emoon3

I'm the original owner. I used this to rip my SACD collection, now making it available for someone else. $250

If you pay shipping I will.

I meant to say I an NOW putting it up for sale.

I finally finished ripping all my SACDs thanks to a lot of help from this thread. I'm not putting my PS3 up for sale on eBay if anyone needs a PS3 with the right firmware. PlayStation 3 CECHA01 3 55 Firmware Excellent Condition | eBay

But you can take that same motherboard and instead of running Windows on it, run Linux. So not the clock, USB, and memory are all the same. You have a barebones OS with fewer processes than a Windows box can ever have. If sound quality is greatly improved by limiting processes, I'm wondering why Linux on the same hardware wouldn't always sound better.

That's what I was thinking. If turning off of processes makes a big difference in sound quality, instead of spending $800 for Windows server and SO, you could install Linux for free and actually have even fewer processes running, have a system that's even more barebones.

Given that, would it not mean that linux is then by far a superior platform? You can install a very barebones install of CentOS or one of the Raspberry Pi distros that have far fewer processes than Windows. And by that definition a "good" process creates just as much noise as an irrelevant one. In fact, since a Raspberry Pi only needs a 5V adapter to run, isn't it then the ultimate music playback device? Very barebones OS, very little current, very few onboard devices...

If one is able to improve sound quality by shutting down processes in a computer OS, does that not mean that since a computer OS can never be pared down to the level of a CD player, that anyone really seeking the highest in sound quality would have to use a disc player to achieve it? Does that not mean that computers are inherently detrimental to sound quality?

I have a Rasberry Pi box running MPD that I use as a renderer feeding SPDIF to my DAC. I use jriver and jremote to serve files to it via UPNP. Kind of close to what you're looking for and available today. The whole Rasbperry Pi build cost under $100.

I second the Alison Krauss live recommendation. Also the HiRes Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances, Vocalise & Études-Tableaux from HDtracks sounds wonderful.

I've been using JRiver for about a week now and I love it. It really is what I have been looking for. I haven't had but a couple crashes and the UI doesn't matter to me really as I have it running on a headless mini. The IOS remotes look great, it sounds great, and the remote streaming feature is awesome. Well done. Can't wait for more updates.

Big difference in hog mode. I was ready to give up on it as well before trying hog mode. Now I'm impressed!

Stephen, Decibel is such a great program. Thanks for all of the hard work. Is there any way we could get the option to have the album art and song title that pops up when a track starts playing to stay up all the time? And while that option is active, the background will be blacked out? I have a mac mini media server and I don't want the mac desktop up on the display all the time. That option would make Decibel PERFECT!!! Thanks.

I'd like to second what wgscott said. I'd either use the toslink or look at getting an M2Tech HiFace or something else to output to the iDecco. Also, try out AyreWave (there's a thread and a link in the Software forum) for your music playback. I found it much better than iTunes on my system but everyone's situation is different. You should take a listen and see which sounds better to you.

After spending time this weekend with AW, I have to say it sounds great. I'm loving this little app. I have but one request. For those of us that use a dedicated computer as a music server, it would be nice to have an option to black out the screen and just display the Album art, Artist, and Song Name. When I have company over, it's nice for them to see what's playing. That and an iPhone/iPad controller would make this app absolutely perfect! Great job once again. Thanks for all of the hard work and the feedback to this forum.