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

[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.

[Gary.D.Olson]

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"

[Gary.D.Olson]

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.

[Paul R]

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

 

 

Eloise,

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?

[Gary.D.Olson]

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

[Gary.D.Olson]

Does anyone here know the answer to the question below?

 

"BTW, how much storage space will I need after converting, say, 3TB of 24/96 content to 24/768?"

[Sherwood]

Does anyone here know the answer to the question below?

 

"BTW, how much storage space will I need after converting, say, 3TB of 24/96 content to 24/768?"

 

About 24 TB, which is hard to come by unless you're really dedicated to it.

 

That said, you wouldn't want to permanently "convert" anything, I should think, you just let your DAC do conversion on the fly (if you like the sound).

 

As to sample rate, I agree with your way of thinking, Gary. 16/44.1 sounds breathtaking, as does 24/96, as does 24/192. It would eat at me knowing that I was throwing away half of my possible sample rate with a 24/96 limit, but I can assure you I'd not be able to audibly tell the difference.

[Gary.D.Olson]

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

[Sherwood]

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 /

 

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.

[Gary.D.Olson]

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.

[Gary.D.Olson]

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)

[Sherwood]

M2Tech hiFace 2 /

 

And bonus! You won't need the HiFace if you're going USB to the Modi. The highface just converts USB to PCM, which the Modi does on its own.

[Gary.D.Olson]

Really? A tiny little netbook can be plugged directly into the Modi? This would mean all I need is the Modi, a 1TB laptop hdd, JRMC, and a few cables. We're talking about a $350 investment. Really???

 

This would put my system at this configuration:

 

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

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

 

And bonus! You won't need the HiFace if you're going USB to the Modi. The highface just converts USB to PCM, which the Modi does on its own.

[Audio_ELF]

Really? A tiny little netbook can be plugged directly into the Modi? This would mean all I need is the Modi, a 1TB laptop hdd, JRMC, and a few cables. We're talking about a $350 investment. Really???

Yes, you can connect a Netbook to the Modi. The design of the CAPS is not much different from a netBook (though using dual core processor). Certainly start off with your netBook and if you have issues with slow usability THEN look at replacing it with a CAPS.

 

Eloise

[Sherwood]

Cheaper than $350, unless you're going craycray on cables. That will definitely get you started. There's always room for "more" and "better", and a more expensive DAC out of a more expensive media PC into a different system will sound different, of course, but the system you have above will play up to 24/96, store 1TB of files, and do it all bit-perfectly (once you set it up properly).

 

Welcome to computer audio, sir

[spdif-usb]

"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...'

I think I might already have one of those. They'll probably just rebadge it & call it the iGod.

[jackfish]

Every modern Mac has optical outputs. Comes out of the same jack as the headphones, you just plug in another cable. Some people like the optical output, some avoid it because of worries about jitter. (Essentially jitter is a timing error, sort of like the digital eqivalent of wow and flutter...)

Not that it adds much to this discussion, but the MacBook Air does not have an optical output. The headphone jack is just that, a headphone jack, no optical output from it.

[Paul R]

Yes, quite correct. Almost all modern Macs then.

 

I think Jud has a MacBook Pro that does not have an optical input too. Just weird that Apple would even thing about doing something like that.

-Paul

 

 

 

Not that it adds much to this discussion, but the MacBook Air does not have an optical output. The headphone jack is just that, a headphone jack, no optical output from it.

[wappinghigh]

Make sure you read the Invicata thread. The Invicata is a DAC/pre that would plug straight into your Denon and plays off SD cards. I've just ordered one (so what I say is biased) but no need for a computer for playback. All up price might be to much (4K)..up to 5K with 3x256Gb cards...(I have no idea of your budget or FLAC library size..)...anyway take a look at this approach. If this is too much, and you don't need DSD, make sure you take a look at the new kickstarter from Olive....forgot what it's called. Anyway It's going to be a little "all in one player" for around $500, with a great GUI, that will play straight off an internal HDD...(And later maybe an SDD) . I'm a similar age to you, and have gone the full circle. CD/SACD>Computer playback>Network streaming>Playback off an SD card.

 

I'd definitely at least consider making things less complicated and taking the computer playback out of the equation. Cheers.

[wappinghigh]

^ Gary, here is a Link on that Olive One

 

Olive - ONE

 

and search CA for Olive kickstarter for the thread on this in this forum..

 

Do yourself a favour and at least check this out... I would have pre-ordered an Olive One if it had of done DSD and included a preamp/headphone section.... I still might (for my receiver in another room).

 

You sound like you don't need a pre, or headphone amp, so maybe this might be suitable. It looks like an awesome concept. Cheers.

[wappinghigh]

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)

 

Or:

 

Olive one with Flac stored on it's HDD (I assume it will play FLAC)

RCA or digital into Denon. (Not sure of the Denon's inputs, but they have confirmed they will be offering the Olive with RCA out's I believe)

 

Playback direct via touching the One's GUI.. or an app on the iphone/droid etc (I assume there will also be one of these)

Cheers

[wappinghigh]

Gary, there is no reason why the Olive won't eventually take a 3Tb dive.. In the meantime you can stream to it...

 

I've also sent you a PM. Cheers

[Gary.D.Olson]

The Olive One is crazy beautiful. Nobody would ever know it was designed by propeller heads. I replied to your PM, btw.

 

Thanks!

 

Gary

 

 

 

Gary, there is no reason why the Olive won't eventually take a 3Tb dive.. In the meantime you can stream to it...

 

I've also sent you a PM. Cheers