High End, and Rack Mountable

Cwlondon...

Since you're interested in the Sweetwater you should also check out this idea:
http://www.logicsupply.com/default.php/cPath/79
You can get the computer built inside this case. It's a lot cheaper than the Creation Station (which is overkill for what you want to do...but still cheap for an 'audio component' so who cares? but this last idea is likely to be noisier than the creation station.

Also...you can get something small and fanless which looks like an audio component:
http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info.php/cPath/49/products_id/397
Mount that on the side of your rack or even on your wall behind the rack...

And then for a hard drive to hold your music to go with it you can get something REALLY COOL for a rack system:
http://glyphtech.com/site/products_gt103.html

That glyph rack is what i have, by the way. i don't have it rack mounted, however. (those glyph drives in that case are very quiet) you can obviously also use this with the creation station which would look really nice together in a rack.

You might also be interested in building your own rack using rack mount pieces you can buy at dj stores or at www.sweetwater.com - it's easy.

Kublakhan

Thanks for the suggestions.

So far, I feel most comfortable with the Sweetwater device, both for the appearance as well as the apparent build quality and design features which seem to make it an obvious choice for audio.

But here are a few questions:

If this is a pricier, higher powered machine, is that a total waste if I am mainly going to use it for iTunes and music storage?

What interface would you connect to Creation Station, and from what output, in order to stream bit for bit perfect WAV files to an external DAC, say the ARC DAC III to match the rest of my system? And why wouldnt it be able to do this on its own?!

Otherwise, I think it looks great, seems to be well built, and is apparently designed well for audio applications, albeit more like RAM intensive studio and recording applications?

Best

Cwlondon

Cwlondon, I'm not an expert so take what i say with a grain of poop.

I've read that a 2.4GHz pentium is recommended for playing audio to handle upsampling properly. Other than the processor you have a hard drive (any will do as long as it's quiet and reliable and the right size for your collection) the dvd/cdrom drive (any decent one will do), the sound card and various programs. So any computer that has the right processor will suit your needs. (You pay more when a computer is loaded with software, obviously, and you don't need much in that area for your application.) Therefore, the creation station is overkill but not a waste. It's quiet, reliable and has great customer service (you should call sweetwater with these questions, btw.) I would suggest buying what is most quiet and looks the best with your audio gear if paying an extra grand or so is not a problem. if it is, look into other computers as options.

Regarding interface. I think what you're asking is whether or not you'll need a sound card and the answer is yes. Do you need a good one? This is a question for someone else. I went a different direction. After reading about jitter the best theory (theory becasue i haven't heard it) seemed to be Steve Nugent's (empirical audio) "Off-ramp I2S" - this connects between your computer and dac and significantly reduces jitter. It's an elegant solution. You do not need a sound card in this case. Basically, it is a sound card. Once i read about this device i stopped researching sound cards. The I2S is a connection that your dac doesn't have. Steve adds this connection to some dacs like the Benchmark Dac1 (this is what i went with.) I don't know if he can do it to your arc. Anyway, i'm waiting for mine and it's going to be a LONG wait but i'll let everybody here know the results.

Re "Sound Card"

Maybe I don't get it but I always assumed a "sound card" had an "interface" which somehow interfaced with the data on a hard drive and delivered a stream of bits to said "sound card", which also a DAC of higher or lower quality (typically lower) which would convert the bitstream data to an analogue signal, and finally output that analogue signal into, for example, RCA jacks or a female stereo mini jack.

So I still am not quite clear why I need a "sound card" other than the fact that I need some sort of interface to create a user friendly connection (optical?) between the WAV files which live on the hard drive and my external DAC.

It continues to puzzle me as to why such a connection would not be part of the premium priced Creation Station in the first place, unless it is simply a mismatched convention between "pro audio" and audiophile audio.

I spoke to Sweetwater who are normally pretty helpful and had the sensation that they thought I might be insane.

So any additional explanation greatly appreciated.

cwlondon