lefteye219

Hello All... A late reply here but I would like to thankyou all for the replies and suggestions. After building my new PC, i got dbpoweramp to convert my music and got a Sennheiser HD600 and an Asus Xonar Essence STX and the difference is huge... I am a bit disappointed in the sound card as I think the supremefx sound from asus motherboard was good... Iwas thinking of getting a benchmark media DAC1 USB.... Thanks all and I am enjoying my music and my movies

@Thrand1, Thanks a lot for the info. I would like to stay within the foobar family myself but I am very novice in it and I looked up the dbPoweramp and it looks simple too. BUT i must say your instructions are very very clear. I will try the foobar itunescoder but if it does not work for me, I will just go on buying the dbpoweramp. Thanks again for the info. I will look into it. I will get back if I have any questions.

@Eloise, Thanks for the reply. I am going to pull the ton Meridian Explorer since that would be a good thing to start with and it is extremely portable. Then as my hobby grows, I can upgrade as my budget allows. The money saved buying an explorer, I can channel towards CD purchase. And Yes I am aware the sound quality is poor of songs from Itunes compared to a CD. But some songs are extremely hard to get. So I have asked one of my college buddies to let me copy some songs from his collection and converted them into FLAC. Speaking of FLAC, bear with my silly question but itunes does not play it. I use foobar to play it. But if i want to upload the song in ipod, then I think it should be converted to an appropriate format like ALAC. Can anyone recommend a good converter. I have no idea and google search recommends me few but if anyone knows a good converter, please suggest. thanks again. Zammy.

@ jmhays, Thanks for the response. For answering your question, I am only looking for DAC and headphone for now since my Cassette collection was destroyed on a flood back in 2005. I was only able to save like 50 cassettes from them. I now mostly buy CDs or from itunes store whatever songs i get. I had earlier considered getting my cassettes converted into digital files thru a service provider but it was costly. I will look into the links now. Thanks again... cheers

Hello Folks, I have been reading this for around 6 months now but just joined today. In computer audio world, I am an absolute newbie.. Music listening from Computers to me was a pair of bose noise cancelling headphones hooked up to the Headphone out of my laptop. Nothing else and the songs I had were mostly MP3 files.... Just recently have I started collecting some of my old favorites in CDs and I mostly listen to Indian music so not much of SACD or those high format files for me yet.... I have some songs in FLAC format though which I used to listen to via itunes but started using foobar of late.... In the early 2000's I used to listen to my music via the Cassette players since I had a lot (and I mean seriously a lot) cassette records which I used to listen to. Those ranged from Jazz to Rock to Punk music but not Bass heavy. I preferred my music natural and warm... My stereo player was a Sony Tape records which my uncle brought back in the early 90s which I grew up listening to... So on to the question, I want to rediscover my music... Since I have a good job and make a decent living now, I would like to rediscover the music coz to me it is the best way of relieving stress. I absolutely hate the sound off the computer and although bose QC3 noise cancelling headphones are fantastic (I travelled alot over the last 4 years in planes and they are fantastic in that regards) I would like to upgrade to a decent pair of headphones first. I was thinking in the lines of Sennheiser HD600 or Shure SE535 to begin with.. My budget for a pair of headphones is $500 for now and as my digital collection and hobby grows, I will upgrade as my budget permits. I am not yet going to get the Speaker setup since I live in apartment and loud playback is something I would not opt for. Also I would like not to disturb others around me. Since I am beginning, I understand I would need a decent DAC but for a DAC, my beginner budget is $500 for now. I have narrowed my choices to Meridian Explorer, Cambridge audio DAC Magic Plus or Musical Fidelity M1DAC but if anyone can recommend me something nice for beginner i would very much appreciate it. Thanks to all of you for keeping this community rocking. cheers. Zammy K