Computer based music replay

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The Devil

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Can someone please tell me what I need to start a computer-based replay system? I have a preamp and active speakers, so I need a DAC, and ..... what?

A Mac? If so which one? What else do I need?

TIA
 
You need a dac to feed the NAC52 and a PC or laptop to feed the dac - that's the most basic set up.

Most good laptops have optical outputs and you can use that to connect to the dac. Something like a Macbook Pro + MF V-Dac will set you back £1k. That will be up and running within minutes and all you need add is an optical cable.

If you want wireless, just spend another £60 on an Airport Express adaptor and use that to feed the dac via the Macbook.

The V-Dac is a very small unit and can sit out of sight - so a very neat and good sounding solution.

Once you have that lot up and running you can expand it at will by adding larger hard drives or splashing cash on a much more expensive dac, if you wish.
Worst case scenario is that you don't get on with the concept but will still have a nice modern laptop and a spare dac.
 
OK, thanks. Does the Mac make any noise? My Compaq laptop has an annoying fan noise which is present most of the time.

How far away from the rack can the Mac be?

I've heard that AE doesn't give very good sound quality, is this true?

I feel a trip to Buchanan Street coming on.
 
The Macbook Pro has a fan but usually the machines run near silent. Certainly running something like iTunes on it isn;t going to get the fans fired up.

You can get optical cables of 5m quite easily though I've not seen longer so that's probably the limit to a wired installation.

With AE you can have the laptop anywhere in the house.
Some aren't convinced that AE is as good as a direct connection. I'm yet to be convinced of that argument and use one at home.
 
You only need a Mac (or PC) and a DAC. With PCs it is possible that a separate interface id required to provide coax or optical feed. Macs come with optical output. One or two DACs (like the Weiss) also have Firewire connection which most of the Macs support and some reckon is preferable. Either way, Macs seem to be a bit more straight forward for this purpose.

Unlike Rob, I'm convinced totally of the benefit of directly connecting the Mac to the DAC (rather than using AE). I run both. Optical is no problem over 10 metres never mind 5, so positioning the Mac away from kit is no problem. Although both my Macs run absolutely silently I don't worry about them being near the kit.

Mac connects via optical cable from 3.5mm headphone jack (it doubles as optical output) to normal toslink socket on the DAC. DAC connected to your amp via ic of your choice.

Mac audio and iTunes settings to lossless importing and playback - I can let you have details if you like but once set you can forget them.

Steve
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The Devil said:
I'm confused. Why do you need a squeezebox as well as a DAC and a computer?
Click to expand...

You very shortly won't.
You'll need a computer to cut your CDs to a lossless audio format (e.g. FLAC).
Be aware that there's a new Squeezebox due out in early Dec called the Touch. If you put all of your music onto an external USB hard drive, it will be capable of reading your music collection directly from the USB drive, i.e. no network or computer needed. In addition, it brings native 24/94 file support to the party.
It does have an internal DAC, but bearing in mind your existing system, as is it would probably be a bit out of it's depth and you may wish to investigate adding an external DAC to improve things.
 
Whatever Linn suggest I think that moving from playing CDs in real time to playing rips via some other mechanism isn't any sort of big jump in quality terms.

There are other reasons for moving to hard disk storage, which probably don't need enlarging here.

Unless you really need a separate DAC the Linn type solution makes a lot of sense, and fits your environment where you have a number of analogue sources connected to a preamp. I have one analogue source and three digital, the DAC has four inputs and acts as a switch, my preamp is single input, essentially just a volume control. Which could be integrated into the DAC if I didn't want to be able to play records. Which I achieve by moving wires in the old fashioned way.

Anyway feel free to call me if you want to be completely confused.

Paul
 
durrrrrrrr.

I assume the future is high resolution FLAC downloads of studio masters. GT demonstrated that the megabuck DS beats the Linn CD12 at playing ripped CDs vs CDs. Unfortunately for him, he then lent me his CD12, which duly lost to the CDS2! But the DS seemed like an elegant thing at the time.

I am completely at sea here.
 
The wrong side of £11k. Or you could get a ModWright modded slim devices transport for about £2.5k.
 
SteveS1 said:
Unlike Rob, I'm convinced totally of the benefit of directly connecting the Mac to the DAC (rather than using AE). I run both. Optical is no problem over 10 metres never mind 5, so positioning the Mac away from kit is no problem. Although both my Macs run absolutely silently I don't worry about them being near the kit.

Mac connects via optical cable from 3.5mm headphone jack (it doubles as optical output) to normal toslink socket on the DAC. DAC connected to your amp via ic of your choice.
Click to expand...

I need to compare further re the AE but it seems more of a problem with some dacs than others.
One limitation (in answer to Keith) is that I think 16/44 is the max for the AE so if high res is of interest that will limit things.

James, as someone new to this downloading and streaming malarky I'd still suggest a nice Macbook and Dac. That's an inexpensive solution that will sound great and play high res.
About as plug and go as it gets.
You can always experiment with wireless and AE if you wish - only costs £60 to try.
Oh, and if you get an iPhone or iPod Touch you have a superb remote control capable of displaying album info and cover art.
 
why is everyone saying mac mac mac?

you can get a laptop or desktop for a couple of hundred, or maybe you already own a pc at home bub?
 
Chris Hi, yes a PC is also capable of equally good, some say better results, but I believe you still have to bypass the core audio somehow, (ASIO) or direct kernel streaming, my early experiments connecting my dac by USB to my PC sounded awful, also itunes is extremely good and very simple and the itouch is cool!
Regards Keith.
 
bottleneck said:
why is everyone saying mac mac mac?

you can get a laptop or desktop for a couple of hundred, or maybe you already own a pc at home bub?
Click to expand...

In my case, mostly because they have optical in/out as standard and work pretty much straight from the box.

They also look and feel nice to use :)

But yes, it can all be done with pc if you buy and configure correctly.
 

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