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


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Greetings from a humble new member of your forum!

 

(bow)

I'm attempting to create a reasonable 2-channel system for music only (music style: everything). No movies. But first a little background...

I was a pro musician in the 1980's and spent lots of time in recording studios with the best sounding audio systems, but I'd always had an appreciation for high quality sound. Like many others, I made compromises when “home theater” hit. My existing audio gear went in the closet to make room for HT gear, because the popular position was and is that quality 2-channel music listening is far less important than hearing BOOM! when big bad T-Rex is coming. (Is there anyone who didn't hear a demo or two of Jurrasic Park?)

Anyway, my internal audiophile is back, and the old gear with it. (But WOW! The landscape is so different.) It's time to figure out what old stuff goes and what new elements need to be added that might substantially boost performance without breaking the fargin' bank. My proposed system is detailed below in order of process. Component I already own are indicated with “***” but I'll replace anything your collective wisdom so requires. Your experience is what I'm needin' so here we go:

1. ***FLAC files

2. ***Internal Hard Drive (WD 2TB Sata hdd installed in below computer)

 

3. Homebrew computer – tentatively comprised of the following (incl. Newegg's part#):

-Bare bones computer kitwhich includes small case, 200w Power Supply, 1155 Sandy Bridge motherboard, USB 3 (model: Shuttle SH61R4 - NeweggItem #: N82E16856101124)

-Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit (Item #: N82E16832116986)

-Intel Processor (Celeron G530 Sandy Bridge BX80623G530 Item #: N82E16819116409)

-Ram (4 Gigs of G.SKILL NS F3-10600CL9D-4GBNS Item #: N82E16820231394)

-Optical Bluray Drive/Player/DVD & CD Player/Writer (ASUS Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS Item #: N82E16827135247)

-Wireless Adapter for occasional Pandora streaming (BUFFALO USB WLI-UC-GNHP Item #: N82E16833162032)

-20” Monitor (Acer G205HVbd Item #: N82E16824009314)

-Wireless Keyboard with Laser Trackball(IOGEAR GKM561R Item #: N82E16823176018)

-Sound Card with optical out (PCIe ASUS Xonar DGX Item #: N82E16829132052)

4. Software Music Player (I'm open to suggestions. Winamp, iTunes, MediaMonkey, etc)

5. Unknown optical interconnect from optical out on sound card to optical in on DAC

6. DAC - Schiit Bitfrost

 

7. Unknown RCA interconnect from DAC analog out to receiver RCA preamp in

 

8. ***Preamp/Amp: Denon DRA-1025R 2-channel receiver (Class-A amplification and Denon's top-of-the-line model when I bought it new in the late 1980's at Federated's going-out-of-business sale.)

 

9. Unknown LONG RCA interconnect from Denon's “Main Out” to RCA “line in” on sub woofer

 

10. ***Sub Woofer: Velodyne F1200 (circa 1995, 12” woofer, 20-85hz +/- 3db, internal amp produces 100 watts RMS, bass management which I plan on using [adjusted to 80hz])

 

11. Unknown LONG RCA interconnect from “line out” to “Main In” on Denon receiver

 

12. Unknown speaker wire (or gauge) from Denon to speakers

 

13. ***Speakers: stand-mounted Canton Karat 920 DC bookshelf speakers (circa 1996, 7” woofer + tweeter, none bi-amp)

 

14. ***My 52 year old ears

Thanks.

Gary

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Oh, that's right! A used Mac. I could pick one of those up for less than the cost of a whole new pc and os. I would have to buy an external USB drive on which to store the music library. Would any good drive do?

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Why? This is something else I've heard but haven't been able to figure out why. Why would USB offer more than optical? After all, there's far more bandwidth in a fiber optic cable...

 

Some Bitfrost have USB some don't, I highly recommend USB.

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Thanks Nombedes & David.

