THOMAS TOWLES

Excuse my comment about the thread petering out. The last post I saw was Realhifi's. After I posted, a bunch of new one's appeared.

OK, let's digress for a moment.......My watershed audio experience was in 1976 in Gainesville Fla. Heard an ARC amped system with the huge Maggie room divider speakers. Jaw dropped and never forgot it. Fast forward to ~5 yrs ago when I finally had enough money and time to get back into hifi. Did extensive listening and guess what I ended up with - ARC amps and maggie speakers!! Two yrs ago I decided to upgrade the 1.7's and decided I probably wanted a box speaker. Did extensive listening again - up to $20K/pr speakers. Ended up with 3.7i's!! I also got the Pass X-150.8 and are very happy with that. Looks like this thread has petered out....thanks to everyone for the help.

Again, thank you everyone for the load of help. Based on this advice, I'm now thinking of starting smaller. I need to buy a PC and was looking at units with plenty of power and storage. Any reason not to buy a fast machine other than cost? Was thinking of a 2nd internal hard drive just for music. Do solid state drives yield any music advantage? I have an iPad, so I'll use it with JRMC / JRemote to control the music. I'll stay away from separate playback software for the time being. Using my Cambridge 840C as a DAC will require an optical or RCA digital input. I'll have to see if the PC's I'm looking at offer that because I'd like to delay the DAC purchase until I have the computer going and optimized. To answer some of the questions above: Zach and Realhifi - I have been thinking I'd get at least a small SQ boost by ripping my CD's w/o errors (dbpoweramp best?) and up sampling. I'll try not to be too optimistic. Long term I am planning on downloading hi rez files and buying a nice DAC. Realhifi - You hit a nerve when you mentioned your new / old turntable. Not long ago I bought a Rega RP-3 / Ortofon 2M Black / Nova Phonomena and can't get it to sound as realistic and engaging as my better CD's on the Cambridge. I think the main problem is the lack of balanced output (I hear you DEANO2) from the Nova. My ARC preamp sounds MUCH better with balanced inputs. So the turntable has been at a disadvantage vs the Cambridge. In the end I decided not to spend another $4K on a better phono preamp and just take a shot at the future. I also got tired of fiddling with vinyl.

Wow! Thank you everyone for all the help. I will have to read all these posts several more times to absorb everything. At least I feel much more confident that I can do this with all this help. I'm a recently retired Chemical Engineer who never really warmed up to computers, but has decided to take them on for the sake of improving my music system. I have a Cambridge Audio 840C CD player and realized yesterday it will take SPDIF and Toslink digital inputs. Maybe initially I'll use it as a DAC while I'm working out all the bugs. Need to get a USB to optical converter? I've read DAC's like an optical input better than USB(?) I will probably buy a small desktop PC (mount on stereo rack) and get a smallish touchscreen monitor I can use in my listening chair. I have other cables on the floor, so one more USB from the monitor to PC won't be a big deal. I'm thinking a real monitor may be less glitchy than my iPad running an app like Splashtop. If I'm coming back with ideas indicating I don't understand what you're telling me, pls let me know. My skin is thick. Let me absorb all these posts and I may be getting back with some questions. Thanks again. Tom

I have been considering computer audio and I'm ready to try it. There is one area I'm unsure about - a convenient interface to control the music from my listening chair. With the reported importance of stabilizing and weighting down the computer, my initial idea of a laptop sitting in my lap or next to me on the couch may not sound best. What is the most convenient and high quality way to control computer music? A little background - I'm an old school audiophile with ARC / Pass amps and Magnepan speakers. The computer music will be played thru this two channel system. My goal is to rip my CD's and play back at 24 or 32 bit and 192 khz. Also high rez downloads. I got some info from an Absolute Sound article, which may be splitting hairs in their recommendations, but I'm fairly sensitive to sound quality also. If I can avoid the long USB cable down the middle of the listening room from a laptop, that will be good. I've come up with two potential solutions: 1) a USB wired portable touch screen monitor or 2) an app to convert your I-pad into a monitor for your computer (splashtop). If I can get a desktop PC and put it in the rack with my stereo, that might be handier than hauling the tethered lap top around. If I can then come up with a wireless interface, that would be sweet. I'm looking at DBPoweramp to rip. JRMC for file management, JPlay for playback and something to upsample to 24/32 bits / 192 khz. i'll buy a new DAC in the $2-4K range. This is a big step for me, the computer dunce!