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jmhays

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  1. I built a Zuma for both music and movies using the i3-3225 processor and have it connected to my Synology NAS. This plus 8GB of RAM is all you need for music and movies, including 3D. It will also support MadVR if you are planning on recording video content as well. The best solution I ever found for recording TV was SageTV, but they are no longer in business. I gave up trying to have "everything on one box" and use my DirecTV HR-34 whole house DVR. I use that for TV and XBMC to watch my DVDs that I ripped onto my Synology
  2. I have used both the mac mini and Sonos and for me, the ease of use goes to Sonos. In fact, I have FINALLY been able to get the wife to use the Sonos, she wouldn't touch the mac mini.
  3. Zammy K, Are you looking for help just with selecting headphones and a DAC or do you also want to digitize your cassette collection? If the latter, this link may help you out. It describes (at a very basic level) the process to convert your cassettes to [insert prefered lossless music format here]. I am sure thre are probably other narratives to do this exact same thing elsewhere, but this one came to mind first. I am sure you can also use other software for the conversion part. Since you have a large collection and I am guessing no current cassette deck in a stereo setup, you may want to buy a very good one on eBay, convert your collection and then return the cassette deck to eBay. You may lose (or make) a couple of bucks, but it will be MUCH cheaper than having a service do the work for you. AND you will be able to controll the quality of the transfer. If you are looking for advice for headphones and portable DACS, there may be other sites with more expertise in this area. Here are a few: Head-Fi.org - Headphone forums and reviews for audiophiles HiFi Headphones Forum - headphone & earphone community forums Headphones & Headphone Amps | AVForums.com - UK Online Best Full Size Headphones - 2013 Gear Guide | HeadRoom Audio Headphone Reviews, Comparisons & Recommendations
  4. Robert H, Personally I have my NAS located two floors above my HTPC. This wasn't really done by design, but I can tell you with only a SSD and no fan in my HTPC there is no way I can ANY drive noise ;-) When people are stating to use an external drive, I imagine they have a setup like mine where the NAS is located in a different room. voider78, When I was researching my HTPC configuration I wanted to make sure it would work well for both listening to music and watching music. That is why I went with the CAPS v3 Zuma build (without the SOtM USB card or filter). It was recommended by both Chris and Assassin on his HTPC Blog. Assassin is very popular on AVS Forum and has branched out and started his own Blog wher he makes HTPC build recommendations, I used the Ivy Bridge i3-3225 3.3 GHz Dual Core which came with the HD4000 onboard video. According to Assassin, the Ivy Bridge i3-3220T 2.8 GHz Dual Core with the HD 2500 graphics which will do 3D, 1080p and HD Audio. When he was recommending the Sandy Bridge i3 processor he wrote: "Like the Ivy Bridge, the older Sandy Bridge does it all. It has plenty of power for all 1080p and 3D movies (it will use less than 10% of it power during playback). Advantages over the even older Clarkdale is the built-in on-board HD AND 3D integrated graphics (yes you read that right — you don’t need a separate video card to watch either 1080p HD OR 3D — the HD2000 integrated graphics is built right in to the cpu and motherboard), slightly increased power, and slightly decreased power consumption. These are phenomenal systems if you need the extra power or want to have the best of the best. There is no need to “upgrade” to an i5 or i7 – this CPU is PLENTY." Hope this helps. Remember, everyone has different requirements so your mileage may vary...
  5. + another 1 I built my CAPS v3 Zuma model for about $650, this included the very fancy case (which you don't *need* but it looks REALLY nice) and without the USB SOtM card.