I checked out the CAPS (Zuma) components and it uses a $350.00 sound card. David's advice leads me to believe this is not a necessary choice. It would be great to save $250-$300 if a $50-$100 PCIe card would yield close to the same sound quality and s/n ratio. I'm also convinced the i7 processor as overkill for a rig that will never do anything beyond sound output and the occasional web surfing. I've made a few other economical adjustments that shouldn't affect performance, but I would really to hear some good opinions.

 

Here's the new configuration using an ugly Zuma CAPS wannabe. Any thoughts?

1. ***FLAC files

2. ***Internal Hard Drive (WD 2TB Sata hdd installed in below computer)

3. Homebrew CAPS (ZUMA) tentatively to be comprised of:

exact parts as Zuma:

$90 same win8 64b

$100.00 same mobo: Intel DH77EB / BOXDH77EB

$65.00 same SATA Power Noise Filter: SotM

$79.00 same psu + picoPSU-150-XT + 102W Adapter Power Kit (will it fit in my case? Check first.)

$50.00 same JRMC

Substitutions:

$75.00 Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D PCIe 24-bit 96KHz PCI Express x1 Optical Out

$60.00 Silverstone Black Aluminum Case Micro ATX Media Center

$50.00 cpu Intel Celeron G540 Sandy Bridge 2.5GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G540

$60.00 internal ssd ADATA Premier Pro SP900 ASP900S3-64GM-C 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

$26.00 ram ADATA XPG Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600GB2G9-2G

$655.00 total cost(add $275 if Zuma's sound card is necessary)

4. Software Player (I'm open to suggestions. Winamp, iTunes, MediaMonkey, etc)

5. Unknown optical interconnect from optical out on sound card to optical in on DAC

6. DAC - Schiit Bitfrost

 

7. Unknown RCA interconnect from DAC analog out to receiver RCA preamp in

 

8. ***Preamp/Amp: Denon DRA-1025R 2-channel receiver (Class-A amplification and Denon's top-of-the-line model when I bought it new in the late 1980's at Federated's going-out-of-business sale.)

 

9. Unknown LONG RCA interconnect from Denon's “Main Out” to RCA “line in” on sub woofer

 

10. ***Sub Woofer: Velodyne F1200 (circa 1995, 12” woofer, 20-85hz +/- 3db, internal amp produces 100 watts RMS, bass management which I plan on using [adjusted to 80hz])

 

11. Unknown LONG RCA interconnect from “line out” to “Main In” on Denon receiver

 

12. Unknown speaker wire (or gauge) from Denon to speakers

 

13. ***Speakers: stand-mounted Canton Karat 920 DC bookshelf speakers (circa 1996, 7” woofer + tweeter, none bi-amp)

 

14. ***My 52 year old ear

 

 

Thanks again, folks.

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Thanks, Mayhem. I'll give this a bit more time before finalizing, but I have tweaked the proposed system a bit more based on your help. Here's the flow:

 

Flac file

2TB internal sata hdd >

PCIe sound card > optical output >

tbd optical cable

> Optical input on DAC (Schiit MODI) > analog output >

tbd rca cable

> Aux input on Preamp/Amp (Denon DRA-1025R receiver) > main out >

tbd 15-20' rca cable

> line input on sub woofer (Velodyne F1200) > line output >

tbd 15-20' rca cable

> Main input on preamp/amp (Denon DRA-1025R receiver) > speaker output >

tbd speaker cable (gauge also to be determined)

> stand-mounted speakers (Canton Karat 920 DC)

 

Thumbs up? Thumbs down? Anything else?

 

Thanks again.

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Paul, nombedes, bluesman, mayhem13, and robbbby.

 

Please accept my humble appreciation for the help you've already given. Much obliged to you & anyone else who takes the time to chime in.

 

I'm VERY open to the idea of a Mac or Mac Mini, but I'm also shooting for an optical connection between DAC and computer. I've observed a lot of systems on this forum with Mac laptops & Minis, which leads me to wonder if they have optical out. Is this true? If so, which "used" models should a frugal budding audiophile look for for a music-only system?

