Topic: Finished the Main Playback...what about the Bedroom?

[edtyre]

Thanks to some nice folks here i have a cool playback
system in my home office and i really like it. 
Macintosh > Grace 902 > PSA HCA-2 > Von Schweikert  2100
Macintosh > Grace 902 > Senn 650 (cardas cable)

Now looking to have a headphone playback in the bedroom
here's what i have so far:

Apple Airport Express > Headroom Micro Amp > Senn 580
OPPO DV-970HD > Headroom Micro Amp > Senn 580

http://www.headphone.com/products/headphone-amps/the-micro-line/
http://www.oppodigital.com/products.asp

Right now i'm using the analog out on both the Airport and Oppo and the sound
is decent but not great. What do i need to improve this setup? What about just
adding a DAC to what i have so i can go digital out? I'm committed to Itunes for
streaming, so i'm not going the SB route. (have 2000 shows in Itunes)

Empirical Audio has some interesting options http://www.empiricalaudio.com/

Don't really have a budget, looking for options. I thought about another Grace
but that will be overkill for very limited use setup.

[fozzy]

My budget office playback is currently PC (generic coax card) > Lucid DA9624 > AKG K240/Etymotic ER6i and is very decent.

The lucid can be had for cheap, you may also want to look @ a benchmark dac1 (It would also be interchangeable w/ your grace to try out a different sound in your main playback)
When i rebuild my main playback I am looking at the becnhmark or the PS Audio Digital Link III

I don't know if the Bel Canto DAC2 will fit well into setup w/ two different sources.

[Nick's Picks]

How are those 2100's treating you?
pretty bombastic eh?

[edtyre]

How are those 2100's treating you?
pretty bombastic eh?

Nick

Great! They are perfect for my little office and are
a good match for the HCA2. The speaker wires you sold
me also make a big difference, nice stuff thanks!

[BC]

as far as getting a DAC some reasonable priced options are the Benchmark DAC1, Musical Fidelity XDACv3, and the headroom microDAC. Some of the Headroom stuff with built in DAC's look nice too.

[edtyre]

speaking about DAC options......has anyone used the products here:

The Pacific Valve & Electric Company
http://www.pacificvalve.us/

Lots of chinese made products.

[Nick's Picks]

i've had a LITE DAC 60 before.  nice piece for the money.

[jbraveman]

Ed I'm wondering about playback from the mac myself.  I've got a macbook on the way, but I'm wondering what program to use to playback my music.  I have mostly flac and some 24 bit flac files and the occaisonal wavpack.  Most everything is stored on external drives.  Foobar on my pc is great, but what is recommended for them mac?

[edtyre]

Ed I'm wondering about playback from the mac myself.  I've got a macbook on the way, but I'm wondering what program to use to playback my music.  I have mostly flac and some 24 bit flac files and the occaisonal wavpack.  Most everything is stored on external drives.  Foobar on my pc is great, but what is recommended for them mac?

I am using Itunes but it has a major bug (see my other post here)
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,84986.0.html
I converted all my flacs including the 24 bit to apple lossless and the
sound of everything is great, just that itunes can't keep track of all of its tracks
if you have too many

Itunes doesn't play flac files.

Play
http://sbooth.org/Play/
can play flacs and 24 bit flacs

only been using Play as a quick drag and drop player, haven't tryed out
the playlist features.
 
Check out Max for converting from one format to another
flys on my intel mac
http://sbooth.org/Max/

Any other Mac music server software people are using?

[bgalizio]

Any other Mac music server software people are using?

Slimserver works great for me!

[jbraveman]

Ed I'm wondering about playback from the mac myself.  I've got a macbook on the way, but I'm wondering what program to use to playback my music.  I have mostly flac and some 24 bit flac files and the occaisonal wavpack.  Most everything is stored on external drives.  Foobar on my pc is great, but what is recommended for them mac?

I am using Itunes but it has a major bug (see my other post here)
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,84986.0.html
I converted all my flacs including the 24 bit to apple lossless and the
sound of everything is great, just that itunes can't keep track of all of its tracks
if you have too many

Itunes doesn't play flac files.

Play
http://sbooth.org/Play/
can play flacs and 24 bit flacs

only been using Play as a quick drag and drop player, haven't tryed out
the playlist features.
 
Check out Max for converting from one format to another
flys on my intel mac
http://sbooth.org/Max/

Any other Mac music server software people are using?

Thanks for the suggestion.  I've got over a TB of archived music and converting it is really not an option.  Once my mac arrives I'll give those programs  a shot.  Does the optical out of the macbook support 24/96?