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sastusbulbas

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  1. Sorry guys, what I meant to imply was using an android device as a remote control. I see a few apps on Play etc, but they seem generic remote access apps. I was wondering if there was an app commonly used and highly regarded for controlling media playback. IE sitting on the couch, PC is on but no need for a monitor connected, but I can browse my media with the album art and such viewed on my android device, create playlists and skip/play music, movies photo's etc which are stored on the PC connected to the Dac, playing music on the stereo. Via Windows Media Player or Center, later with J-River or such for audio only.
  2. My reason for thinking of the Cambridge Dac was that due to newer Dac chips, it could be better than a lot of my older kit. And as it didn't require a sound card, would maybe give better results. Plus they are on sale. I don't have any sound cards, well I have an M-Audio I lost the cables for, and was thinking of buying an Asus Xonar STX, but I thought USB Dacs had made such redundant. The main thing that killed my music listening was convenience, I just can't get on with having to use a monitor or TV along with a wireless keyboard when I want to browse and play music, or create play lists, especially if guests are here. I guess sorting out how I access and control music on the HTPC is the 1st step. So what would I need to connect my phone, a Samsung Galaxy S2, and the partners Nexus 4, to an old LGA775 Windows 7 HTPC, for controlling playback of WMP etc? Can anyone recommend an App, do I require a bluetooth or other dongle on the PC? What I am thinking is to 1st get the phones controlling playback and replacing the keyboard and mouse, if it puts a smile on my face, go for J-River, get a Tablet or an iPad, the wife would prefer such over using a PC anyway. Sort out my storage, get a Synology Nas. But what one? I only have a small percent of my music and family files on the 4TB and its already at 2TB. I think that a gaming/main PC or server built out of LGA775 spares is not the most efficient way to store anything. And I currently regret sticking a 4TB drive in this PC, as if I do use Homegroup, it needs to be on for my sons PC and the HTPC to access files. Once I am using the HTPC for music, and happy with my file storage, I will revisit upgrading the HTPC and Dac options. The last time I was into audio, I wanted to get a Tact 2.2X with all DAC and ADC ability, to replace my Pre, Dac, Kube, and later maybe go with active speakers and computer audio. With three kids etc, I don't have the space or money I used to have, I still have loads of old AV kit, and three audio systems. One system can live in the bedroom, but even then space for CD's and LP's is limited. I also need a better TV cabinet to house a simplified main system under the living room TV. Having CD's and LP's at hand on shelves is currently not viable, and meets a frown when discussed. Currently using for convenience, Technics SU-MA10 amp with on board Dac, Kef Reference 107 speakers. HTPC, Silverstone GD02 case, Samsung BluRay drive, E8500 CPU (LGA775 2 core), 4GB Corsair Dominator GT, Asus Maximus 2 Gene MicroATX, Passive cooled HD5750 GPU, 450w Corsair PSU, 1,5TB WD Green HDD, Windows 7 64 bit. My old systems which are in storage. Gyro SE with QC Power supply, SME IV, XLO Reference cable. Sonic Frontiers SF-1 valve Phono stage. Theta Data III CD transport. Genesis Digital Lense. Theta Pro Basic IIIa Dac. Krell KRC-3 Pre amp. Krell Kav-250 power amp. Mana Racks. Teac T-1 VRDS. Teac D-T1 Dac. Teac V-6030 cassette deck. Classe CP-35 pre amp. Classe CA-101 power amp. Rogers Studio 1 speakers. Target Racks. EAD Theatervision P (as a CD player). Yamaha E800 (as a pre amp). EAR 834P phono stage MM/MC with volume control. Classe CA-100 power amp. Linn Kan Mk2 Mana Racks. Denon DVD1740 DVD player Pioneer DV747 DVD player Pioneer CLD-3390 LD player Pioneer CLD-2950 LD player Pioneer VSX-D912 AV amp Kef KHT 2005 Satellites X6 Kef PSW 2000 Sub Apollo Rack.
  3. Yeah it's the later model of that Theta Dac, my old CD system is a Theta Data III transport, Genesis Digital Lens, Theta Pro Basic 3a. The others I have are Teac VRDS T1 with Teac D-T1 dac, and an EAD Theatervision P as a player too. I also used to use an HTPC with an M-Audio 24/96 SC. most of that is too big for under the TV, and in storage at the moment. No space for the HiFi racks anymore. I would really like to give HDD based digital audio a go again, but controlled via my phone or a tablet, with a more modern dac which offers good bang for buck. But don't really want to go all out on expenditure, I was thinking a budget Dac should be better than the majority of my current Dacs, if it gets used a lot then I may start getting back into audio and looking at upgrades. But keeping it small, unobtrusive, quiet and family friendly would be nice.
