Hi,
as our new house building is coming to a (successful ;-) finish, I'm now planning a new audio setup. I would appreciate your comments and recommendations - please take into account I was not realy into hi-end audio before (I was involved a bit more on the musician/recording side of things but not on truly professional level).
Though I still have two or three hundred physical CDs, the rest (i.e. most) of my collection is now in FLAC on a file server.
Going through the forums, web reviews, and listening sessions in hifi studios, I now have a first draft of the planned setup:
Already in place:
- Gigabit ethernet in every room
- File server (full tower with Anteca 1160 12-port SATA Raid controller, currently only 4 drives (2 TB Seagate Eco) installed in RAID5, win 7 pro 64 bit, located in a separate (technical) room, together with 24 port gigabit switch and router/dsl modem
Planned and to be discussed:
- Vincent SV-234 Integrated amp - http://www.vincent-tac.de/en/product-lines/solidline/sv-234.html
- Xavian Giulia speakers - http://www.xavian.cz/en/xc_giulia.html
And here's the part where I would really appreciate some advice:
- I was thinking of not bothering with hi-end CD player at all, and instead invest into a quality DAC (I was thinking about Benchmark DAC-1, or Bryston BDA-1) - so I can connect both a media player or a cd or bluray player to it (without being concerned about their DAC quality as they will not be used anyway)
- And what I'm really not sure about - what should I use as digital transport? I was thinking either about Squeezebox Touch (potentially moded if that helps spdif digital out only?), or building a passively cooled mini-pc with a decent soundcard (which could second as a movie player)... ?
- Or (edit) - mini passively cooled PC and USB DAC (like Bechmark DAC-1 USB) - then the soundcard should not matter (correct?)
thanks in advance for any help!
:-)