Ashok

Not knowing the answer could be a reason why no one responded. The list of active topics on the top-right shows only 6 or 7 of the latest. So, it is possible that the question got bumped before anybody had a chance to respond. In any case, a Google search showed people seeing a black screen in place of the album covers. Is this what your wife sees? Suggested solutions for this problem have been: - checking hardware acceleration for the graphics driver is at its maximum; - updating graphics card drivers Also, try http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11768475 and the other thread linked within.

In some fashion or the other, the device will have to compute, but your point is well taken. There are devices like this available now - take a look at the Auraliti PK100 player: http://www.auraliti.com (No affiliation). It gives you both analog and digital outputs, connects to the home network, runs Linux and MPD, and can be controlled by any number of clients. You can use the USB port to connect a storage device. Bryston has come out with a similar device, as have a few others.

The Auraliti Player (not released yet) or a networked-media-tank (NMT) might serve your needs. The NMT is quite a geeky device, and certainly not dedicated for audio playback, but it does output up to 24 bits / 192kHz via S/PDIF (co-axial and optical). Interface is clunky. The NMT has an internal disk and all the music is stored on it. While the NMT is designed to be connected to the internet, I am using it at the moment without any network connection. Auraliti does look very promising, it is currently under development, I think very close to being released. A network connection will be needed to control the device. I am of course not affiliated with the manufacturers of either of the above. Just pointing out some possibilities.

I own one of these devices, and use it off and on. It consists of a transmitter unit, that plugs into the USB port of your computer. A receiver unit plugs into a power pack, which you can then insert into a power strip near your stereo. The receiver unit also has a 1/8 inch stereo jack. The supplied 1/8 inch to stereo RCA cable can be used to connect the receiver's audio output to a line-level input in your preamp or receiver. I found that it worked quite well. It supports playback of 16 bit files, up to 48kHz sampling frequency. Sound quality is pretty good for the price. It will not beat quality playback systems, but it certainly is a reasonable method for computer-based audio. I used it with JRiver's media center. It did cause my laptop to lose connectivity with my home wireless network. Audioengine provides tips on how to fix this issue, but I was not really concerned. Enjoy the music reviewed the W1 in June 2008. Just wanted to add that the receiver unit is the one that does the Digital to Analog(ue) conversion, if that was not already obvious from my description.

Well, I decided to try one, and have sent in an email for pre-ordering a unit. I like the fact that it is dedicated to playing music only, and is based on MPD. My present solution uses a networked media tank, which does more than play audio. I do use MPD on it too, but there are some issues with playing back 24 bit files. MPD supplies 32 bit data, while the NMT needs it to be at 24 bits exactly. So, the person who ported MPD to the NMT decided to truncate 24 bit audio output to 16 bits, at the actual sampling rate. Such issues should hopefully not exist with Auraliti. By the way, is there any body here who has pre-ordered the Auraliti? Did you receive an email confirming your pre-order? I have not had any response from Auraliti to my email.

JR: That is not quite how it works. Minion is just a client, like a remote control device. You point the device at the player. The player is Music Player Daemon, MPD. MPD resides on the NMT, listening for commands from any client that can talk to it. Minion simply talks to the MPD over the network. Minion tells MPD what to play, whether to shuffle the songs or not. Minion can also tell MPD to clear the current play list, or move to the next or previous song -- well, you get the picture. Once Minion has told MPD what to do, it gets out of the way. It can be shutdown, and later re-started. But MPD will continue to chug along and play all the songs in the play list.