 

Please forgive. This is a lot to learn for an old-schooler. I woke up this morning having never heard of this forum, knowing nothing about Mac (aside from their reputation for style & reliability), & having never heard of CAPS. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy, is it?

 

Thanks for all the help!

 

Gary

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Paul,

 

You may have already noticed I meant to convey humble "appreciation", not "apology". None of your replies made you seem bothered to answer questions. On the contrary; you've been nothing but kind. This brings to mind how different things are in the computing world today. Not long ago, most everyone was tethered to a Windows or Apple desktop. Then the laptop was the ticket, and now it's the iPhone, iPad, & other such devices. I'm typing this on a wireless keyboard 15 feet from a LCD HDTV hooked up to an HTPC I built two years ago. I don't know about you, but I've never miss spelled so much in my life (lol).

 

Which leads me to something else. UI. My HTPC has been an awesome user interface for accessing and controlling content. (In case you wonder why not arrange this room for music listening; there is no sweet spot here due to the shape of the room and wife-friendly speaker placement.) Do most people here use iPhones & iPads as their user interface? I've never used anything from Apple but I'm very open to it as previously stated.

 

With limited knowledge, the best and least inexpensive options I know of for a user-friendly UI are:

 

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

2. iPhone or iPad

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

 

Am I missing something else? What is the preferred UI around here? Do you have a recommendation?

 

Thanks again for helping me put all this together. I've made more progress in the last 24 hours than I have in the 17 years since converting my audio system to a home theater.

 

Gary

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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"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."

Sweet. I already own a Kindle Fire - an android-based wifi device. The Kindle would be an excellent AND FREE UI solution with the right software. Any recommendations on that?

 

"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."

 

I bought a pair of Stax electorstatic headphones in the mid-1980's while my band was on tour. This was a particularly fond memory. It was a high-end shop somewhere on the coast of California; I want to say San Luis Obispo or Santa Maria. The proprietor spared no expense in creating the most relaxed, rich atmosphere of any shop I've ever had the pleasure to visit. Funny; I was so clueless about details like that back then, yet it's the thing I remember today almost 30 years later. I have no idea what I paid for those headphones, I only remember it was A LOT. Good times. I still have them somewhere, and now you've lit the fire to find them. I've never heard a loudspeaker sound as good as those Stax phones.

 

Thanks.

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Greetings.

 

Please let me know what you think of my planned system. This configuration would take just $936.00 out of pocket plus probably a bit more tax & shipping. Here's the Macro flow chart:

Flac file

USB External hdd ***LaCie Porsche Design (1) $140.00

USB Cable ********AudioQuest Forest USB A to USB B (2) $35.00

Mac *************MacBook Pro 15” USED $360.00

Media Software ****JRiver Media Center $50.00

Mac Optical Cable ***C2G Cables to Go 27016 Velocity Toslink-to-Optical Mini 2 Meters (3) $10.00

DAC *************Schiit MODI DAC $110.00

RCA Cable ********Belkin 3' RCA (4) $11.00

Integrated Amp ****Denon DRA-1025R receiver $0.00

RCA Cable ********20' bluejean rca subwoofer cable (5) $73.00

Sub Woofer *******Velodyne F1200 Powered Sub Woofer with Variable Crossover $0.00

RCA Cable ********20' bluejean rca subwoofer cable (5) $73.00

Integrated Amp ****Denon DRA-1025R receiver $0.00

Speaker Cable *****16-gauge Accell B109B 100ft UltraAudio speaker cable (6) $60.00

Speakers *********Canton Karat 920 DC (stands yet tbd) $0.00

Other considerations:

Remote Control **********Kindle Fire and/or Harmony One $0.00

Remote Control Software ***Gizmo – included with JRMC $0.00

[h=1]Bluetooth Receiver ******* IOGEAR GBU421 2.1 USB Micro Adapter USB (7) $14.00[/h][h=1]$936.00 Grand Total[/h][h=1] [/h][h=1] ...and here are the links to most of this stuff: [/h]1. 2TB external hdd LaCie Porsche Design (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822154543

