New Computer: What Should I Get for Audio?

Wow…thank you for so many responses. I have to admit, though, that I am overwhelmed already. For example, I don’t have a clue what some of the acronyms and abbreviations mean. I am having difficulty even forming questions, but I’ll start with the most obvious ones.

Roscoe: I don’t understand “You could not use you PC/Mac with an Oppo. It can take hard drives or flash drives and then you choose music on screen with the remote.” What’s the point of the Oppo having a USB input (or eStat, whatever that is) if it can’t be used "with" a PC/Mac? And I don’t understand what your second sentence means at all. I guess I’m dumber than I thought when it comes to “computer audio”.

I guess a question is “what is a digital input?” Dan Wright is working on a digital input for the Oppo 95, and people are excited about it. If USB (or eStat again) isn’t already a digital input, what the heck is it? I think I must be missing some very fundamental knowledge that most everyone takes for granted?

Alex: I’m not sure what this - “(x64)” - next to Windows 7 means? That I want a 64 bit computer to play hi-rez files? Also, what’s the “HT”in front “PC” - i.e., “HTPC” – mean? (just Googled this…Home Theater…man, this gets complicated to think about…I have separate audio and video systems…the video not nearly as good for audio…and don’t have much room or flexibility to adjust)

I just noticed this: Timlub says “Any Windows machine will include an optical drive, so you would need a USB DAC”. Again, why couldn’t I use the Oppo, since it has a USB input?

Alex mentions ripping CDs. I don’t care about doing that, although I suppose people might be thinking that down the road I’m going to want to do that. For now, though, I’m just interested in being able to access hi-rez files and play them through a high-end audio system. On the other hand, based on what Timlub is saying, maybe I don’t need to do this at all. ??? (I’ve been assuming that I could potentially get much better sound with hi-rez files…maybe even sounding as good as great analog? Maybe the differences between truly great Redbook on today’s best players (e.g., Playback Designs, the Modwright Oppo, etc) and hi-rez files is not that big? Maybe I should just get a Modwright Oppo (considered by at least one guy on Agon to be significantly better than the Playback Designs player), and forget about computer audio.

A final thought:
I clearly do not know what I don’t know.

Sorry for so many questions. ALL your answers are much appreciated!

You should think about ripping CDs, with dbpoweramp on PC or XLD on Mac. You will not find very much of the music you like and are familiar in hi-res downloads. Very limited IME.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Thanks Steve. That's very helpful information.

Jfz,

Yes, 64 bit Windows 7 "sounds" a lot better than 32 bit.
You can also use a laptop with great results (I personally like the newer Core i3/5/7 Toshiba laptops) but make sure it comes with a separate graphics card, not using the Intel integrated graphics. Then you can use a DAC with USB input, or get USB to S/PDIF interface and use with any DAC.

I've tried all available ripping software programs (both PC and Mac) and did not find anything better than JRiver MC16/17 in "secure 4x" mode ripping to WAV.

Best wishes,
Alex Peychev

If you are going the PC route I would look into both JRiver and JPlay. JRiver is a nice program that will manage your music library, let your rip CD's and allows you to convert music formats(among other things). JPlay is (to my ears) the best sounding music player for windows. It can be used as a stand alone version or as a plug in to JRiver. I've tried most of the alternative free versions out there but am happy I invested in these two programs.

Other things I would recommend - Don't skimp on system memory. Minimum of 4G and more if you can. I use a separate 2TB USB drive for all my music. Some folks swear by Solid State Drives with no moving parts. Windows 7 (64 bit) is probably your best bet now until Windows 8 comes along.

Good luck