The standard unmodified user interface that comes with an NMT is very primitive. Imagine using the Windows File Explorer to navigate folders, selecting a file, double-clicking it to launch the application that knows what to do with it ... quickly gets tedious. Further, once the NMT has started playing an audio file, you are stuck viewing a blue screen showing the song name and elapsed time. You cannot quit that screen to go browse your library. You have to wait for the song to finish. Other problems include lack of gapless playback, creating a playlist and shuffle. The solution that appears to work best is to install the Music Player Daemon (MPD). MPD runs on *nix machines (I think), and some enterprising folks ported it to work on NMTs. MPD gives you gapless playback, ability to create playlists, shuffle, and the ability to browse the library while something else is playing. The daemon starts up when you power up the NMT, and just sits there waiting for commands. Commands can be given to MPD by any client. One example is the Minion add-on that I showed a picture of. It is like a remote control for MPD. I browse my library, add songs to the playlist, start the playback. The playlist gets stored on the NMT, and so, I can exit Minion, or even turn off my laptop (where I have Minion installed). Once the songs in the play list are finished, audio output stops. MPD supports FLAC encoded WAVs, and recognizes all FLAC tags. Now, on to the fancy user interface I can see on the monitor connected to the NMT. To generate that interface two things need to be done: 1. Install on a PC a user-developed application called the Music Jukebox. Point it to the location of your music files. Also tell it where to store the output menus. It will then scan the locations you indicated looking for music files. Then it creates a bunch of html files that you view on the attached monitor. The NMTs remote control is used to navigate the pages. 2. Modify the html files in the previous step to use MPD, instead of the default NMT playback mechanism. This is a must, in my opinion. Otherwise, you cannot browse the library once a song has started playing. Actually item 2 above can be incorporated into item 1 - while the html files are created, appropriate commands are inserted in them to invoke MPD instead of the default NMT playback routines. That's about it. The main resource on these topics is http://www.networkedmediatank.com. Search for Music Jukebox, MPDMOD and Music Player Daemon and you will find the necessary information. Off-topic: to embed pictures in a post use the html img tags: < img src = "URL" / > Remove the space between the < and img; remove the space between / and >.

Let’s step back a little and take a look at how a Networked Media Tank (NMT) like the Popcornhour, or HDX1000 or ioBox 100 might be put to use a transport for computer audio. I will attempt to explain how I have the device set up, with the help of some pictures. But first, I will point out that I am NOT affiliated with any NMT vendor or dealer in any way. I am an audio enthusiast interested in computer based audio, and the NMT solution, as I have implemented it, does work well for me. It is obviously not the solution for everybody, but is, in my opinion, an alternative to consider for those embarking on the computer audio path. Ok, let’s start with a picture of the rear of this device. You can see the digital S/PDIF co-axial and optical ports. A picture of the internals, with a 1TB WD10EADS drive. The user interface: This is exactly how the interface appears on any TV or computer monitor hooked up to the NMT. I use a computer monitor, connected using a HDMI – DVI cable. You can use the NMT remote to navigate this interface. Highlight a letter and browse all artists under that letter, etc. Clicking on an album cover will bring up the listing for that album. Now, you can select and click “Play All” to play the entire album, or just choose any one song. If I am not in the mood to turn on the monitor, I will use my laptop to access the music library. Here is a client called Minion, an add-on for Firefox. Many other Windows/Linux clients are available, as are clients for iPod Touch / iPhone devices. All this looks fine, but it does take a bit of effort setting up. None of the functionality I have now comes out of the box with any NMT. The box will play FLAC stereo files up to 192kHz / 24 bits, and other formats, but there is practically nothing in terms of the user interface. But the user community is very strong, and the applications and tweaks I applied to my NMT are all user-developed. Hope this is of help. Finally, I would like to say a few words in support of JR. His initial post was probably somewhat over-enthusiastic about his liking for the HDX, but I really don’t think he holds any particular position with respect to the HDX apart from that of an enthusiast. Sincerely, Ashok

