, here's to the "wife-friendly" listening environment.......I had to get rid of my Infinity Reference Standards many years ago because my generally tolerant wife couldn't get used to speakers as tall as she is. In fairness, she did give me a pair of the then-current Stax phones, so I can't complain too much.

[bluesman]

The Kindle would be an excellent AND FREE UI solution with the right software. Any recommendations on that?

 

Add the TouchRemote DACP Server plugin to Foobar 2000 (if you go PC - FB2K is only available for Windows) and try FoobarCon, FooMote Lite, Foobar2000 Controller or TunesRemote+ on your Android. The level of enthusiasm for each of these varies from review to review, with supporters and detractors for all. FoobarCon seems to have the most consistently high ratings. I haven't tried them yet, but I'll download them all over the next few days and see how easy each is to set up and use.

 

As I recall, my Stax phones were SR-6s and cost my wife about $200 in 1976. I foolishly sold them about 10 years ago because the foam ear surrounds had disintegrated inside and out, and I couldn't find replacement parts. I love my AKG Q701s - I think the low bass may even be a tiny bit bigger and just as tight as it was on the Stax (if I can really remember detail like this so long after the fact). But overall, the Stax were fantastic and I miss them.

 

D

[bluesman]

It's buggy! I had absolutely no problem installing it on my PC at work, but it crashes Foobar every time I tried to open it on my home PC last night. When I removed all 4 TouchRemote dll files from the Foobar folder, Foobar returned to full function.

 

More to come......

 

[bluesman]

The card you are referring to is a Sotm USB card. It is used to separate the USB output from the cpu board USB buss and eliminate any interaction or interference with any other USB devices such as external hard drives etc.

 

There's a lot more to the SOtM USB card than a separate bus for audio. I can't personally vouch for the audible value of it all, but here's a diagram of the component modules and functions. This card will enable ad hoc power from an external source (even battery) to isolate the signal from any power-associated internal PC noise. The power switch on the card turns off the DC to the USB jacks so there's nothing but signal there. The PCIe version has a USB3-compliant host controller, and data transfer speed over PCIe is more than 10x greater than that of PCI. I don't know of any other USB card that has all this, although I also don't know how much of a contribution to quality each individual function really makes.

 

 

I suspect that any well designed and well made USB card will provide significant improvement over a noisy integral USB bus that's also driving multiple other devices, which may be why some have found happiness with a $20 card. But a dedicated audio player shouldn't have multiple USB devices in use during listening anyway - in fact, none should even be connected except the USB audio interface. Running signal in and out of the same USB bus is probably the most common avoidable cause of audible degradation, e.g. USB HD source and USB DAC output.

[bluesman]

The differences between the following computer configuration & Chris' reputable CAPS box are: 1. Case (not as sleek looking but shouldn't affect sound output

 

Oh great! Now you've done it, Gary - you'll start a thread on the sonic benefits of case design, material and construction. To minimize noise from cosmic rays and sunspots, I make all my cases from unobtanium.

 

[bluesman]

It's buggy! I had absolutely no problem installing it on my PC at work, but it crashes Foobar every time I tried to open it on my home PC last night. When I removed all 4 TouchRemote dll files from the Foobar folder, Foobar returned to full function. More to come......

 

Wintense.com (the source of the files - here's a link to download them) had the answers. I should have installed the dll files with the installer instead of unzipping them into the components folder myself, and I needed to upgrade .NET framework from 3.5 to 4. Put FoobarCon, FooMote Lite,Foobar2000 Controller or TunesRemote+ on your Android and you'll have a remote control app to get you started. Read the entire Wintense download page and FAQs before starting - I would have been up and running last night if I'd followed this advice.

[bluesman]

The computer's internal 3TB hdd will easily hold our music library with loads of room for growth in the future.

 

Having come home after a wonderful night out to find my media NAS turned off and reset to factory defaults on powering up, I can attest to the tightness of the grip you'll feel around your chest and throat if anything happens to your files - I had almost 40,000 on the NAS (pics and FLACs). It took me over 6 months to rip almost 1000 CDs, and the photos span decades - I have all the files from my first digital camera (a Toshiba I bought New Years Eve 2000) until now, plus many scanned prints from my emulsion days.

 

Fortunately, I have 2 onsite backups (RAID 1 in the NAS plus a GoFlex Home single drive NAS backing up the primary) and a duplicate drive from the GoFlex in my safe deposit box. And I still had angina for two days until I downloaded the NAS firmware upgrade that apparently caused this, replaced both drives and rebuilt the files from backup. I now have 2 RAID1 NAS boxes, one for pics and one for music. Both are backed up by GoFlex Homes, and I'm still itching for a 3rd independent backup that I'll buy as soon as I find a sale too good to pass up.

 

Put solid, redundant backup in your plans and budget - it's the best money you'll ever spend. After looking into Carbonite and other online backups, I realized that the reason they can offer "unlimited" storage for what seems like too low a price is simple - it takes so long to upload many big files that it's just not practical to put 1000 FLACs out there. The more serious cloud backup services let you send them a hard drive with your files on it, and you subsequently upload only new and edited files. Those cost a lot more, but I'm beginning to think they may well be worth it.