  6. Sam, In this case pictures DO say 1,000 words, look here for what I mean. This is a good example of how you should think about setting up your network connections. For youe specific requirements, look at the diagram and where you see router, think Airport Extreme instead. Sure you can buy a seperate wireless router, but since the Airport Extreme has one built in, use it. The simplest designs are usually the best. In your post you switch back and forth between wired and wireless connections. Personally, I would recommend going wired every time possible, since again, the simplest design... Plus, you will not have any wireless signal dropouts or stutters using a wired connection right at the critical part of the movie and have to live with your wife telling you "I TOLD YOU SO!". Simplest design = BIG Wife Acceptance Factor = happy wife = happy Sam. It is *possible* to stream HD content over a wireless connection, for many people it can work fine. For me with my luddite of a wife (I call her little Miss Anti-technology), the screaming I would hear at the first wireless stutter is not worth all the agravation. Since you have a small house, you *should* only need a single wired or wireless router (in your case the Airport Extreme). Depending on the layout of your house and where you have all your equipment, you should also only need a single switch. I have a big house with far too many components connected together. In my office on the 2nd floor of my house I have a cable modem -> one wireless router -> switch -> whole bunch of stuff -> second switch in basement (2 floors down) -> bunch of stuff plus very long CAT 5e cable run -> 2nd wireless router (used not as a router, but as a wireless access point) -> bunch of other stuff. So, even in my large house covering three floors and too many square feet and too many toys, I only have one wireless router. The only reason I have two switches is because of the number of connections I need in the attached rooms.
  7. Northern_Canuck, I understand where you are coming from, this is the exact reason I went with FLAC over WAV file format. They are both lossless file formats, but FLAC has the advantages (HUGE advantages when you have a large collection like yours) of being able to use tagging and get the added benefit of slight compression without sacrificing sound quality. I used dbPoweramp to rip all my CDs and it automatically inserted 99% of the tags and artwork correctly. I have just under 2TB of music and while it did take some time to do all the ripping, I did not have to go back and add in the artwork or tags saving me MUCH more time than it would have taken to add those parts manually. If you are already have converted your WAV files to FLAC, try using JRiver to automatically grab the artwork. I am guessing, but if you have each CD labeled correctly, it may also add the rest of the tag info for you. For anyone new and just starting out (and even for those that want to go back and re-rip thei CDs, I would HIGHLY recommend using dbPoweramp to rip your music in FLAC format. For me, when looking at the benefits of either WAV or FLAC, it was a no brainer to go with FLAC.
  8. +1! I was in the same situation, I started with a small 4 bay NetGear NAS and within one year had sold that and moved up to a 5 bay DS1511+ with an additional 5 bay unit attached by eSATA. I have since bought a second 5 bay DX510 so I now have 15 different drives hosting my data. While your data growth may not be as large as mine (since you have no plans to keep movies), my point is never understimate your storage growth and make sure you have an easy, inexpensive plan for your growth. I would suggest that you go with the 4 bay unit as a minimum. If you plan on using RAID for redundancy, that will use most of one full drive, leaving you about 3 full drives to hold your data. Stay with the 2TB drives now, but watch the prices of the 3TB drives incase there is a special or they drop when you are ready to buy. Then, if you buy the 2TB drives, use the 4TB drives as your expansion option. If, in 1-2 years you start running out of space you can simply buy four 4TB drives and swap them out with your current 2TB drives and double your capacity without having to buy another storage unit.