2. AudioQuest Forest USB A to USB B 1.5m Digital (http://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Forest-Digital-Audio-Cable/dp/B00415AHFS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1360787132&sr=1-1&keywords=audioquest+audiophile+usb+cable)

3. Optical cable C2G Cables to Go 27016 Velocity Toslink-to-Optical Mini Plug Digital Cable-2 Meters (http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Go-27016-Velocity-Toslink-/dp/B0002JFN1A/ref=sr_1_2?s=aht&ie=UTF8&qid=1360786912&sr=1-2&keywords=Mini+Toslink+Male+to+Toslink+Male+Optical+Adapter+Cable+for+Apple+Macbook)

4. Belkin 3' RCA (http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-PureAV-RCA-Audio-Cable/dp/B0001VWI58/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top)

5. 20' bluejean rca subwoofer cable (http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Jeans-Cable-Double-Shielded-Capacitance/dp/B005979L04/ref=sr_1_11?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1360785903&sr=1-11&keywords=blue+jean+cable+rca)

6. 16-gauge Accell B109B UltraAudio speaker cable (100ft) http://www.amazon.com/Accell-B109B-100F-UltraAudio-16-Gauge-CL3-rated/dp/B002YD7AUY/ref=sr_1_10?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1360786283&sr=1-10&keywords=speaker+cable

[h=1]7. IOGEAR GBU421 Bluetooth 2.1 USB Micro Adapter USB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833139019)

 

 

Thanks again.

 

Gary [/h]

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Other may disagree with me but I'm not a fan of Laptop/notebooks for audio file source direct playback....far too noisey an environment and plenty of design compromises for the sake of portability and space.

 

At the risk of sounding too easily swayed, another post (yours) changed my mind - again. I'm going with CAPS! It seems like the clear winner from a purely performance view, and it looks great too. Hey, this is the beginning for me there is no better time to choose a path I'll never regret. A few hundred extra bucks is cheap when amortized over 3-5 years.

 

Didn't completely understand your first chart as to what you have and don't have but I 'think'? you already have a PC playing Flac files through an optical out of an Asus Card? If I'm right, I say order up a glass optical cable and the Bitfrost first.

 

Anything with a "$0.00" at the end indicates I already have it. I don't have a sound card on my HTPC; I use an HDMI cable through the video card (Asus) to send both audio and video to the AV receiver. But I could switch the sound to the mobo's sound and have a listen to the Schiit. Great idea.

 

Some of what seems extreme costs with the CAPs servers is the expensive case used. There's much less expensive cases available if you wish to build a server based on CAPs. While my iTunes server isn't caps, I did use a nice, affordable Silverstone Lascala series

 

I had already resolved to look for a cheaper case if going with CAPS. It's that $350 sound card that gets me. I can't see how an expensive sound card can make any difference when the outboard DAC is doing all the work. I guess there's more research to be done before pulling the trigger on anything.

 

Thanks.

 

SilverStone Technology Co., Ltd.- LC13-E

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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CONFIGURATION AS OF 2/14/12 @ 8am PACIFIC TIME

 

 

This whole rig will only remove $1191.00 from my wallet, possibly less according to mayhem13 & Eloise. I won't be using USB anyway.

 

 

 

The differences between the following computer configuration & Chris' reputable CAPS box are: 1. Case (not as sleek looking but shouldn't affect sound output or ambient noise and extra room actually gives it some advantages), 2. Ram (shouldn't affect SQ and if it did, a few bucks additional would buy Chris' choice), 3. Lower Sandy Bridge CPU (shouldn't make any audible difference and will provide all the power needed for audio-only use), 4. Cheaper but good SSD of same capacity (again, shouldn't make any audible difference), 5. Addition of Internal 3TB WD Green hdd (will add tiny bit of ambient noise, but I've had 3 of these in my HTPC for tw years & know how silent and cool they are – extremely), 6. Different sound card (affect – unknown, but it shouldn't make any measurable difference).