JR: As you know, I am an enthusiastic user of an ioBox 100 (a Networked Media Tank like the Popcornhour, HDX 1000, etc.). I use it as a transport to supply FLAC encoded files to an external DAC. I like this set up a lot, it is convenient, and there are different ways I can control it: 1. Connect a monitor, use the remote to select albums and play them (or) 2. Control it from a laptop with a suitable client (or) 3. Use an ipod Touch or iPhone (with a suitable application) to control it. (Ok, I have not done this personally, but know of others who do so). But I would be very cautious in recommending this unit to some one who just wanted to plug the device in, and start playing their audio files. I mean, this can certainly be done out of the box, but the user experience leaves a lot to be desired. It took a good bit of tweaking, installing applications, and updating stuff to get such basic features as: 1. Gapless playback 2. A decent GUI that shows album art and song list along with the ability to select it 3. Browsing your music library while another song is playing. This is perhaps the most significant feature that is absent in this device out of the box. The user community for this device is great. Not that many people concerned with the audio playback experience but enough of them that the shortcomings I have listed above have been overcome to a large extent. But, it is up to the user of this device to get those features. By contrast, a Mac Mini, with its iTunes interface is ready to go pretty much as soon as you plug it in. For a lot of people, the higher hardware cost associated with the Mac would be acceptable compared to the tweaking/adjusting that is necessary to get the NMT going. I was OK with the DIY stuff necessary to get my NMT up to speed. I like the fact that it can play 96 and 192kHz FLAC files. I also like the fact that the financial outlay for an NMT and a 1TB hard disk was about US$320. (DAC extra, of course). You already know all the stuff I wrote above, but I would not recommend this device to someone who was not willing to do the (somewhat tweaky) things necessary to get a decent user experience. But that said, NMTs as a transport for music files is certainly a topic worth discussing. I think it is good you brought it up, although your title raised a few hackles! The NMT probably trumps the Mac for video playback. But, that is beyond my realm of interest.

Some albums, like The Dark Side of the Moon, are recorded without any breaks in between songs. There are separate tracks listed, but no real breaks. In such cases, we want the playback to also sound the same, without any gaps. The NMT's default playback cannot do this. There will be an audible break in between tracks, and it gets irritating to listen this way. If you use MPD as the playback engine, you get gapless playback and the ability to easily shuffle a playlist. Music Jukebox not being able to play a particular track might have to do with there being a special character in the song name that the application chokes on. For example, if you had an apostrophe, or a parenthesis, this might throw the application for a loop. Looking forward to your HDX upgrades. Thanks for sharing.

JR, Yes, I do use the Music Jukebox application to classify my music and create the HTML. However, when you click Play All on an album, it passes control to the default playback mechanism of the NMT. Therefore, you cannot browse your library while something else is already playing. Real pain in the you-know-what. Further, the default playback mode of the NMT does not allow gapless playback, which is another problem. So, somebody on the NMT forum developed a skin for the Music Jukebox, so that when you click Play All or play one song or whatever, the playback is effected by the Music Player Daemon, instead of the default NMT playback mechanism. Maybe you are already doing this in your Music Jukebox application. MPD offers gapless playback, ability to shuffle, create play lists, etc. So, what I now have is the nice Music Jukebox interface, combined with all the features MPD offers, thanks to the neat Music Jukebox skin. Plus I can control MPD from my laptop using Minion, or turn on the computer monitor connected to my NMT and use Music Jukebox (with special skin) to control MPD. Works great!

Hi JR! I think you use the same name on networkedmediatank.com also. If so, I have corresponded with you over there about the digital output quality of the NMTs. I use the ioBox 100HD device, and an internal 1TB hard disk (WD10EADS). It is pretty quiet, and when the music is playing, of course I cannot hear the drive. The ioBox is connected to my router using ethernet over the power line. I do not stream any actual music data via ethernet, only control the NMT from my laptop. I used to have a Roku at one time. It was set up to stream data wirelessly from my NSLU2 (with an external drive), but I used to have a lot of drop outs with it. I never tested it to see if things would be different with a wired connection. Did not care much for the interface. I am quite happy with the ioBox arrangement. I take the co-ax S/PDIF output to a Keces DA131.1 DAC, and then to my stereo. I have installed the Music Player Daemon (MPD) in my NMT. I can control MPD with Minion, a client that runs as an add-on for Firefox. I would be most interested to hear about your modifications. One that has been talked about is replacing the switching power supply brick with a linear supply.

Hello, First, as a new member, I would like to say hello to everyone, and thanks for sharing your views and knowledge on computer-based audio. In response to the original poster's question, could the issue be the fact that you are using the co-axial output of the 0404 to connect to your DAC? If I am not mistaken, the coax connection will max out at 24 bits/ 96kHz. The solution is probably to use the DAC in the 0404 itself for > 96kHz audio. Best regards.