Let's get digital

you wont get 5400rpm and large capacity easily. you are correct, but the PC industry is moving the goalposts to 7200rpm especially if you want larger capacities.

next gen 7200rpm will make 5400 seem positivly clunky!

FDB (fluid dynamic bearing) is absolutly the way......there is a particular manufacturer that leads the field in this area.

Remember....a quite drive is only quite if you guard against amplifying seek noise.

 

Well the basic aim is to get iPod flexibility with CDS2 quality (now, now WM you know what I mean) and high end meaning "as good as I can afford" so as little compression as possible. Space shouldn't be an issue

I was reading on another forum that keeping the various delicate sounds circuits well away from power supplies was important. Heard that somewhere else too

Hmm got a lot to think about here and very grateful for the advice.

 

I suddenly feel so much better about the state of my social life...

 

Tom, the squeezebox approach and a quality dac is the way forward here IMO.

 

Hi guys, whilst I have the right kind of audience could I just but in with a question? Since upgrading my PC to XP I don't have a program that will rip my CDs anymore. What's cheap (ie free) and best to use just to rip individual WAV files to make my own compilations?

 

liamjf, try cdex, works well for me.
can rip as wav or mp3 etc.
http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

 

I use www.dbpoweramp.com it rips anything with the right plugin and uses Lame for MP3's (and its free)

 

Tom,

A 1.2 Ghz mini-itx motherboard should do you, check out :-

http://www.mini-itx.com/

Also look at iTunes from Apple, it's free and very easy to use.

Make sure you back up your mp3's or what ever to an external hard disc unit.

 

also check out this thread from dominicT a while back, or went for the mac / firewire / dac route
https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?t=2832

 

I'd be inclined to take Julian's recommendation of a normal PC, connected using a squeezebox. The key benefit being that you can put the PC anywhere in the house and link via RF, which means that issues of how the PC looks and the associated noise are simply not important.

Just one other thought not mentioned here. Ensure you build a PC with a RAID drive array setup for "mirror". That means that if you're hard drive dies, you can simply use the backup drive and you won't have to re-load hundreds of albums. The cost to do this is probably only a £100 more, so you'd be mad not to.

 

The TCP/IP route is an interesting one - when the packetisation occurs (ie before the host PC fires the music to the sqeeze box) should you be worried about the PC and its associated probs? Being EMI, RFI, vibration, crap PSU?

And does the cable run accross the network cause any problems? (I guess this depends on how the packets are recoverd?

How could the Squeeze box be improved? And should the old Jitter question be raised concerning squeezebox to DAC connection?

 

Already done Craig

 

I'd not suggest RAID unless you also stored a copy elsewhere, with a RAID mirror if you in error delete your files, they are removed off the mirror too

It takes ages to rip 500+ cd's and external storage is dirt cheap.

 

Started looking at component parts and then thought "Sod it" so rang Dell. They are quoting roughly £850 for an overkill PC with a 400gb HDD. Even if I buy a second HDD & a seperate DAC the total package is still way under the £4k budget.

I'm not committing just yet but I know what I'm getting when I finally do "upgrade"

 

ugh dont buy a dell

try http://www.carillondirect.com/clnweb/index.jsp?country=UK
for a "music" pc.

 

tom,
one of dell's 299 specials would do the trick or visit a local computer fair and see if there is anyone willing to make you up a machine for mspare parts that they'd never sell to anyone else. honestly the big things are HDD space and ram and 1tb and 256 meg would do just fine with anything over a pentum 2. also check out your local independant pc shop they may have something old in the back room that they'd be willing to let you take away for a few quid. adding a sata card and some big drives is easy after that.
video and sound card matter not a jot if you go the tcp/ip route.

lamboy,
theoretically the pc should have little or no bearing on the sound however experimentation with supports and power leads suggest otherwise. of couse this wasn;t blind abx null tested so is probably all psychosomatic but thats what we heard.
i suspect that clocking and psuing the squeezebox would work a treat too but to be honest i just can;t be bothered. the only things i want to do is eventually quieten the server and then get all my naim boxes re-capped and overhauled - that'll cost though as i'm toying with a play with valves while the kit's away on holiday and there is no way i can afford that at present.
cheers


julian

 

Well, I've two already, so I was interested just how cheaply they could do the package. Yes I know I can do it more cheaply elsewhere. What was interesting was that their really cheap stuff doesn't allow for growth, expansion etc. i.e the motherboards are complete with no chance of adding "non standard" items such as sound cards or additional HDDs.

So in the end I will look elsewhere but it's useful to have a reference point

 

Just looked at the Carillon site which looks interesting.

 

I suppose my thoughts today have been that the days of the silver disk are numbered. Sure the technology is still improving but the fact you are attempting to extract data from a non stable moving object has some serious issues which can be largely bypassed by the use of HDD and Memory stick solutions. And for a fraction of the cost.

Still, I'm keeping the turntable. Can't beat nice shiny black vinyl

 

tom,
i don;t think silver disks days are numbered (or at least i hope not) unless downloadable music and the attendant copyright nightmare is handled correctly. i still prefer to buy music on cd and rip it myself into a format that i think is the one to use. alc is the only other possibility at present but that is still potentially subject to some draconian copyright changes at a later date. if i could go to amazon and buy an album in flac format for 1/2 the price i could at tescos, mvc or virgin then i'd be doing that. as it is apples 79p a track means a 10 track album costs £7.90 and has the copyright 'problems'. i'd rather pay an extra 2 quid and be able to do what the fcuk i like with the music.
cheers


julian