Windows XP or Windows 7?

Hmmmm.

Think about what you’ve just said . Personal confuser makers don’t make confusers dedicated to music . Nor will they . Maybe so. Maybe no.

Per se? you’re right on. Can there be one made? Absolutely. That’s what all the DIY’ing stuff online is all about. Some 3rd party sources ARE indeed making music server systems. Some even load your music into them.

The thing is audio nuts rate near nothing on the vast horizon of future PC buyers. Why then should the PC makers devote any time at all to our preferences, desires or needs? They shouldn’t and they won’t. it’s just good business sense.

Even if they were to offer some semblance of upper end audio machines, it’s doubtful one size would fit all anyhow! Some audio nut is going to want an extra this or one less that in the mix somewhere! Consequently we have to roll our own and get exactly what we want or very darn well close to it!

I’ll not support nor deny the claims of a windows os altering or downsampling native resolutions of music files. I will say for certain there are ways to avoid or prevent this from occuring . if indeed it does. i alluded to this in my earlier posts too.

I also said you can delve into the rabbit hole as deeply as you wish. Tricked out power sups, 64 bit system w/water or gas cooling shrouds, internal or externally damped cases, etc. The sky’s the limit, or your resources and imagination is your limit.

If at the Comp Audiophile website you simply read thru the FAQ section much info can be gained there. It is illuminated primarily by the sites host who is on the ball about comp audio on quite high levels. You could also refer to Gordon Rankins Wavelength Audio website. Lavry Engineering’s site too holds much wisdom. Those are where I began. Other’s of note are Weiss Engineering & Bel Canto. All of which are major players and have been doing this digital to analog conversion business for years and years. Rankin and Weiss philosophies take their bent on direct from pc audio streams via USB & Firewire, respectively.

BC & Lavry have long standing exp in just the conversion of digital audio streams taken from ANY such producing appliances. Lavry more so for the pro audio market until recently.

The media player you choose is important too. It must be able to accept particular input engines and as well outputs, in order to preserve pure audio streams from being affected by ANY OS . NOT just Windows.

The good news is that there are several which accommodate just these items. Fubar 2K, JR Media Center, Winamp, and some other one with Monkey in the title there’s more I believe.some are free some are not. An iTunes plugin called Amarra that handles high res file sampling rates and bit depths goes for hundreds of dollars and it’s aimed directly at the Mac owners.

I’ve concerned myself with what matters first. Added in what I wanted to accomplish and how much of all that I could afford and just jumped into the fray.

In many HE Audio devices I emphatically agree power sups are of key interest during this trek. I’ve even upgraded my own PC’s PS. I FOUND HOWEVER that is of such minimal benefit as to be no more than an afterthought of overkill. Especially IF all the processing is taking place outside of the PC itself . My setup does exactly that.

I’ve treated my PC sound system like any other source device. Better power cord. Galvonic isolation. Electrical isolation. Power line artifacts have been sufficiently addressed too. My box rests on a high mass well damped upper end audio rack. All the files are contained outboard of it and so is the digital to analog converter. Each portion of the signal path has received likewise treatment (s).

I currently use a broadband USB to BNC converter which passes unadulterated signals from 16/44 to 24/176.4 into a stand alone DAC thru an oyiade silver BNC cable.

I got the DAC for about $1700. The Hiface converter for $180. The oyaide BNC wire for $220. I’ll admit too my dual core PC was free, compliments of the V.A.. Otherwise that box runs about $400 - $500. A 1TB NAS server @ $250. A USB/eSATA enclosure for $25 and $110 for the 1.5 TB drive within it for 1:1 backups.

Power & interconnect cables are whatever one wishes to or not to spend. So to is the system all of this will ultimately feed.

So at about $3K (not including racks, cables, or power conds) I’ve surpassed many twice the price disc spinners in sound quality, versatility, and functionality. Other multi media functions are surely available too should I desire to pursue them . And I can use all the ancillary and mundane functions Bill Gates intended.

Another debatable step up here could be adding a Lynx AES 16 PCIe card and a reclocker. Another $1000 or so. But I’ve seen no concrete evidence nor subjective evidence that such a step would be a prudent or even worthwhile one to endure.

