Topic: Help please: laptop, flacs ina new media room

[Todd R]

these have intrigued me for sometime and Stereophile gave both the $300 and $100 versions very good reviews in the latest issue,
http://www.musicdirect.com/product/85434
http://www.musicdirect.com/product/85279

Absolute Sound has given them great reviews too.

It's on my Christmas list

The problem with those is they are limited to 16bit.  I was searching around on this last week, and the only USB DAC I was finding that was 24bit was the Monitor 01 Audball posted.

Actually, the version Audball posted was just a digi converter box, converting USB to spdif (BNC, coax, optical).  If you want the similar USB DAC, you need to get the Monitor 01 US which adds analog RCA out and headphone out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350224614201

Unfortunately, the problem with these Monitor boxes is they apparently do not work with Macs, only PCs.  On this topic, does anyone know of a relatively low cost ($100-150 range) USB DAC that works on Mac and does 24bit?  At this point I'm starting to give up on the idea of going digital out of my iMac via the USB, and using the optical-mini spdif out instead, since that opens up the DAC options immensely.

[ashevillain]

On this topic, does anyone know of a relatively low cost ($100-150 range) USB DAC that works on Mac and does 24bit? 

Seems like the M-Audio Transit would work for this.

[Todd R]

Thanks for the tip on the Transit.

I had looked at that, but I thought it was a digi format converter only (USB>spdif) and not a DAC too -- I missed the 1/8" headphone/line out.

Hmm, I'll have to think about that....I wonder how well it performs as a DAC.   I would've preferred RCA outs, but I guess the mini would work.  I first looked at it just for the spdif out, but spdif out is optical and it turns out the optical input on my current DAC is fried (only works with the coax input).

[Scooter123]

I have your contemplated system, made some mistakes, and am redoing with a new computer.

What I did 6 years ago, is have a rack mount CPU with 3 500g hard drives in a RAID formation so if one fails the data is mirrored on the other two.  I use Media Monkey as my juke box.  I have a Layla Soundcard into the tape inputs of a rack mounted Adcom set up, with two huge amps, preamp, and sequencer.  I added a rack mount battery back up and lights.  It is really ugly and with all the fans, is very loud.

What I would do now is have a similar, but remote, rack mounted system, but now understand that you can fit three 1TB drives into a rack mounted CPU now.  Alternatively, and this is what I'm planning is to buy a a standard 500g rack mounted computer and CPU with 3-4 external Lacie HDs, probably 4 TB each, one main, one back up, and one third back up, all formatted to back up with Folder Clone.  I'd have a network card, and send the RJ45 to the music room.  In the music room, I'd have a cheap computer with a sound card to my analog system, probably rack mounted.


Thats what I'd do now.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Michael - which network server are you using?

I have two.  An ubuntu box with xbmc/myth and a dlink NAS with upnp server

[Tim]

gracias

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

I have more time to write now so here goes:

I have a pair of 500GB mirrored in the NAS.  The NAS is used only to hold masters (master flacs, samplitude project files, etc).  That one is getting full and I'm in the process of ripping all my old masters from DAT.  So they go to the RAID when I get a pair of 1.5T drives. 

The ubuntu box has a small boot drive and a 1TB drive for all of my playable media.  To that I have ripped all my commercial CDs and DVD images so I can access then from the HTPC client.  The music is organized by artist them album.  I have all my authored live stuff and the stuff I download mixed in under the same structure so that when I go looking for an artist everything is under there.

I have the ubuntu box samba mounted on my laptop and I use foobar to playback music, VLC to play back the DVDs.  I bought an Mvix Ultio for HTPC.  I still haven't streamed with it but I think I'm going to buy a pair of ethernet-over-power bricks this weekend to get traffic to my room with the TV.  I have used the ultio to listen to music on an external USB HD and feed analog to the system in there.  It's good for that purpose.  I would hook it to the big system but I have no monitor in there and I would really rather get an outboard DAC to feed 24-bit from the ultio, but I'm going to wait until CES to see what else comes out that will stream.  The ultio is fine for the TV room and streaming DVDs. 