  4. Sorry but I seem to be missing an edit function here so can't add this to the above, I was wondering if the following would be recommended for starting out, and if so what software and tablet/device would be advised for controlling it all? Synology DiskStation DS213j with a couple of WD red HDD's, Cambridge Audio Dacmagic Plus Dac or Cambridge Audio Dacmagic 100. The Plus Dac is only £250, though it has Bluetooth ability with a dongle, and a basic volume control with RCA and XLR outputs, I could therefor in theory just hook up to one of my power amps. I have a couple of old Dacs, Teac D-T1 and a Theta Digital DSPro Basic 3a, but they lack 24/192 ability, no USB, no bluetooth. I am thinking the newer Dac would be more suited to family use and getting into computer audio?
  5. Hi, Do any of you have an opinion on the Cambridge Audio Dacmagic Plus dacs? I am thinking of putting together a starter computer audio set up, I have a couple of old Dacs such as the Teac D-T1, Theta Digital DSPro Basic 3a balanced, and Genesis Digital Lens, but nothing up to date. I remember seeing benchmarks of this against a DCS and it looking pretty good. Although it is not high end, what would be considered bargains that punch above their weight in the £250 UK market? Being able to connect Nas, HTPC, stream, use USB or bluetooth all sound useful for a family based system. I also have power amps so connecting such a dac with a volume control could possibly be slightly beneficial in some set ups.
  6. Thank you for the replies all, I will investigate a little more. I am not after expensive, I would like decent quality and value for money with convenience. Upgrading can always come later once I sort out basics. Most of my music is stored as WAV, with a lot of MP3 and a little flac, on a 4TB HDD in an upstairs PC, along with a lot of movies. I used to stream all this via W7 Home Group. Sold a couple of the PC's, dropped Home Group some years ago. A recent revisit to setting up Home Group caused me some issues with admin rights, with photo downloads not working, and my WMP music info getting duplicates and losing track, album info, and it refusing connection for MyMovies. Maybe I need to revisit that. I have plenty of PC components, mostly old 775, with an old working 775 HTPC in a GD02 case, plus my main PC, and my son has a PC. plenty of HDD storage space for now. No server or Nas at the moment. My HiFi is old legacy, no modern Dacs. What would be great is to be able to listen to any music or watch any movie in any format just by using my mobile or some tablet, on the downstairs hifi/tv, upstairs hifitv, or in the kids room hifi/tv with parental controls, with all source material in one central storage location. I would also like a media player that lists my mixed tape album as what I have it labelled as, with the track order I made, and not as several unknown albums with unknown artists and those chosen tracks missing from the original album listing. I currently have a 120+mb internet connection via a Virgin Media Superhub, all but the HTPC is via wireless dongle, I am not happy with the Superhub as a router. Any simple solutions to getting such started? For instance, what software and or additions would I need to run music remotely from my Samsung S2, with the PC as the storage device, connected via toslink to an old Dac? What tablet would improve on that? Could it play music and movies? Is a Nas better than a PC or Server for storing my music and movies? Could all this be done with just a cheapish tablet, Nas, Dac? Incuding high res music and HD movies? (My TV and projectors are not smart or wireless)
  7. Sorry if I missed something, late. What are the hardware requirements, processor,ram, psu, drive, etc for this system? Thankyou
  8. Hi all, Not been visiting much in the way of audio forums for some years, and was wondering how far we have came with regard to budget audio PC's or such? I remember the front page used to link to audiophile PC builds, though this was before Solid state Drives were viable, back when the likes of J-River was free to try etc. I guess everyone uses Flack still? Is old socket 775 kit with an STX soundcard still a reasonable item? Or are there specifics these days?