 

 

Computers are modular beasts, are they not? If I end up not liking the SQ from the $40.00 Asus sound card (or anything else) in this configuration, I'll THEN spend the $350.00 for the CAPS approved solution. Other than that, this box should be a winner. Interconnects? You be the judge, please.

 

 

 

 

COMPUTER ($820.00)

$60.00 SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum skin reinforced plastic front panel, 0.8mm SECC body MILO Series ML03B Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

$100.00 Intel BOXDH77EB LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

$46.00 G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT

$50.00 Intel Celeron G540 Sandy Bridge 2.5GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G540

$60.00 ADATA Premier Pro SP600 ASP600S3-64GM-C 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

$140.00 3TB Internal Western Digital SATA Green Hard Drive

$40.00 ASUS Xonar DGX 5.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface Gaming Audio Card

$60.00 picoPSU-150-XT + 102W Adapter Power Kit

$50.00 Playback App: JRMC v18

$9.00 USB 3.0 internal cable

$65.00 SOtM In-Line SATA Power Noise Filter

$140.00 Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 64-bit (Full Version) – OEM

 

 

EVERYTHING ELSE ($371.00)

$100.00 Schiit Modi DAC (sub-$300? Yes, but these have an excellent rep for sounding way beyond its price point. The designer of DTS - and a whole lot more - makes these and sells 'em direct)

$50.00 Media Software JRiver Media Center

$5.00 Optical Cable (1)

$11.00 RCA Cable Belkin 3' RCA (2)

$0.00 Integrated Amp ****Denon DRA-1025R receiver

$73.00 Sub Woofer RCA Cable 20' bluejean (3)

$0.00 Sub Woofer Velodyne F1200 Powered with Variable Crossover

$73.00 Sub Woofer RCA Cable 20' bluejean (3)

$0.00 Integrated Amp ****Denon DRA-1025R receiver

$60.00 Speaker Cable *****16-gauge Accell B109B 100ft UltraAudio speaker cable (4)

$0.00 Speakers *********Canton Karat 920 DC (stands yet tbd)

$0.00 Remote Control **********Kindle Fire and/or Harmony One

$0.00 Remote Control Software ***Gizmo – included with JRMC

$14.00 Bluetooth Receiver ******* IOGEAR GBU421 2.1 USB Micro Adapter USB (5)

 

 

$1191.00 GRAND TOTAL “OUT OF POCKET” (PLUS TAX AND SHIPPING WHERE APPLICABLE)

links to most of this stuff:

 

1. Optical cable - http://www.amazon.com/Optical-Toslink-Fiber-Plated-Digital/dp/B001VJ680U/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1360835480&sr=1-3&keywords=audiophile+optical

2. Belkin 3' RCA (Amazon.com: Belkin PureAV RCA Audio Cable 3 ft: Electronics)

3. 20' bluejean rca subwoofer cable (Amazon.com: Blue Jeans Cable LC-1 Double-Shielded Low Capacitance Subwoofer Cable, 20 foot, White: Electronics r=1-11&keywords=blue+jean+cable+rca)

4. 16-gauge Accell B109B UltraAudio speaker cable (100ft) Amazon.com: Accell B109B-100F UltraAudio Speaker Cable, 16-Gauge CL3-rated 100ft / 30m: Electronics r=1-10&keywords=speaker+cable

5. IOGEAR GBU421 Bluetooth 2.1 USB Micro Adapter USB IOGEAR GBU421 Bluetooth 2.1 USB Micro Adapter - Newegg.com)

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Based on some commentary, I decided to do away with the sound card altogether and try the motherboard’s optical out. This could save me $40.00 bringing the total cost down to *$1166.00. I can always add a separate card if the sound is less than superb. (*if you compared this math from last night’s post, yeah, I was $15.00 off. Damn pain killers.)

mayhem13

“While I wouldn't spend $350 on a sound add either, in respect to the designer, the omission of it no longer makes it a CAPS.......and that's ok. Chris and other have done some excellent work and research to develop an outta tha box solution for computer audio....”

