ul17

I bought a new PC a couple of weeks ago and found the best fix for it is to wipe your HD clean and install a different OS on it. I now have a useable computer.

If you want to upgrade your speakers first, you may want to check out a pair of Pioneer SP-BS22-LR. You can get them in Best Buy for around $100. They should be a nice step up from what you have now. If not you can always return them. I bought a pair myself to use in a 2nd system. You won't believe how good they sound given what they cost. For a little more, they make a floorstander.

I'm pretty sure the problem lies with the UEFI that bluesman mentions above. It's not like a regular BIOS. I can get into it, but I can't change anything. I even pulled the HD out of the computer. It took the best tech in the store, who seemed pretty good, about a half an hour to finally get the thing to boot from a CD but without the HD installed. He also mentioned that I wasn't the first person to have this problem and that Win 8 can be a nightmare. At that point, I figured it was best to just get rid of the machine. I was hoping someone would have some experiance with another brand or something similiar. There's more than one company that makes BIOS chips. Maybe a different brand wouldn't give me the same problem. American Megatrends is the brand of UEFI/BIOS that was in my ASUS. Another option I thought of would be to just get a different Motherboard and be done with it. That would be a low cost, easy fix. I've never done this with a laptop and was told in the store it wouldn't be a realistic thing to do. The store I was in, Tiger Direct, specializes in selling computer parts for the DIY market. I have no reason not to believe them on that. iago, I didn't know that WIN 7 had UEFI as well. They still had 1 Win 7 refurb. laptop left in the store and I tried it and it was normal. Upon startup, you get the usual beep and the options del for setup and f12 for boot order.

I put this in the general catagory because I wasn't sure it fit any of the other ones. A fer days ago I bought a new laptop. An Asus A55ATG51. Its just a standard, everyday laptop that goes for $500 and comes with Windows 8; nothing special, but it meets my needs. I use it for computer audio, as well as some other basic stuff. I prefer Linux, so on my desktops, I repartition my HD and have boot options for Windows 7 and a few of my favorite distros. After reading some comments regarding Win 8, I knew that there was a good chance I wouldn't like it. I'm OK with that given I already have Win 7 that I almost never use. After using Windows 8 for a few days, I don't think its fair to call it an Operating System. Its more like a Non-Operating System. I can't possibly imagine what they were thinking at Microsoft. Win 8 is the best advertising campaign Apple could ever hope for. Like I said before, though, I use Linux and don't really need Win 8. Here's the problem. Win 8 somehow takes over the computer's BIOS, and makes it difficult, if not impossible, to use your computer for anything else. (From what I now understand, this is an issue that effects laptops, for the most part. Desktops don't have the same problems. Understand, though, thats just what I was told. I've never used a desktop with Win 8 myself.) All I really need to do in my BIOS is set it up to boot from CD/DVD and USB. It should be a very simple thing to do. I've done it myself many times with every computer I've ever had (except Mac's). I went so far as to pull the HD out of the computer completely and still wasn't able to boot from a disc or usb. Yesterday, I brought the computer back to Tiger Direct where I bought it. They brought me over to tech support and their best person had to fool with my computer for about a 1/2 hour before he could make it boot from a CD, and the only way he could do that was to shut the HD off completely. I ended up getting a refund. I should also mention that even though I wasn't happy with my computer, Tiger Direct was pretty good about the whole thing. They really tried to help me and didn't give me a hard time about the return. My question is, what do I do now? If I can't get a Win 8 laptop, I now have to find a used or refurbished machine that has something other than Win 8 on it so I can install Linux. I could also go with a Mac. I've had them in the past and like them but I don't like being forced to getting one. Any ideas?

You can get a lot of info on this website. If you click the home tab you will see several options containing things like reviews and setup guides. I would start there and if you have any questions, post and someone will probably be able to help you out.

Since your preamp already has a converter, I would try connecting with USB and see how it sounds. If your computer supports any other type of digital output like spdif coax or tosling. There are many different opioions as to what sounds the best. I would recommend you try them all and pick the one you like best. As far as ripping goes, I would use a free program called EAC. Many consider it to be the best ripping software you can get. The only downside is that the initial setup can be very complex. Its extremely difficult for a new user to get it configured running properly. If you go to this website, EAC Setup Guide, you can view an excellent setup guide. Its all very clear and if you follow the instructions, step by step, you should have no problems at all. It goes through each and every feature and when you are done, you'll know you have it set right.

Its called the other room effect and you're not the first to notice it. This effect has long been recognized and discussed, within the audiophile community. When you are in a different room, it makes it much more difficult to hear resolution of your system. That means whatever the flaws are in your system, being in another room makes you notice them less. When you notice less flaws, the music sounds more realistic. It works both ways, too. If there was a band outside your house playing live music, and you were inside listening to the music, it sounds more like your audio system and less like a live band.

EAC is one of the best tools for ripping CD's. It has so many options, though, that its almost impossible for a new user to set it up properly on their own. You may want to take a look at this link: EAC Setup Guide. Once there, you will find complete, step by step instructions on how to configure EAC to make the best possible rips. It takes a little while to go through the setup, but if you follow this guide, you should have no problems.

"What we got for the most part was music that might be characterized as 'accurate', but often was difficult to bear for more than 30 minutes." I never understood that argument myself. How accurate can it be if you can't stand it for more than 30 minutes? Maybe its just the music itself and not weather its accurate. I know I wouldn't be too happy if I had to listen to Hip Hop or Country music for 30 minutes.

I don't know what the problem is with Songbird but I'm pretty sure what is going on with Foobar. Its a tagging issue. You can view your music 2 ways; file system view and library view. You have to get used to switching back and forth between them. Also, the info for the 2 can be completely different. To fix your problem, first go into file system view in foobar and find the album missing the songs. Select the whole album and edit all of the common tags (metadata). Save the changes you make and update your library. Now, when you go back into library view, you should see all the songs. To clarify what I mean, here is an example. If you have 10 albums that fall into the genre Rock, the genre tag for all 10 albums must be exactly the same. If you have some albums listed as Rock, and others are Rock and Roll, technically, that is 2 seperate genres. So if you want to view all of your Rock albums by genre, they all have to be labled exactly the same way. Its easy to confuse library view with file system view. If you have a music folder on your HD, and inside that you have Genres, and inside that you have Artists, and inside that you have Albums, etc.., that dosen't mean you are going to see it that way under library view. Its 2 seperate things.