[Mark Korda]

Hi All,as I read Stereophile and Absolute Sound,I have no clue to what is happening in the world of computerized music.My question is this....Is there one of those yellow and black (Idiot Books),which I happen to have a whole shelf of,to get me on track about DAC's?Remember here,your talking to a guy who still won't get a cell phone ,and marred some older vinyl,by accident mind you,with erratic finger cueing of the original AR-1 turntable....thanks buds....Mark Korda.

[JohnR]

Getting started is not too hard. Just download and install itunes:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

(Windows or Mac)

Insert a CD into drive and load into iTunes (on the Mac, it will ask you, dunno about Windows).

Right away, you can play the CD on your computer's internal speakers. No it won't sound good, it's just to verify that you can play music from iTunes.

Then you need a DAC. Do you have a DAC already? If so, you may want to just get a USB to SPDIF convertor like the Teralink X2 or the Audio GD DI.

If not, then you will want to get a DAC with a USB input. Vast range of pricing, so you'll need to have some idea of how much you want to spend before asking for recommendations.

That's it really. It can seem complicated but getting started is pretty easy. Then you can spend some time organizing your music library and ask in the Apple Core or the Discless Circle as you run into issues or have questions.

HTH

[Bigfish]

Mark:

The nicest think about computer music systems is the convenience of being able to access your entire music library and select any album or song from your listening chair.  JohnR provided you with a way to start and it really is that simple. It becomes a little more complicated when it comes to building a streaming system that will deliver excellent sound quality in addition to convenience. PM me if you like and I will tell you about my system and how I arrived where it is now.

Ken

[JLM]

Software will improve the sound quality and add very useful features.  Again prices vary widely, but something like PureMusic ($129) is very good quality.  Now your source is better than nearly any CD player on the planet.  Full resolution audio downloads are available for purchase, saving you a trip to the store or mailbox.  Another advantage of computer audio is access to "internet radio" (streaming feeds) with tons to pick from.

Eventually you'll need more hard drive space.  Recommend picking up an external drive and to play safe you'll want to back it up onto a 2nd external drive (that you can safely store somewhere else).  This sounds like a hassle (and it can be), but the cost of 1,000 CDs is roughly $15,000 and a $100 TB hard drive can store over 10,000 CDs.

Speaking of which, some use "lossless compression" (reduces the average CD from 640,000 to 400,000 bytes).  Less of an issue with cheap hard drive prices, but useful if you download to an iPod.

Another option to a USB DAC is Sonus or one of the Squeezebox products.  These serve as wireless (or wired) connections to computer with their own displays and DACs.  Several can be used together to provide a shared source from anywhere in the house (they can play different music into each device).  Prices are quite reasonable, quality is good, and can be improved via modding.  Check out Bolder Cable circle below.

[marvda1]

how is the sound quality if you use a mini to rca and come out of your headphone jack to your preamp?

[srb]

Speaking of which, some use "lossless compression" (reduces the average CD from 640,000 to 400,000 bytes) ...... and a $100 TB hard drive can store over 10,000 CDs.

Based on a lossless compressed size of ~ 400MB per CD, a 1TB drive would store ~ 2,500 CDs.
 
Steve

[Mark Korda]

Hi thanks to John R,Bigfish,JLM,marvada1,and SRB,thanks you guys for getting me started.I got one more question though....I subscribed to Netflix to get out of very high cable costs.They don't have a lot of movies I really want to see,just the most popular or something....is the computer music the same way?...I don't want to hear the same old FM crap,I want to hear obscure tunes that I cherished on vinyl which might never be digitized...should I still give it a go?...Thanks ever so much,I'm coping your instructions down to help the learning curve...Mark K.

[JohnR]

I was assuming that you would load your own CDs into iTunes (or whichever playback software you end up using after you learn the ropes a bit).

If you want to search for new or old stuff, have a look at Pandora or Grooveshark. It's compressed but there's a lot on there...