  9. soundhd, As usual, it all depends... If you want to use your music server ONLY to provide the best music (and video, if you like) playback system (with the music stored on your NAS - Network Attached Storage), then yes you will still be able to feed a high-end audio signal into your main system downstairs. I would do this using an ethernet connection, not wireless. Read about the CAPS builds on this site, I built my Zuma model for about $650 including the fancy case. You can easily save $200 by using a different case, but I wanted mine to look pretty ;-) Since your ripping experience is limited to iTunes, look at either EAC or, preferable dbPoweramp to rip all your CDs. If you have another computer (or three) available, use them for this task, not your shiny new music server, again, reserve that for playback only. WAV files are good, but you can save storage space by ripping all your music using the FLAC format which is also a lossless format. The beauty of the FLAC format is that the files will be compressed during the ripping process. As an example the eight songs on Led Zepplin 4 take up 430 MB of space when ripped to WAV format but only 267 MB of space, this is a 38% reduction in storage space and no audible difference in sound quality (for me, you mileage may very) You can find a very detailed comparison between the two formats here and I am sure MANY other places on the web. Also of importance when looking at ripping a "large CD collection" is the tagging aspect or making sure you correctly identify all that great music you just ripped. FLAC has a standard method of tagging recognized by all players that handle FLAC. WAV tagging is hit and miss and depends highly on which player is used. This alone can be a HUGE time saver when ripping over 3,500 CDs like I have done. By the way, the Sonos system is GREAT! I bought one a few years ago and it is so simple to use that my wife (little miss anti-technology) will use it. I have the the ZonePlayer 120 (now known as the CONNECT:AMP) plus three ZonePlayer S5's (now known as the Play:5) plus the ZoneBridge 100 (now known as the bridge) along with their Sonos controller to controller everything. If you have an iPhone, iPad or a Andriod phone or tablet you can skip their controller and save $350. Hook this up to a NAS and you don't need a computer running to play your music. Plus you have the freedom of placing the speakers anywhere you want since they are wireless using the Sonos mesh network. To answer your questions: 1. Yes, if you use the Sonos system or something similar. I HIGHLY recommend Sonos, as has been stated many times, "It just works". 2. Using your iPhone, iPad or Andriod device. 3. This is the "depends" answer. It can just play music, or add in movies (using XBMC) if you also want to rip your movies. You can also use it to rip music and movies if you want, you can use it for web browsing, e-mail or anything else you use a normal computer for, think of it as a fancy PC optimized for music playback. 4. Yes, this is how I use my Zuma. I have my Sonos system on my main level and the music server/HTPC in my theater in the basement. When I was looking to build my Zuma version of the CAPS, I also wanted something to use as a HTPC. It turns out that most of the components used in the Zuma build are also on the recommended list from the Assassin HTPC Blog. You may want to check out his site as well for build info.
  10. I have read probably all of the comments on the zuma build and I remember saying that one person thought his zuma was much better than his mac mini. I don't have the exact quote handy, but that is close. Of course it all depends on if you can hear the difference between the two devices in your system. I just recently sold my mac mini and built my zuma, I would HIGHLY recommend building one of your own, don't buy it pre-built. Building is half the fun and it REALLY is VERY easy to build. If you can follow basic instructions, read all the posts on the zuma build page and remember to buy the power cable extender, it really will be quite easy. In fact, I spent more time on the phone with Microsoft trying to get them to authenticate my copy of Windows 7 than it took me to put all the parts together, including using the thermal paste (again, very easy). I also use my iPad to controll my zuma, but you also may want to get one of these remotes if you like the use and feel of a "old fashioned" remote: Amazon.com: Windows 7 Vista XP Media Center MCE PC Remote Control and Infrared Receiver for Home, Premium and Ultimate Edition: Electronics It comes with a IR receiver (which will fit right inside the IR window on the zuma case) and will work with JRiver and XBMC.
  11. tankpopper, Welcome to the forum and good luck on your search. I am sure you may have already found this, but look in the General forum for fidelizer, this is a free program that will tweak your OS (Windows 7 or Vista) for audio playback. For a suitable playback application JRiver is one of the best applications available, you can download a trial copy from their website. I am sure you can also find a few tips on their forum for OS tweaks if you search. You may also want to read about the CAPS builds that Chris created. I just got done building the Zuma model and it came out great, a completely silent HTPC and the case makes it look like it is just another audio component in my rack.
  12. Which power supply and picopsu did you use? I am looking to build almost the exact same setup to go with my existing Synology.
  13. No, I had to buy the iLife program because it did NOT come with the computer. It will also come with a full version of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac if that is needed. These have been selling on eBay for $525-580 without the memory upgrade or software that I am including (Amarra, iLife and MS Office). If you don't like the price, make me a reasonable offer.
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