  9. Hi all, After some time I find myself revisiting audio and music slightly, not been visiting the forums for some years, not had much time for audio these days. I am wondering if there are any recommended free media players these days, last two I played with were Media Monkey which I was not fond of, and the trial of J-River before it went on sale. Is there any sort of Media Player only OS install, or do we still have to run windows/Linux/OSX these days? Now I would like a media player that is simpler with regard to the music data and library, IE a folder labeled as Mixed - Various artists would remain as an album named such, with the album art I pasted, and not split into umpteen unknown album/artist/genres when the system threw a hissy fit due to me opening a home group and sharing the music drive/folder. A recent play with a couple of PC's had me set up home group on two Windows 7 PC's. I used to do this years ago with absolutely no issues for music and media streaming via three PC/HTPC's, but this time something went wrong, my music library lost a lot of info and metadata for some reason, much of it had previously been put in manually due to the variable sources of my music over the years. I also ended up with duplicate libraries and albums with the same location drive, and lost the ability to add photo's etc to that drive. MyMovies could not access my film library. I gave up on it, deleted the home group, and now I am tidying up the mess. Thing is, a central library that can only be edited from the PC's admin account is still what I will require if I want my music and movies throughout the house for the family. But I yet again find myself peeved at Windows Media Player and it's inability to NOT change my files.
  10. Hi all, For some time I have been happy with my old 2496 M-Audio card. But recent changes at home have relocated that PC to a spare room, I still use it for music via headphones, and me and my son play games on it. Recently I required a headset with a mic, and decided to buy the Razer Carcharias model, as it had reasonable reviews and was stereo. My old headphones are Sennheiser HD-25-1 models. Now I feel I need a better soundcard, with stereo music as it's 1st requirement but games a close second. With both headphones I find on board sound lacking volume and refinement. I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations? I need headphone and microphone, with digital out for possible use later if relocating. I have read that the Asus Xonar Essence is a good choice, as it has a dedicated headphone amp? But there are three versions? The STX. Then the ST version that has precision clock tuning and is slightly more expensive than the STX? And finally a Deluxe version which has a daughter board with analogue outs I think? Can anyone tell me which is better? Is a gaming card such as Creative X Fi Titanium a reasonable choice? Many thanks all. Steve
  11. J. River costs money does it not? What about a free MediaPlayer which has all the tactile feel and appearance of iTunes or WMP12? What are the current free options for W7 64bit and bit perfect playback?
  12. Bicycles. Not the most glamorous and such, but it was something I enjoyed and I had plenty of knowledge and could do well, I have been into cycling since I was a child, and for the last ten years I have worked in the bicycle industry, mainly building bikes, mechanic, training mechanics and all other manners of bicycle and warehouse related work for a bicycle shop. It was only supposed to be part time, a three month contract after a few crap jobs while settling back into civy street (an injury stopped a carrer in the army), three months working with my hobby and getting discount sounded just the ticket back then LOL, then another three month contract then another, I got comfortable, I still enjoy some aspects of the job and ride bicycles though I am 38yrs old and a lot less capable and with a little more girth LOL. Maybe I should grow up............................... but then the wife and kids may expect more..........................
  13. It's mainly all marketing and proffit! Think about this, most "Audiophile" cables are US designed for US voltage, now if the design and criterea for that design is based on what claims we are given then why oh why do identical cables with no specification change apart from the plugs get sold in Europe? Quite simply the claims and measurements of the wires used are usually consistent with US voltage ratings in US reviews, yet we see exactly the same gauge cables and number of conductors giving apparently the same performance and measurements and colourful reviews in Europe where they are subject to twice the voltage specification. How does the voltage affect the sound? Can a cable on a 120v Dac provide identical performance with the same Dac at 240v? Quite simply IF the performance of a power cable can make a difference, it's performance will change with different voltages such as US versus UK and so would different lengths affect performance. This has NEVER been brought up within designs parameters or reviews so I conclude most of it is bull. Now speakers and amplifiers require cables within certain parameters to reduce the affect of long cables and loss, but we do not see such with power cables, so what does it actually do? What parameters are actually required for a mains cable? Is it quite simply the specification that "MUST" be met to pass the strict laws of consumer electronics and electrical safety? Do most standard supplied cables not surpass the actual requirement of a mains cable? I guess we are lucky that those snake oil manufacturers do not sell those cables here with twice the copper wire for twice the price!
  14. Use WAV it's fine for standard CD! There is nothing wrong with your opinion or ears, others have concluded the same as you. I myself spent some time with Mac and PC and various formats and still with each PC build I prefer WAV for sound and Windows Media for convenience. Regardless of my choices with Flac, Media Monkey and so forth, I didn't find any "better" sounding ripping sollution and I don't believe space is an issue these days, I use 1.5Tb WD Green drives for my music. The only thing I found Flac usefull for was higher resolution music, and sadly I do not have enough of such to worry about that due to the amount of music not to my taste.
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