Viola_Player

Grevasy, You can absolutely use XP to play music--I have been for years. If you go to the wavelength DAC site they have some good instructions for optimizing XP for good audio performance. Mostly you need to set up a driver to bypass the kernal mixer (audioasisforall--something like that). After that plug in your dac and you'll be good to go. Ray

I use Microsoft's "SyncToy". It's free from the Microsoft web site, it's fast and reliable. You can schedule it using the tools in XP. It seems pretty good at detecting differences using the file attributes and it doesn't do anything to the file, just copies it. If something isn't right the log is pretty easy to sort out. I'm not usually a fan of Microsoft's products but this one works well.

I think you might be hard pressed to get a music server under $1K. To my way of thinking there are two categories: packaged ones like Sonore, Olive etc and built up ones using a computer. I think within the computer choices you could squeak in under $1K using a Mac Mini if you want an optical output. (TOSLink) You could do much better (cost wise, probably around $400) getting an inexpensive Windoze desktop and using USB but you'll have to put in some time configuring things for optimum output. Based on everything I've *read* an asynchronous DAC over USB is at least equal to the optical output of a Mac Mini. I'm not aware of any of the packaged units for under $1K. Hope this helps

Given that you're streaming Pandora (MP3's) I would agree with Audio Doctor--get a Squeezebox Touch. It's $300 and will stream from many internet radio stations, and will connect wirelessly to your router and no need for a computer at all. (or anything else for that matter) You would get better performance from a USB port + separate DAC but then you'd lose it all with the Airport Express. I have this setup and it's OK, but you lose any advantage of the USB's better functionality once you send it all through the Airport Express. Ray

If you can find the Telarc recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overature with the Cincinatti Pop's Orchestra. It has real howitzers for the cannon shots. I would second Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" as well as Stravinsky's Firebird and Rite of Spring. Copland's Rodeo Suite would be another good choice as well as the Appalachian Spring (for this try and find the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's recording, it won a grammy, excellent) While a bit long Mozart's Reqium has some amazing sections which are thrilling to listen to. There is another thread with several listings of good recordings of it.

Based on my experience I would argue that adding an external DAC does make a difference. I don't have an expensive system but I can tell the difference between the Mac Mini's built in DAC and my external Musical Fidelity V-DAC (the original one) on headphones (Sennheiser HD-250 Pro) or speakers. I have a set of CD's with Simon Preston playing Bach organ music. Using just the MM DAC the music gets louder and softer when he adjusts the swell louvers (they open and close to adjust volume). With the external DAC I can tell that some of the pipes, the swell ranks, are getting louder and softer while the great ranks are staying at a constant volume. (think reeds staying constant and flutes modulating volume) In some cases I can even hear the movement of the swell louvers, something I could never hear with the Mac Mini DAC. As in all things "your mileage may vary" but I do believe that an external DAC improved what I hear from the Mac. Good luck on your journey! Ray

Matt, I've got a Mac Mini set up--using a conventional hard disk--and I can't hear any noise unless my ear is within a foot or so of the unit. Even the quietest passages--as in Vaughn Williams "Lark Ascending"--are free of equipment noise. I would second others thoughts about a DAC though. They definitely sound different so you may want to try a couple to get the one you like best. Ray

I use iTunes and the 'remote' app on my ipod touch when I want to use my Mac Mini 'Headless'. I do need the peripherals when I want to add music though in order to get the meta data correct. You would need something unless you want to trust whatever player you use to get the meta data and cataloging correct without any user intervention. I would think that would be the hardest part of a truly headless system. Ray

I assume you're using windows since you mentioned J-River. To find a 'missplaced' file here's something you can do: 1. Windoze 7: hit the windows key or click on the globe in the bottom left of the screen. (should be a picture showing this) Enter *.* and then click on 'see more results' link. You can then sort the resulting screen of files by name, date, extension etc. That should let you find the file. Then, if you click the file ONCE so it is highlighted and then right-click and select 'open file location' it will take you to the folder where the file is stored. From there you can copy it somewhere else, move it to the desktop, write down the folder name etc. 2. Windoze XP: You can do essentially the same thing using the search option. Here's a link that describes it: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308895

I agree, it seems that FLAC is tough to implement. Decibel does it, I don't know how well. Is there any reason not to use something like DBPowerAmp and just convert the FLAC file to ALAC or whatever your preferred format is? That way it would be MAC friendly.. Ray

I've been struggling with this notion of USB vs. S/PDIF for awhile and IMHO here's how I see it: 1. THE most important thing is to feed the DAC the right data at the correct sample rate. HOW you do it is irrelevant as long as it is successful. 2. There are, at least, two ways to acccomplish this: a) force the computer to publish the data at the correct rate which is probably unlikely b) buffer the data and then feed it to the DAC at the correct rate 3. As far as I can determine it would seem that Ayre and CEntrance are both trying to implement 2b albeit in a different manner. 4. Now, assumming that the DAC manufacturer is buffering and reclocking the output to the DAC--which is what Ayre says is important in their above mentioned white paper--and the associated circuitry correctly decodes the data, does it still matter HOW the bits were transferred to the DAC: USB, direct proprietary interface, I2S output, Toslink etc? Just my two cents Ray

I'm in a similar quandry. The Cambridge unit won't play apple lossless which kills it for me and doesn't have the interconnection capability of the Sonos. It does however have superior playback capabilities which is nice. You might also check out Logitech's squeezebox Touch. Ray

Here are some differences I have noticed when switching resolution, DAC quality etc: 1. Simon Preston's recordings of all of Bach's organ music. The "swell" pedal on an organ opens and closes shutters to control the volume of some ranks of pipes. With low resolution files I could tell the sound was getting louder and softer, with redbook files I could tell which voices (pipes) were getting louder and softer, with a better DAC I could hear the movement of the shutters. 2. Charlie Haden's "Beyond the Missouri Sky": with the lower resolution files (256K?) you can tell the notes apart but the attack of the pizzicato was missing, that characteristic "twang" sounded virtually the same on all of the notes. With redbook you could tell which string he was on and how hard he plucked it. 3. Listen to soft string passages of solo or small groups. You should be able to hear bow noise some of the time, perhaps a page turn or the "ping" of a finger being lifted. This depends a lot on the miking though. As someone already mentioned, it's all about the music and how engaging it is. If iTunes engages you, then it's good. As you become more discerning it may take better quality to maintain that engagement, but worry about that when it happens. Ray

From: http://soundflower.en.softonic.com/mac Have you ever wanted to enable an application to access your soundcard or interact with another application via the soundcard? Soundflower is a free audio system extension that allows applications to pass audio to other applications. Soundflower emulates the interface of an audio device but allows any audio application to send and receive audio with no other support needed. It opens as one of two audio devices (2ch/16ch). For most people and needs, the 2-channel device is sufficient. If you want an application to interact with another application via the soundcard, select Soundflower as the output...

Here is a review of your sound card from a decent source. It seems that you might do better with an external DAC (which means you won't need a sound card if you use USB output)but you'll have to spend far more than your sound card cost to improve on it.