pc based audio

I

intojazz

New member
I've been reading rather obsessively lately about pc based options for hi-rez downloads and playback. As usual, there is no lack of
sites saying how great their option is. So I stumbled on a couple of sites that seem very down to earth. That is they are of like mind.
Having enjoyed the Bottlehead community (and of course some of their wonderful gear, Extended Foreplay and Paramount's) for several years because of the folks that trade ideas as true enthusiasts. So, I'm hoping to get your take on these two sites:

www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com]www.cicsmemoryplayer.com and [url]www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com
Best regards,
John Roman
 
Hi John - Both of these sites are well regarded as is the Asylum PC Audio site - a lot of crossover by users between these 3 sites.  The Cics stuff was just too advanced for me.  Although I am happy with my PC, I am still tempted to switch to the other camp and get a mac, which just seems to be an overall simpler solution, especially when paired with the Pure Music software.
 
Hey Glynn,
Fortunately my brother is pretty savvy about pc stuff and I'll be seeing him over the holiday. Good time to start a project with him,
little does he know...
John
 
Have a look at this. incredibly easy to implement, which is a good thing because I have very little patience with computers.

Plugged it in, the network found it, my squeezebox found it. Feed it CD's and it rips them, tags them and gets the covers, automatically.

And it's free, donations accepted   
 
In anticipation of the Bottlehead DAC it would be nice to get some recommendations for good (but cheap) PC sound cards that output digital signals only (i.e. do not do DAC themselves).
 
Check out ESI-audio.com Their Juli@ has a good reputation. I've not listened to it yet but plan on putting together
a memory player that I may elect to use it in. The Juli@ goes for about $150
Best regards,
John
 
Thanks, John. Ordered it.
Until the Bottlehead DAC is revealed I'll be using the PC card in my S.E.X. amp, so anything will be better than the Audigy I have now.
 
The link to the Vortexbox is  Vortexbox.org

I did try to include a link, guess it shows just how computer savvy I ain't...John
 
Glynn,

I just made the switch to a modified mac mini (modified by mach2 music) and use it with PureMusic with my Tranquility SE dac and it is many, many notches higher than even a tweaked Asus eee box and using foobar 2000 in kernel streaming with the incredible AQVox usb driver.  In fact, the modified mac mini is easly the best transport I've ever heard, even on dacs other than the Tranquility SE, and the stock 2010 unibody mini is really great with just a few software tweaks you can do yourself.  You can also use an iPhone or iPod Touch with the iTunes remote app to control a headless mini both with and without PureMusic.  PureMusic is a significantly better sounding playback engine than quicktime, which is what iTunes uses for playback.

HTH,

Jim
 
Oh man - don't tell me that.  I am neurotic enough about my PC as it is.  I just looked at the Mach2 Music site and it really is appealing, but since retiring, money is really tight.  But I do appreciate your thoughts on this subject.  Maybe I could sell blood weekly for a while.
 
Hey Glynn, if you are using a PC try Reaper. It's not a simple player, it's digital audio workstation software and as such it's not easy to play more than one track at a time. But you can download an eval copy for free. I think it is much better sounding than Foobar and shows some hope for the PC camp.
 
I've recently switched from foobar to J. River Media Center. Am much happier with it in terms of layout, and it's supposed to sound better--though with my current set-up, I couldn't tell.
 
Just thought I would comment that I use AyreWave to playback audio on my Mac via my Beresford DAC:  http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/AyreWave-New-OSX-Audio-Player-Released-RMAF  I can manage my playlists in iTunes and with a single mouse click have it loaded into AyreWave.  However, it really shines on my FLAC tracks in hi-rez. I'm becoming a big fan of HDTracks (I missed all the earlier drama about sample rates). 

I suppose I need to try out some of the other software packages: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/Forums/Equipment/Software  But I'm pretty happy with the simplicity of AyreWave (simple is good for me...but this is a playback software, not a music management software).
 
2wo said:
The link to the Vortexbox is   Vortexbox.org

I did try to include a link, guess it shows just how computer savvy I ain't...John
Click to expand...

John,

Thanks for adding the info.  The device looks pretty slick.

Bob
 
Another option, which I haven't heard myself, but is still somewhat in development, and based on a linux single board computer is a:

http://www.auraliti.com

I am building a similar box, but using a single board alix computer running MPD, and connected to a NAS running NFS.  This and another one similar to it will be used for my living room and headphone rigs.
 
Well, I put my foot in it and asked over on the Asylum Computer Audio Forum if anyone had done a PC vs Mac comparison and if not, would anyone want to.  YEEOW!  All I got were comments that it was pointless for a myriad of reasons.  I can't help but think that the main negative reason would be that it would end many of their daily posting arguments if someone were to produce a real comparison with valid results saying one format sounded better.  Every time I post elsewhere I am reminded of what a great group of people we have here at Bottlehead.
 
For the most part, I've given up on most of the online computer audio forums.
That's not to say that they aren't very helpful in getting a computer rig put together from square one or finding out the latest stuff that you might want to try.
But when it comes down to refining the sound that comes out of it, I can't say I've ever seen so much confusion!
 
Got the Juli@ and installed easily. However, it doesn't seem to recognize samples rates over 44.1. I can play 24/96 files in foobar or J.River Music, but they only appear as 44.1 in Juli@. When I force the sample rate to 96k they sound all sped up and wrong.

Any clues as to what I've done wrong?
 
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