THANKS Computer Audiophile Community!!

[scott rosenberg]

A quick thanks to Chris and the rest of the CA community. I just got my first computer-based front end up and running and I am seriously impressed with what I'm hearing. The information I got from this forum steered my decisions heavily, and from what I’m hearing even just an hour into getting everything going, it was great advice.

 

Many thanks, all.

Scott

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Scott - You're very welcome. Please be sure to update everyone on your experience as you discover new things or have additional questions.

 

[bmckenney]

How can you post that and not tell us what you put together? If you were looking to build up some suspense, consider it done. Spill!

 

Bryan

 

[vortecjr]

I second the motion....spill the beans:)

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

[scott rosenberg]

sorry all, i would have posted more thoroughly, but i didn't want to presume that the community would be interested in the specifics of my system. since you asked, here goes...

 

i got intrigued at the idea of having a computer as a transport after reading everything i could on this forum. i then decided that it would be great for the entire family if i built the device such that it was able to play dvd's as well as stream content from hulu and netflix. since i had a spare PC, this first 'proof of concept' project would be really easy and straight-forward - if everything worked out and the family took to the new 'convergence' device, i'd build a smaller, silent box. truth be told, i'm so pleased with how this first effort came out, i think i'll live with it for a while.

 

my spare computer was built with a full-sized ATX mobo, so my choices in cases was somewhat limited. since the computer was going to sit in the living room, i didn't want anything to look too much like a PC. the case i finally settled on was the Zalman HD530. it has great cooling, plenty of room for all the hardware i wanted to include, and looks quite at home with the rest of my audio gear. speaking of cooling, i replaced the stock case fans with fans from Noctua, which are silent from all but a few inches away. I also replaced my old (loud, hot) drives with a single quiet and cool running Western Digital Green 1.5 TB drive - this drive isn't the highest performer available, but like the Noctua fans, it's completely silent from more than a few inches away. the computer, while not completely silent, is inaudible from the listening position - which was the goal.

 

where the soundcard was concerned, I was going back and forth between the the Lynx AES16 and Juli@, however, once i decided on a DAC, that decision became easy - since i went with the Weiss DAC2, i figured the soundcard wouldn't be as critical (i may be wrong here), as i was going to connect it via firewire. my requirements for the soundcard therefore were not much beyond something reasonably good that could pass an AC3/DTS signal for use with movies, so i went with the Juli@.

 

for the OS, I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit; for playblack I'm using iTunes. the rest of the system is comprised of the following... CounterPoint SA 5.1 Preamp; Atma-Sphere S-30 Mk 3.1 Power Amp; Wilson Audio Cub Speakers.

 

i've not yet begun to tweak things - the DAC2 is connected using coax while i'm waiting on the Firewire card, as well as the necessary bits to connect via the 4-pin to 6-pin scheme i read about on this forum. that said, right out of the gate, the system already sounds fantastic!! really, it's already exceeding my expectations, so thanks for all the advice - i've learned a lot from the community, and couldn't be more pleased with how this first effort turned out.

 

-Scott

 

[Nes]

I would not think you need a sound card at all with a firewire card?

 

[vortecjr]

if your happy now....wait till you drop the firewire on that dac2!

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

[scott rosenberg]

yeah, i'm really looking forward to hearing the Weiss on firewire. from what i can tell, there will be a small but audible improvement over SPDIF. this really is a remarkable DAC...

 

 

 

[scott rosenberg]

nes, you are right - if i was just using this as a music transport only, then i would not need a sound card. however, the computer is serving a larger role, so the sound card became necessary for some of the other functions i wanted.