Digital Drive Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

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Re: I am thinking about a HD based front end

Posted by andy_c on June 13, 2006 at 08:15:39

In Reply to: I am thinking about a HD based front end posted by G Squared on June 13, 2006 at 06:34:37:

Because there are so many details of computer audio, to give a thorough answer to your question would require a huge amount of info. So I'll just give a brief description here. If you're thinking about doing this, the Computer Audio Asylum here is a great resource.

The player I use is the Squeezebox by Slim Devices. They have some discussion forums here. Another similar device that I haven't used is the Roku Soundbridge. What these two devices have in common is that they are network devices. So they are not recognized as sound cards by the OS. The Squeezebox can be bought in wired-only configuration, in which hookup is through a standard ethernet cable to your network, or wireless, in which case data transfer is done over a wireless network. The Squeezebox has TosLink and RCA digital outputs, so it can be used with an external DAC, and it has analog outputs that can be connected straight into a preamp. For software, the Squeezebox requires the use of SlimServer. This is a freeware, open source software. Its UI is web-based. This makes it cross-platform, but results in a somewhat clunky interface compared to native GUI apps. The SlimServer is usually installed on the computer that stores your music. It can also be accessed by other computers on the network via a special URL in your web browser. I have a very quiet laptop in my listening room that I use to pick the music I want to listen to. This is somewhat more convenient than using the Squeezebox's remote.

If your home is not wired for ethernet, the wireless setup is a big advantage, because it's very difficult to get a computer with huge amounts of hard drive space that is also quiet enough to put in an equipment rack. With wireless, your music can be stored on a noisy computer stashed away somewhere you can't hear it. Also, wireless doesn't have the potential problem of noise introduced by connecting the ground of an electrically noisy computer to your audio system. Of course, wireless has some disadvantages too. 2.4 GHz wireless phones and microwave ovens can sometimes interfere. You can choose different wireless channels on the Squeezebox to eliminate this. I have not had a problem in this area, but I have heard of folks whose music breaks up when turning on the microwave. My microwave is about 20 ft away from the Squeezebox with no problem.

I could go on and on about this, but I think I'll leave it at that :-). Hopefully this will give you enough info to get started.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

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