Brand new to computer audiophile

[Reed Marshall]

Hi everyone. I am just discovering the whole computer audiophile idea. I need some much needed information, and general knowledge to get me pointed in the right direction. I would like to set up a system using a windows 7 all in one, or possibly a laptop if need be. I have already purchased Jriver media center 18, and need to know the best sounding hardware configuration. Presently, I have my music stored on an external hard drive connected to my router which feeds my Oppo BDP-95 via ethernet. I would like to use a newly purchased computer with Jriver to feed a newly purchased asynchronous usb DAC/preamp, in a dedicated music room. My question is how do I set this up for the best possible sound. Do you have to have a high end sound card for the ASIO implementation? Where do I store the music, and what is the best way to get my music to the DAC as un-scathed as possible? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[mwheelerk]

Hi everyone. I am just discovering the whole computer audiophile idea. I need some much needed information, and general knowledge to get me pointed in the right direction. I would like to set up a system using a windows 7 all in one, or possibly a laptop if need be. I have already purchased Jriver media center 18, and need to know the best sounding hardware configuration. Presently, I have my music stored on an external hard drive connected to my router which feeds my Oppo BDP-95 via ethernet. I would like to use a newly purchased computer with Jriver to feed a newly purchased asynchronous usb DAC/preamp, in a dedicated music room. My question is how do I set this up for the best possible sound. Do you have to have a high end sound card for the ASIO implementation? Where do I store the music, and what is the best way to get my music to the DAC as un-scathed as possible? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hello Reed and welcome. I would recommend you start with FAQ shown at the top of the page. This will give you an excellent starting point.

[Booster MPS]

Welcome aboard. There is a wealth of info here and a good place to start is the CA Academy and CAPS resources. From the maim home web page both of those links are there.

 

What DAC and pre do you have? That is a good place to start for others to help out.

[audiventory]

Reed Marshall, you need necessarily DAC with ASIO capability. Without ASIO Windows make "on fly" sampling rate conversion to value in audio settings.

 

Possible you will buy music at online store with certain sampling rate (up to 192 kHz).

 

Some DAC can limitation may value of sampling rate (up to 96 kHz as example). In this case we have sample rate conversion "in fly".

 

When we use ASIO, DAC execute this conversion.

[ecwl]

If your DAC supports asynchronous USB, you don't need a sound card, you just need to plug your DAC into the computer via USB. But the computer still has to communicate with the USB DAC somehow and there are multiple protocols, including ASIO, Kernel Streaming and WASAPI, all of which would give you bit-perfect playback. But JRiver would support all these protocols so you shouldn't have to worry about it.

The music can continue to be stored on the hard drive plugged into your router. If Oppo can access the files, so will your new laptop/desktop via JRiver.

[howlingfeedback]

Hi everyone. I am just discovering the whole computer audiophile idea. I need some much needed information, and general knowledge to get me pointed in the right direction. I would like to set up a system using a windows 7 all in one, or possibly a laptop if need be. I have already purchased Jriver media center 18, and need to know the best sounding hardware configuration. Presently, I have my music stored on an external hard drive connected to my router which feeds my Oppo BDP-95 via ethernet. I would like to use a newly purchased computer with Jriver to feed a newly purchased asynchronous usb DAC/preamp, in a dedicated music room. My question is how do I set this up for the best possible sound. Do you have to have a high end sound card for the ASIO implementation? Where do I store the music, and what is the best way to get my music to the DAC as un-scathed as possible? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Welcolm to our world Jriver is a great software playback and for sorting your albums, I use a Asus Essence St audio card one of the best out there, I have the Jriver setting on ASIO an it works great, you don't have to have a sound card but it does give you vairable

options with more audio outputs and inputs.

[Reed Marshall]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm sorry, I didn't make myself completely clear. I presently listen to my music via the Oppo BDP-95(discs and over the ethernet connection to my network). Through a little reading, I think I have decided to convert over to an all computer setup as opposed to using the Oppo which is in my home theater setup. I plan on buying a new AIO computer to use as the foundation, and am curious, is there anything I should really be looking for in particular? I also read somewhere that you don't want to store your music on the computer that you are using. Any feedback on this, and advantages/disadvantages? I will also buy a new DAC/preamp, which I plan on running to a pair of monoblocks. I've read that ASIO is the best way to go for the best sound quality, and ecwl noted above that If my DAC uses asynchronous USB input, then I don't need a ASIO compatible sound card, so I guess that answers that question. Thanks for the feedback. I am excited about the transition to a simplified, universal, media center approach to high fidelity. :-)