The better move is to upgrade my DAC or replace it. As the DAC is the keystone in the PC music based arrangement.

You could just reroute your Ethernet cable to a $300 Airport express and be done too.

It’s all up to you. I’d not be to despondent or aggravated about the often perceived confusion surrounding the PC based array. I’m sure you are smart enough to figure out what’s best for your needs along the way.

Any more pointed questions you have which I can answer for you feel free to E me privately.

Good luck....

Thanks Blindjim! You have certainly helped enlighten a blind Pettyofficer. V.A., are you ex-military? I am 20yr.
Retiree myself. Yeah sure, that explains a great many things. Who would have thunk it, huh? There really is no other way to learn this except getting feet wet/trial and error. Hopefully it will not cost too much. Atleast this is the third time that I have heard of Fubar. What is the story on USB 3.0? USB/eSATA, is that a solid state storage device? I can see that I don't have the Hard Drive Storage or the Ram for High Resolution Music Storage application. This is going to take allot of time and upgrading of my current System. I am going to have to take it real slow one step at a time. I am going to have to keep reading and learning what I can. Thanks for the help.

Six years. USN. Two bird farms and one frigate. Honorably separated. They don’t agree my vision loss occurred during my hitch though so there’s that still .. and finding leagal representation aginst the VA/Govt is about impossible or so I’ve seen so far. Vets and their claims truly get the shaft hard.

Fubar 2K is just one of many media players. It’s attraction is several fold it’s free for one, it’s capable of playing about every file format when configured properly it allows for bit perfect or bit true playback as it has plugins which support aSIO, Kernel Streaming, and WASAPI. It works on Windows OS thru Win 7. It allows bypassing of the Windows sound mixer yet enables volume control too. Normally, that doesn’t happen.

USB 3.0? Beats me. There is sufficient trhu put on USB 2.0 for HD audio palyback.

Ripping CDs to Lossless files will consume some disc space. You can put around 2500+ albums onto a 1TB drive if all were ripped in lossless formats, such as WAV, AIF, FLAC etc. I’d say stay away from WAV though. It won’t store track and id or other info like AIF, FLAC & Apple lossless ALAC.

Even if your files are compressed adding some of the things I pointed to earlier will sure improve the sound. There’s one newish ‘bridge’ gizmo that sells for 450.00 called the halide Bridge which requires no DAC. Plugs into your USB port and has a pr of analog RCA output connections on the other end of it’s 6ft or so length. It only will handle up to 24/96 resolutions though. Which might be just fine for you for now.

Media players don’t all sound alike or even good on Windows or some do sound way beterr. Fubar & J River are my top choices for music playback.

Another tact would be to use the hiface unit with a longer USB cable by affixing it directly onto your DAC either BNC or as RCA/SPDIF . Thereby eliminating the need for a digital cable. I’ve heard or sen at the Hiface website this works. So there’s you an out for under $200 if you have a DAC or receiver for that matter.

Thanks for the info. I am a 20 yr retiree from Navy. My last Command was a Bird Farm, The U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln
based at Everett WA.
Do you know how many so called High End external
Computer DAC's claim that USB 2.0 can only handle Music
Files from 33kHz to 48kHz? They build the reciever chips
for USB 2.0 Input to only handle CD 44.1kHz for this
reason, or so they claim. It is just like I was told that
DVD ROM couldn't rip Multi-channel High Resolution Disks.
They can and Media Players DO exist for storing these type
of recordings. Still couldn't even get verification for this from DVD ROM Manufacturer, they were clueless or even didn't care!
You can understand why trying to learn about PC Music
Storage for the first time is such an uphill battle. Oh, but don't use Windows XP for Music Storage, so says some
so called Expert in PC Music Storage of a Major Nat'l
Stereo Magazine. One Gross Conceptual Error on top of
another. Contact PC Manufacturer to get the straight scoop.
High Definition? Multi-Channel? 24/96,24/192? What the hell is all of that! Hey Pal, it's just what ya see! Nice
vacuum, and convenient at that! You need the patience of an
Owl, and the dogged determination of a Pit Bull to wade
through this mountain of misinformation. Are these people
just purposely trying to deter anyone from using their PC
for Music Storage? It makes you wonder.
Thanks again, Blindjim. You are probably the first and
only reliable source of info I have found so far. I will keep working on this thing.

