Topic: Soundcards

[berger]

I was refered over here for a little insight from you all.  I am trying to find a good soundcard for my computer.  What my plan is to link a group of external hard drives to my computer, loading them with differnet shows and music and what-not.  I want to run the computer into my stereo, and then have a touch screen monitor in a different room to access all the files/music.  One thing I am looking for is a sound card that has software that equates to a mixing board, somewhere to tweak all the different levels and what not.  Also, I have a Yamaha receiver that has a "Digital Input Coaxial" port, as well as the normal red and white ports.  What I am looking at is the M-Audio 7.1, the M-Audio 5.1, the Audiophile 2496 and now the Delta DiO 2496.  Anyone know what would be good, a good price, anything of the sort.  Also, I am not overly concerned about surround sound.  Most music that I listen to is live recordings and what not, and I also have a home theater system for DVD movies, so...  All input would be appreciated.

Berger

[JackoRoses]

If you are not going to be doing any transfers etc with the card.
I would recommend the revolution 7.1 card.
You can use it for HT if you like and it comes with plenty of connections.
I believe it supports spdif and toslink.
24 bit support I am unsure of if that matters.
If it does matter the audiophile and the delta dio both support 24 bit and I know they have digi out.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Why would you put a touch panel in another room?

have you thought about using wireless and VNC to access the server using laptop?  Access from your seat or anywhere in the house for that matter.

[berger]

Why would you put a touch panel in another room?

We have the stereo and computer in seperate rooms in the basement, but have speakers upstairs in living room, some in sun room, and some outside, areas that are away from computer and stereo.  I hadn't thought about wireless, hmm...  I probably could buy a laptop for not a whole lot more than a touch screen, huh?

[MattD]

How about a PDA with bluetooth?

[berger]

I have never heard of BlueTooth.  What is that all about?

[MattD]

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth2.htm

[dnsacks]

Berger - are you planning on streaming 16 bit/44.1k material, or do you intend to work with higher bandwidth stuff?

I'm not concerned about higher bandwidth stuff and ended up purchasing and installing a squeezebox (www.slimdevices.com) -- ran me $200 -- hooks up to my pc via ethernet cable and allows me to access/play whatever I want from my pc (which is upstairs) on my stereo (which is downstairs) -- not as sexy as a touchpanel/wireless setup (and only supports up to 16bit/48k), but it does play FLAC files natively and has a 2 line display and a remote.  I can easily navigate using its interface to find and play whatever I want off of my 400+gb (and growing) computer-based music collection. The squeezebox has a digital out (coax and optical) that I feed directly to my sony strda5000es -- you could do the same with your digital tuner.

Darrin

[berger]

First off, thanks to everyone for all the suggestions.  It's nice to get suggestions and be able to talk through my ideas and get feedback.

That said, I hate to say it, but one of the things I am looking for is the "sexiness" of the touch screen.  We bought a nice, old, 1912 brick bungalow that has a lot of built-in bookcases, old woodwork, that kind of thing.  We have a formal living room that we are making modern, without taking away from the characteristics of a "1912 brick bungalow."  We have tower speakers hidden in the corner, and no stereo equipment or really anything electronic in the room.  It is nice, dark wood in there, and I figured introducing a black touch screen onto one of the shelves in the built-in bookcase would blend in nicely, and the monitor could be turned off even when there is music playing, making it even more unobtrusive.  (I am trying to sort of explain in detail so you can kind of picture a little what I am talking about.)
Also, with the sound card, I will have outputs to run the cables from the computer to my steroe, a distance of maybe 10 feet.  Also, with the sound card, I hope to pick up a mixer in the software, thus being able to tweak levels and almost re-master some of my shows.
I own a xbox and have a wireless network for Xbox Live, so the thought of a laptop crossed my mind, but then I wouldn't be able to use the mixer software without installing it on the laptop, where if I use a split on the monitor, I can have access to it from both screens. 

[dnsacks]

fyi, the squeezebox is real small (about the size of a normal hardcover book) and could be hidden.  All of its functions can remotely controlled via any device that can access your intranet and work through a web broser, i.e. touchscreen or a PDA (palmpilot) equipped with wireless access -- only thing you'd be missing would be the ability to eq recordings on the fly (which could be a challenge regardless).

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

You're worried about admitting that you'd spend absurd amounts on gear because it's "sexy"?  Have you not read the other threads in this forum?  :-)


For the laptop (aka thin client solution) you would not have to install any mixing software on the portable client.  You would install all the audio processing software on the media server and it would execute there.  You would access the media server GUI via remote login using VNC or WinXP-pro offers remote access like PC-anywhere.  So you would attach to the media server and execute audio functions there but the GUI would be exported to your remote thin client.

I understand what you are describing.  That sounds really cool.  I can appreciate wanting to preserve the appearence of the room.  If you are interested in a portable wireless option but want a sexy touch screen interface, search on google for wireless "thin client" touch screen and you should find some touch screen tablet PCs with wireless capability that will allow remote access and give you the visual impression that you want.


Just to get you worked up:
http://www.twindata.com/affirmative/yestablet.htm
http://www.acutetech.com/-prod_8kEX.html
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS2572176618.html
http://www.thinplanet.com/products/specs.asp?f=PRnumber&k=s&v=PR37312