TelecomAndy

Hiya folks, is anyone using an ESI Juli@ on a Media Server and outputting FLAC via optical? I've built my CAPS using Chris's superb guide and want to test output to a range of DACs & Amps. After reading the Juli@ user guide blurb I see they rate the optical out port as 24/96 only. My CAPS is built and for space reasons I'm only using the bottom half of the ESI PCI card (it houses the optical port). Altmann and others reckon they get the full 24/192 experience over optical, can anyone comment? Thanks is advance. Andy

Thanks Eloise, although I'm clueless on a couple of your points;<br /> <br /> 1) yes you can go from motherboard optical / coax to a DAC. However motherboard digital audio is very basic quality. A USB converter or dedicated sound card would be higher quality.<br /> <br /> Surely as the Atom + W7 OS will be doing all the sound processing, the few articles I've read point to there being no advantage in getting an onboard device to convert to analogue. I had presumed (probably naively) that an external and more expensive DAC would produce a better fidelity overall. Do you mean the MoBo SPDIF output jacks tend to be a bit crummy and a PCI card in effect takes over the job? I adore Arcam products although I'm not sure if their rDAC is better than the Beresford unit - have you any experience of it? If you're correct about the MoBo audio output being poor, there's no benefit in getting either DAC....<br /> <br /> 4) A few options for second zone:<br /> A. J.River supports multiple sound cards. If you used a soundcard (or USB converter) for main output, you could use the motherboard sound for zone 2.<br /> B. J.River (and Foobar) can operate as a UPnP server to stream audio to a UPnP client.<br /> C. If you used iTunes you could add an Airport Express, AppleTV or other AirPlay device in second zone. This could be controlled via Apple Remote.<br /> <br /> I'll have to experiment on the above! My impression of the Apple transit devices are they're pitched to the undiscerning consumer and aren't audiophile quality.<br /> <br /> Thanks for your comments. Andy

Chris,<br /> Great article. I'm keen to build my own version but have a couple of comments.<br /> <br /> 1. I see no need for a PCI soundcard (ESI Juli@ or M-Audio, etc). If I understand your article I can output from the MB as digital to a DAC (going to buy this one in the UK http://www.homehifi.co.uk/main/main.html at about GBP200)<br /> <br /> 2. The audiophile quality is important but I'm keen to develop the user experience. I find some VNC viewers and indeed Windows RDP a bit 'clunky' for IP control of 'headless' units such as Media Centres. I will demo the J River GUI and see how intuitive 'iApps' feel.<br /> <br /> 3. Although this efficient system doesn't draw much power, it would be nice to use 'Wake-On-LAN' or one of the free Power control utilities around.<br /> <br /> 4. Has anyone thought of a way to add and control a 2nd audio zone? I can only think an IP controlled dual output amplifier would start the process, not sure how you could control 2 audio streams from iTunes....<br /> <br /> Can't wait for your CAPS v2 article!<br /> <br /> Kind regards Andy<br />