I’m surely not the ONLY source and definitely not the LAST word on PC audio affairs. There are several right here on Agon which exceed easily my knowledge base. Consequently, I try to stay within my own experiences not postulating on exacts, and only’s.

I was on the Saratoga & Franklin D. both as ships company in the Engineering Division.

This isn’t too different than what goes on about the flight deck. You got your Green, red, purple, White, brown, and blue shirts. All are a part of a singular enterprise, yet each has varied jobs to promote that particular end. You got your CAT people, Weapons crew, fuelers, traffic and parkers group, medics, and command. Although they do an exemplary job I’ve seen some horrific events take place on the flat top. Absolutely stomach turning events.

You might be better served to remember too, that different sects of PC users abound. PC makers . PC users . PC operating system makers Recording sorts which go all out digitally to capture their sessions or the “Pro” sect then comes the Audio nut that sees how flexible a PC ‘can’ be utilized for home entertainment.

The PC hard and soft ware makers sphere is quite myopic. The recording industry alone has enabled ‘us’ the PC for audio nuts, a much greater insight into the ‘how’s’ & ‘why’s’ for our own uses..so with that in mind, I’d pretty much refrain from areas of info other than those expressly dedicated to the actual end you seek.

Vista, Win 7, or XP, can all be made to sound great! Just as so can a Mac or Lenox based box. Each one has it’s own pluses and minuses. Each brings something to the table and each has it’s quirks. The thing to know here is actual improvements in computer performance often translate to better audio & video reproduction. Fill up the RAM. Get a hot shot CPU. SS hard drives are getting more press and getting cheaper . And are faster. Speed is key. Make your pc as fast as is reasonably possible. That’s just sound thinking.

No one has quantified sound quality gains from a 64 bit to 32 bit rig thus far to my knowledge . And hardware always runs in front of the software. 64 bit rigs are reputedly faster workers, yet seldom are there enough software applications suitable to 64 bit rigs from the jump! So there’s some lag for software to catch up to them. Just like hyper threading was, and Dual CPUs once were . You could buy them but some very popular apps werent’ written to take full advantage of the hardware tech driving them.

HP now has advertised a laptop dedicated to music uses and home entertainment . Reportedly. I saw an ad on TV about it just the other day. I’ve not wasted anytime checking it out however. I doubt seriously HP made an all out attempt to formulate an ‘audiophile’ pc in truth. There’s still that windows OS TO WORK AROUND, remember? It may have added interfaces, and sharing capabilities and perhaps it has some greater horsepower too all of that does add up, but there is more to it.

Again, the numbers game in both thru put and sampling rates gets over played and over hyped. Routinely. The big deal is jitter. Period and paragraph. There’s DACs out there which handle ONLY 16/44.1K and do a damn fine job, costing tons of bucks.

Just as with high end, or even ultra high end audio equipment, numbers matter some, but the parts being used and the tech, often matter far more. An optimized truly very high end 16/44 DAC very well can outperform one which handles far higher rates like 24/192. That aren’t built or aren’t appointed quite so well. Of course not everyone can afford a 15K DAC either. Or even one costing half that much. It’s the same thing everywhere else.

We have our own little budgetary constrainsts and we try to optimize what we have within those confines. The main notion I’ve found out for myself is this . Once you get to a certain point, the improvements you gain are dramatically more costly and become immensely disproportionate to the actual gains you will or can perceive. IOW the diffs from a 3K DAC to that of a 6K DAC Aren’t always a night and day experience. It likely will only be marginally better. Noticeably perhaps, but most often, not spectacular . With all else being the same of course. That said, results will vary to the ears of some more so than to others.

All of this is as involved as you want it to be, or not to be. it should always be fun, and ultimately satisfying for you.

When or if it becomes all comsuming or an obsession, quit. Quit and seek professional help. for in those accounts, it's not the hobby doing it to you, it's the hobbyist themselves.