Windows XP or Windows 7?

BTW... i RECENTLY ASKED A LIKEWISE q HERE:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Should-I-move-XP-Pro-Win-7

Blindjim, read it from an Article in a National Magazine.
Some Professor who is supposed to be an expert in utilizing
and upgrading PC's for Music Storage. It just goes to show the Misinformation Mine Field that Novices like me have to navigate. For me it is the biggest objection to utilizing
PC's for Music Storage. In other words, its a real drag
that is so wrong on so many levels. I only wish that
proponents would atleast acknowledge this instead of just bragging about the advantages. It is a SERIOUS PROBLEM, and the lack of addressing it turns most people off. Your
average Geek Squad is extremely knowledgable in ALL
applications of PC; but, knows next to nothing about Music
Storage and could care less. It is not how they get their Music. Is there ANY reliable source out there that can
answer ALL questions accurately? How about a step by step
process or proceedure so that even a Novice with a PC can
upgrade for Music Storage. Don't tell me that it depends
on what you want, that is the lazy mans excuse. There
should be a Reliable and Accurate source of Info that
covers many options. The fact that there is a vacuum is
telling. No-one is really serious about utilizing
downloading to replace the optical disk. Prove me wrong!

Ahh Pettyofficer...try here:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/

Pettyofficer

Easy tiger.. ‘cause it is easy, once you get some more info.

A friend of mine, now retired, was a district super for IBM. With limited time on the job at IBM, and responsible for improving their training department, he noted quite readily , the reason they had so many bad managers was that the bad managers were doing the training. They were ill equipped to train or lead, for that matter.

That’s the lot we have daily now in our own existence. It’s everywhere. Lack of product knowledge and technical expertise, as well as apporpriate sales people is rampant. Half truths and facts unsaid are the soup du jour. I feel your pain.

But take it easy. It’s all going to work out . If you want it to.

The problem is/are the amount of choices the PC based music devotee has in front of them now. Wired. Wireless. File types. Lossless or lossey. Bit perfect or bit true same thing actually. Which media Player? Want to use a sound card output via SPDIF/BNC/AES ? Want to go USB OR FIREWIRE? Want to make the music available any where locally or just anywhere? What about file storage and archiving? Got a thousand CDs? More? Less? All of these factors play into making a very good or very inadequate decision initially.

and just how far into the rabbit hole do you want to go fidelity wise with your audio playback? This part alone indicates the budget primarily.

You’ve got a pc already,. Got a DAC? If so you’re half way there.

There’s tons of info here if you search the archives. This querry comes along a few times a month and I’m tired of laying it all out over and over again, truth be told. It’s all over the web too if you use the links supplied just so far in this thread.

The obvious Q I’d ask is just how serious are you about going fully PC based with your music? If you’re serious indeed, you’ll do some researching and then ask more pointed questions to which you’ll get cleaner answers.

The biggest dilemmas for me were which DAC to go with, and which way to feed it from the PC. I had no DAC to begin with and went along the hard way trial and error on my own. The DAC and how it’s fed are the two main keys for PC playback. Sound waulity depends on those and the systems abilities working in concert. Your media player and file type selection add in significantly, though not as much as the aforementioned..

My current XP box delivers for me in my main system, sound quality on par with CDPs which range in the $5K to $7K retail arenas..IMHO

Consequently, I feel a hard drive based music playback rig is worth some effort . And with a $5-6K CDP .. it’s one album at a time. With a PC affair, it’s whatever whenever, and as quick as you can type or click . Or you can revert and simply play the whole album just like it was a CDP.

Concentrate on the themes you see recurring and bypass the unique & one off aspects. It’s really not that tuff to figure this out. The more tedius aspect will be the ripping everything to your drive (s) with error checking applications and that’s not rocket science either..

The bit on Win 7 or XP gets simpler each month as support will soon be non existant for XP and then it becomes entirely a DIY project. It’ll be a while for Win 7’s support to pass by. For music? Both work very well. Until it’s necessary then, like getting a new box I’ll stick with XP.

Thanks for the response Blindjim. As far as getting reams of info off of the Internet, ahhh thats pretty much where I got the Article from the prementioned Professor. The guy who claims that Windows XP downsamples everything to 16Bit/44.1kHz. He claims that Windows XP should be avoided at all costs when converting a PC for Music Storage. That is only one of a whole litany of his suggestions. His Article was Archived on the Website of a Major National Stereo Magazine. It was backdated only 8 Months ago.
The truth is that I have gotten damn little acurate and reliable info off of the Internet, Archived or not! It is mostly misinformation based on opinion, ego, bragging rights, and damn little science or reason. Can't get a straight answer out of no-one, and the Internet only increases the flotsam of choices in misinformation. Computeraudiophile please! Not another blogging Superbowl of opinion based Debate Showdown! I am here to try and learn, not pick sides. I have already recieved one Major Gross Conceptual Error, a fatal one, from THAT RELIABLE SOURCE! Look, if I can atleast find three sources that agree on one thing, that might be reasonably reliable albeit without any guarantee. NO JOY so far! The Vacuum of concensus is mind numbing, and the Manufacturers/Experts
/Technocrats don't know or could care less! It would seem that the whole concept of PC based Music Storage is one based on confusion, misinformation, obfuscation, and misdirection. Is there even one PC or Laptop Manufacturer that has designed even one device that is optimized for Music Storage? Before I get thousands of replies, is there one that utilizes a linear Power Supply instead of a Switching Mode Power Supply that creates EMI/RFI on the output to your DAC? Any takers? It is really simple, a SMPS costs 1/10th of a Linear Power Supply to Manufacture. A linear Power Supply is what you will find in some of the best sounding Stereo Equipment due to the lack of switching noise in the Power Supply. In Computer Equipment, not so much, how about even just one. You wondered why your Music first sounded like crap when you connected your Computer to your Stereo System. Hey, the Manufacturers aren't exactly beating down the doors to get the first Laptop/PC optimized with a linear Power Supply for Music Storage on the market, now are they? It is just going to be another decade of one expensive bandaid after another of tiny incremental improvement with SMPS. The Manufacturers said it best when they said, "the PC was never really designed for Music Storage"! What they failed to mention was that they would be damned if they would ever design a PC for Music Storage. Do Music Servers utilize Switching Mode Power Supplies? Has anyone even bothered to find out? I will continue to try and crack the Enigma that is PC based Music Storage. I am NOT very encouraged! Shoot, I could practically pay a Technician to build a Linear Power Supply and replace that piece of crap on my Computer right now. I will keep digging into the Technical aspects of this Application.