How about I give it my first initial and call it “GAPS”. Seriously, I really do humbly appreciate Chris’ hard work, and the advice freely given by you and the other audio fiends. I mean friends.

mayhem13

“…I like optical.....it cannot transmit electrical interference. If the effects of said EMI are already in the bitstream, then there's nothing to be done with any of the transmission methods anyway.”

THIS is the comment that got me thinking about trying the mobo’s optical out before spending another $40.00 or more on a sound card. Thanks, mayhemJ

mayhem13

“Optical is limited in bandwidth, but as Paul mentioned there's little reputable commercial content available to the consumer and I doubt that's going to change. And IMO only, there's no audible benefit of the higher rates”

I agree.

At the risk of sounding like an idiot… (gulp) it’s my firm belief anything above a sample rate of 96k is pure marketing scam to lure people in to buying new hardware, their favorite music – again, and other merchandise of various types. The recording industry, music artists, software makers, manufacturers of DAC’s, AV receivers – crap, even interconnect companies CAN’T WAIT for the train loads of money they’ll surely make.

How many equipment reviews have you read here, in Stereophile, and elsewhere describing products as sounding “AWESOME”, “INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL,” “MAGNIFICENTLY WONDERFUL,” “FAITHFULLY REPRODUCED”, “WORTHY OF GOD’S AUDIO RACK,” (okay, maybe not that one)????? ? How many of those audio systems were driven by content with a sample rate above 96k? There is another winner in all this craziness. ME! And anyone else who lies in wait for great deals on the most excellent audio gear this universe has ever seen. Yes, I will thank Mr. Jones next door - who sadly thinks life is a competition – when he literally “buys” in to the hype and then needs to unload the old junk. SHHHHHHHH!!!! Let’s keep a lid on that.

“For external drives, standard HDD is fine but I prefer eSata interface for external of you have to go that route. USB3 is certainly fast.....and extremely electically noisey. Stay away....far far away.”

The current plan is an internal SATA hdd. If that needs to change, I’ll go with eSATA. My motherboard supports it. I will stay clear of USB 3. Thanks!

mayhem13

“Just give serious considerations to the power supply......the mother of all evils where PC audio is concerned…”

I’m using a CAPS certified PSU. It’s listed in the configuration details as “picoPSU-150-XT + 102W Adapter Power Kit.” It should power the motherboard, SSD, and Western Digital “Green” hdd.

Paul Raulerson

“Looks like a good setup, but let me caution you - you have a lot of things in there you say "should not make any difference." We have a member here who has a motto that goes something like - " In audio - everything matters." He is correct in that.”

I’ll buy that. This is where the modularity of a PC works to our advantage. If the sound quality fails to satisfy, things will get yanked.

Audio Elf

“Just an observation: don't you have an Asus sound card to provide SPDIF output and a DAC which is USB only”

Negative on both counts.

bluesman

“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.”

Will do. Thanks so much for all your inputJ

 

Thanks again, everyone.

Gary

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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I've set aside a whopping $5 for a 3' optical cable, and this rig won't need to rely on a network as all components will all be together. The computer's internal 3TB hdd will easily hold our music library with loads of room for growth in the future.

 

Have a great evening.

 

Gary

 

 

 

Don't forget the glass optical cable.....nothing too crazy as glass is glass. Remember that they're not as flexible as plastic and you'll need to consider the routing from the Server to your audio gear when selecting the correct length. The mfgr should provide some info on minimum radii.

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Paul,

 

LOL. Hey, I am having fun with this. It's exciting to rediscover my music collection while also getting acquainted with a community of fiendish, I mean friendly audiophiles such as yourself. Honestly, some of this is nothing more than a little jealousy on my part of those with the money to replace their CD collections for SACD, then dumping their SACD collection for DVD Audio, and knowing they'll dump the DVD Audio for 24/192, and so on and so on. I wish I had the money to acquire the things I find meaningful

 

Sound quality can be scientifically evaluated and even quantified. If I'm wrong about 24/192, proving it will be easy. That being said, I'm still amazed at how much money was wasted replacing working computers for a faster CPU we didn't need, and perfectly good cameras following the release of a sensor with more megapixel. After all; more is better, right?