The upnp clients I have tested on the laptop work well with both boxes but without proper metadata files or a media DB to drive the upnp interface, it's just file system browsing so I use the samba interface. 

[Tim]

and again I cringe at the thought of having to have an IT guy on call just to listen to my tunes. I feel like MOke when it comes to this stuff

Thanks for the detail Michael.

[Jimna]

just another option to consider:

 i have a POS pc w/ a maudio audiophile 2496 soundcard (waaaaay less than 200 bucks- esp used), stuffed full of hd's, on my home network, and hooked to my stereo via coax. i have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard if myself or others wanna play "dj" or remote dektop in via my laptop if i dont want to get off the couch.

damn thats a good idea!  my only snag is the need to get up to change music, ill give the remote desktop a try soon.

[Tim]

my only snag is the need to get up to change music

also, to take a piss and get another beer. If I could get a recliner toilet and a beer IV I'd be all set.

[Todd R]

I have more time to write now so here goes:

I have a pair of 500GB mirrored in the NAS.  The NAS is used only to hold masters (master flacs, samplitude project files, etc).  That one is getting full and I'm in the process of ripping all my old masters from DAT.  So they go to the RAID when I get a pair of 1.5T drives. 

The ubuntu box has a small boot drive and a 1TB drive for all of my playable media.  To that I have ripped all my commercial CDs and DVD images so I can access then from the HTPC client.  The music is organized by artist them album.  I have all my authored live stuff and the stuff I download mixed in under the same structure so that when I go looking for an artist everything is under there.

I have the ubuntu box samba mounted on my laptop and I use foobar to playback music, VLC to play back the DVDs.  I bought an Mvix Ultio for HTPC.  I still haven't streamed with it but I think I'm going to buy a pair of ethernet-over-power bricks this weekend to get traffic to my room with the TV.  I have used the ultio to listen to music on an external USB HD and feed analog to the system in there.  It's good for that purpose.  I would hook it to the big system but I have no monitor in there and I would really rather get an outboard DAC to feed 24-bit from the ultio, but I'm going to wait until CES to see what else comes out that will stream.  The ultio is fine for the TV room and streaming DVDs. 

The upnp clients I have tested on the laptop work well with both boxes but without proper metadata files or a media DB to drive the upnp interface, it's just file system browsing so I use the samba interface.

Damn, was that english?

I think when I've got some time, I can get myself set up with dual monitors with this post on one screen and an open wikipedia page on the other and I can try to decipher it.  I have a feeling there is a lot of useful information in this post....

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Sorry.  I write like I talk at work.  Its not that hard to set up.

Samba exposes a shared directory so you see it in your windows explorer.  For a Home Theater PC client you can use a little media box like the ultio or a regular PC with linux or windows to access the shared drive.  If you have a laptop and a networked server you already do this when you share directories.

For UPNP, it's almost automatic.  Windows Media Player 11 supports upnp and when the network server announces itself on the LAN WMP11 will just tell you a new device has shown up.  iirc Media Monkey and Winamp have client plugins.  You can use a regular PC with twonkey vision as a upnp server.  upnp is nice because it allows the server to send data like name, genre, etc and link to an album cover.  If you have a playstation 3, their new firmware has updated the UPNP client and it's really nice.

Most of the software has gotten really friendly now so set up isn't hard.

Check out twonkymedia site.  They have a media manager package that is really nice and it just drops in to whatever server you are using. 

[Jimna]

my only snag is the need to get up to change music

also, to take a piss and get another beer. If I could get a recliner toilet and a beer IV I'd be all set.

[Todd R]

Thanks Mike.  I guess I'm pretty happy with the squeezebox for audio streaming.  I haven't really followed at all HTPC or video streaming.  I'll have to get caught up on that some day.  For now I can stream netflix from my bluray player, so that seems enough.

I had no idea until your post, but it looks like there is a lot of cool stuff for digital media these days.