Musicpig

Considering that my laptop lacks a 3.5mm input jack, I'll just have to go with something along the lines of the aforemtntioned usb devices. Thanks guys.

At this point, I am trying to do this under $100. I want to avoid buying the music twice, but the price of used cd's ( I listen to alot of old music) makes a large expenditure difficult to justify. And, I forgot to mention, my receiver does have a phono preamp, as well as rca audio outputs (tape and vcr channels).

Darn, I'd hoped it would work in reverse. Any recomendations?

So I have begun aquiring vinyl, and would like to create some high-res files from it, so that I can listen on-the-go. I figured that I could just select my HRT musicstreamer II as the input device in audacity, plug my phono's RCA leads into it, and presto! But, my dac isn't even shown as an option. Do I need to get a specialized device for this to work, or is there a way to use my current dac? I am running ubuntu linux, but i do have access to windows, if I must.

Thank you all for your input. As long as I get some good sound now, and learn something from the experience, I will have accomplished my immediate objectives. I went ahead and got two used NHT Super One's (not the 2.1 model) for $128 shipped. Now I just gotta pick up the my dac. More powerful, pricier equipment will come later, starting with some BIG speakers:)

So then, when I am looking to upgrade my sytem in the future, I'd really be looking for a high-end receiver sporting purely digital inputs, a the absolute minimum. That makes sense. For the moment, however, would I be correct to expect better sound quality from this setup than simply connecting the receiver to my laptop via the 3.5mm audio output jack (using a an adapter, of course)? I still need the analog inputs of the receiver for my turntable and tape deck, it's just a matter of how best to play my digital music until I can put together something better. Everything is a minimum of 44/16.

I do understand that the DAC will be supplying an analog signal to the receiver, and that considerable differences exist between digital and analog recordings. But your earlier comment, about the receiver being unable to take advantage of a high-resoltion recording, does confuse me a bit. I don't see why high-resolution input to the DAC, wouldn't result in a superior-sounding output. It's now an analog signal, but ought to contain the same audio quality, right? Or, is something lost in that conversion?

Hmmm. What would be an indication that a given receiver can take advantage of the hi-res source? I mean, I've seen some very high quality vintage stero gear online, but wasn't sure if modernity or quality of components was my largest concern. I know that sony has at least one (new, and costly, I might add) receiver that actually says "hi-res" on the unit, but I gotta figure that slapping a sticker on the case aint what does the trick. For this particular system, I am keeping costs down with (mostly) used equipment. What I learn throughout this process will eventually lead to a much more powerful/capable setup.

I managed to avoid all the surround sound/home theater receivers. This is sort of a trial system (on a shoestring), having left lossy codecs behind a couple years ago, and now aquiring more and more high resolution files. I am not sure just how the varous digital proccessing techniques employed by different receivers would affect how my music sounds, so I am keeping things as simple as possible, at least for now.

Cool, thanks.

Hello everyone, I am currently setting up my first home audio ensemble, and have a quick question. Which input jacks should I connect my DAC to on my receiver? My (limited) understanding, is that the signal is somehow handled differently, depending on the channel. I'll be sing an onkyo TX8511, which has phono (already have a use for that), tape 1 and 2, cd, as well as video 1 and 2. BTW, I intend to use this dac . I do have some 192khz files, so that is necessary for me. In case it matters, I am running Ubuntu Linux. Thanks in advance.