 

Am I skeptical? Yes. Still, I'm not entirely close minded and would be much obliged if you or anyone else would enlighten me with the answer to the following puzzlement:

 

Let's assume for a moment we can trust at least some of the countless rave reviews from Stereophile, Home Theater, and too many other audio magazines to name - not to mention the tens of thousands of non-professional rave reviews from reasonably smart people with the best gear money can buy. Let's also assume most of those reviewers - professional and private - used 24/96 content or less throughout their evaluations (and you know they did). Here's Mr. Skeptic's question: If the quality of sound heard by those reviewers was TRULY worthy of being described as "Magnificent" "Breathtaking" "Brilliant" "INSPIRATIONAL" "Perfect" "SO GOOD, I NEVER WANTED TO TURN IT OFF" - what superior descriptions do you think they'll use to describe 24/192? Will reviewers have to invent BETTER adjectives? Will 24/192 suddenly not sound great anymore when 24,000/192,000K comes along?

 

As always, it will be interesting to see it all unfold.

 

Gary

 

 

I'll be interested in hearing from you after you get a good CA system together and notice the difference between a 24/96 version and 24/192 version.

(grin)

 

I do honestly think you are going into CA with perhaps, a few too many assumptions about what is and what is not important, but that's actually part of the fun of the whole thing. Have fun! :)

 

-Paul

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Eloise,

 

I owe you a big THANK YOU. I was sitting here trying to imagine getting the computer put together and all the drivers & Windows updates installed; then pulling the Shiit Modi DAC out of the box to find it is USB only. It literally gave me a headache. Thank you so much for pointing that out:) I'll post an update configuration asap. Sorry for using the wrong font too. I recently wrote a post that was eaten alive by forum gremlins before I could post it. Since then, I've used LibreOffice to write, then copy & pasted to the forum. I'm back to the old method as of this post.

 

Paul,

 

Clearly I'm both skeptical and ignorant, but you're input may end up helping change that. Again, at least some of this is jealousy on my party, but I'm taking your advice to try to keep more of an open mind.

 

Maybe you answered my question, Paul, and I'm just not smart enough to grasp it because I still don't understand why we should spend more hard-earned money for a sample rate of 192,000 and above when 96,000 already sounds - according to the expert reviewers - like the heavens opened up and angels are singing to us in our very own living rooms. I'll just have to wait until I hear "beyond breathtaking transparency", "beyond angelic", "beyond bodacious", and so forth, for myself. BTW, how much storage space will I need after converting, say, 3TB of 24/96 content to 24/768?

 

Bluesman,

 

Wow! It's great to hear you didn't lose all your photos and months of work ripping the discs. I do back up, but my "system" is not nearly good enough. I manually copy any new files to a portable USB drive and transfer them to my other two computers. I still haven't taken the time to figure out how to keep all drives synced up. I'll put that on "The List".

 

Thanks!

 

 

"In any case, have fun with it, but try to keep a bit of an open mind. Might surprise you what you find.

 

-Paul"

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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A future DAC advertisement:

 

"The January 2020 issue of Stereophile Review Magazine proclaimed: 'BWoW's latest offering will thrill you beyond your senses with a frequency range so wide, no dog could hope to hear the highest frequencies, and so low, God himself could break wind without creating such frequencies...'

 

Two months later, Home IMAX Magazine writes '...the dynamic range on this thing is so wide, the loudest end would pulverize diamond and the lowest end is so quiet you could be DEAD and hear more noise. Impressive!'

 

Two years later, we at BWoW wish to thank each and every one of you, our valued customers, for not settling for old technology. You deserve better, and the designers at BWoW have responded with products light years ahead, bringing us to a new age of technological territory previously thought impossible. Our new Digital to Analog Converter will go beyond thrilling you beyond your senses. Come and hear what you've been missing

 

BWoW

Where 'Better' is never enough!"

 

Just kidding. I couldn't resist.

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Paul,

 

You'd already largely made a believer out of me before I posted the made-up ad. I apologize if it offended you or anyone else. That's the last thing I want to do to people who I've come to like very much. It was just a little poke at our society in general - not anyone here.

 

My problem is it is too difficult to trust big business and industry anymore. There's so much corporate greed; such a low level of honesty; personal responsibility is extinct - let alone corporate responsibility; too many businesses that are controlled by shareholders who only care about short-term gain and don't care about the end product or the customers... This is a bad recipe ultimately leading to crappy products and a LOT of distrust. These are hard realities to swallow, especially for people with a natural trusting nature (such as myself). It has become a very steep uphill battle for anyone trying to separate me from my money (a saying I use all the time btw).

 

Enough negative drivel. Those system configuration issues as pointed out by Eloise aren't going to work themselves out.

 

Have a great evening.

 

 

Gary

 

 

 

Heh- I would love to see the review you are quoting.... :)

 

Jud may pop by this thread and explain it bettter than I possibly could, but you might want to search through some of the threads on the system to get an idea. It really isn't worth fighting over, but a lot of people - dare I say *most* people? - can hear a difference, and prefer the higher res formats. As to why 192K is better than 96K?

 

Take your pick of the reasons. I think Jud has nailed it with issues he has published about the artifacts from the filters.

 

-Paul

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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I apologize if you've already seen this question posted on another thread. THIS is where the question belongs. What say ye of this system?

 

External eSata 3TB drive /

eSata cable /

CAPS Topanga computer /

Quality USB cable /

Schiit Modi DAC /

Quality RCA cable /

Aux In” on back of Denon DRA-1025r receiver (class-A) /

Quality 20' RCA cable from Denon's “Main Out”/

Line level in” on Velodyne F1200 powered subwoofer /

crossover set at 80hz /

Quality 20' RCA cable from Velodyne's “line level out” /

Main In” on back of Denon DRA-1025r /

Speaker cable /

Stand-mounted Canton 920 DC speakers

 

To be remote controlled by Kindle Fire - IR receiver connected to a different computer on the network (20 feet away from seating area)

 

Thanks!

 

Gary

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Hmm... No heavy SPL in this room anyway, so sub 80hz shouldn't hurt the Canton bookshelfs. The Velodyne tops out at about 85hz... AWESOME! The most brilliant ideas are always the most simple. 'preciate it!

 

Gary

 

 

We can clean things up on the cheap by getting rid of this. You don't want to add 40 feet of stereo cables to your signal path if you can at all avoid it, and you definitely can. Plus, the variable crossover in your velodyne sub should have no part of the full-range signal you send to your speakers. You're just throwing away efficiency and clarity there, and paying for 40 feet of cables to do it.

 

Those sub crossovers are universally bad, and while they can do the job of low-pass filters passably enough for the sub itself, you don't want them touching your signal. Run an RCA splitter out of your pre-out and connect one half right back to your main-in, then run another cable (or stereo pair of cables) out to the sub. That way you don't feed 40 feet of possible interference back into your main signal path, you save on a set of LONG interconnects, and you get more usable output from your speakers. Win/Win.

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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Slight update:

Asus Netbook with 1TB internal drive housing entire music library (.flac) /

M2Tech hiFace 2 /

quality USB cable /

Schiit Modi USB DAC /

quality 1-3' RCA cable

"Aux In" into Denon DRA1025r receiver /

"Main Out from Denon /

RCA "Y" adapter /

half of "Y" terminates at "line level in" on Velodyne sub -

other half goes back in to Denon's "Main In" /

Speaker cable /

Stand-mounted Canton 920 DC speakers

 

To be remote controlled by Kindle Fire - IR receiver connected to a different computer on the network (20 feet away from seating area)

Win10 Sweetwater recording studio PC running JRMC > Soundcraft Ui24r 24-track digital mixer > JBL LSR308 via Magomi Balanced XLR cable pair

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