[Bob in St. Louis]

Welcome Peter. Glad to have you onboard. 
You using "Gizmo" on the tablet?
Also check out "Unified Remote". You can use your tablet as a touch screen mouse to peruse the collection of tunes on JRiver as opposed to being stuck with the Gizmo app.

Bob

[Ern Dog]

I'm in a similar boat.  I've been cautiously and skeptically watching this whole computer audio wave by the side lines.  I suppose I knew that eventually I'd take the plunge.  So my first step in that direction was getting my first external dac.  I chose one that had asynch usb input.  When I first heard it using my macbook pro as the source, I was not too impressed and thought that my Modwright tube Oppo 83 sounded better.  I did however, love the convenience of having all my cd in one place and the ease of use, but most important part- Sound Quality- was missing.  I could see the potential.  So I tried an experiment and got a 30-day trial of the Overdrive SE dac/pre.  This new dac totally changed the game for me because the sound quality I was getting surpassed my best SACD's  played on the Oppo.  Not sure why I waited so long to do this.  I hardly listen to my cd player now. 

[JerryLove]

Jerry you have made an unsubstantiated statement.  Conversely the Virgil Fox recording,The Fox Touch on the Crystal Clear label
has frequencies down to 16Hz at substantial volume.

Follow the logic with me:
A groove has a maximum width/depth.
Increasing SPL on a record is done by enlarging the notch in the grove.
At some point, the notch will equal groove size (and as I recall, on a stereo record these noches are 45-degrees).

But there are about a bagillion different record formats, and choosing needles is like choosing wines; and bluntly, I remain blissfully ignorant to the details. I have no interest in the nuance of turntables; I got enough of them in the 70s. It was a casual comment.

[*Scotty*]

Vinyl aside, I will never go back to playing CDs. I switched to computer playback of wav files from ripped CDs about 3 years ago and I thought I was a late adopter.
Scotty

[charmerci]

I switched to computer playback of wav files from ripped CDs about 3 years ago and I thought I was a late adopter.
Scotty

It was this summer for me!

[jimdgoulding]

Yo, sound stimulates air in waves and arrives in waves.  Digital is about bits.  How does that compute (no pun intended)?

[JerryLove]

Yo, sound stimulates air in waves and arrives in waves.  Digital is about bits.  How does that compute (no pun intended)?

Like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_pulse_code_modulation

[jimdgoulding]

Thanks for that, Jer.  I tend to think of digital as coding and decoding and that falls short of things like color and air and continuity in the flow of playback.  My playback, at any rate, direct to tape or vinyl itself.

[Peter J]

Welcome Peter. Glad to have you onboard. 
You using "Gizmo" on the tablet?
Also check out "Unified Remote". You can use your tablet as a touch screen mouse to peruse the collection of tunes on JRiver as opposed to being stuck with the Gizmo app.

Bob

Thanks Bob.  Not quite there yet. I'm in the ripping process now and just listening on my desk system, still using discs for the living room rig. In time I'll run ethernet cabling to that location so everything can tie together. Wireless and this house just don't seem to get along and I'm cabling to various locations as needed.

As far as servers go, I'm sorta waiting for the next gen CAPS to show itself and see where that takes me.

We own an ipad, but I want a mostly dedicated tablet to run this, and Android looks like the best bet, I'm really not wanting to tie into Apple on this setup. Galaxy Tab 10.1 is looking good, but I'd sure appreciate reccomendations on that and remote software as well. DAC is another wide open door, and the possibilities in the around $1K range are many and daunting.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Galaxy Tab 10.1 is looking good, but I'd sure appreciate reccomendations on that and remote software as well.

You're very welcome Peter.

The app that turns your Android into a touch screen remote is called UNIFIED REMOTE. <---click that
This is what I use to control my server, since it's too far away to use a corded mouse, and too far away to use a wireless mouse reliably. The free program works fine, I paid them for the better version, just because I like the app so much I wanted to 'donate', not because I needed the better version.
It also has basic "radio functions" for the most common music playback programs, Foobar, MediaMonkey, Windows, etc....

The "Gizmo" app I spoke of, is the official Android app for JRiver, that you already have.
It comes with that ability automatically, but you do have to download it to the Android.

On a side note, the 10.1 is a wonderful toy that you can take with you for maps, internet access, etc.....
and....while you're out, you can play Pandora through it.

Bob

[Peter J]

Rather than start a new thread, I thought I'd relate a little about my digital journey so far.

I've just completed ripping all the CDs in my collection...turns out I have about 300, more than I thought. LP's will have to wait, I don't relish the thought of that job. That turns out to be about 1.4 gigs, less than I guessed but with lots of space to grow with the 1TB drives.

Most all parts to build CAPs server (Carbon) sit in a box in the closet, I'm waiting on a Wesena case that is set to arrive tomorrow.

DACs....there's so much to read about them and prices all over the map, my head nearly exploded….poof!

 Years ago I did own a separate DAC, the Perpetual Technologies P3, I think. I bought it when they were talking about making custom correction profiles for specific speakers. I actually sent two different speakers to Perp Tech to measure on the promise that I’d be compensated for my trouble with software for the DAC. Alas, that mess went down the tubes with AV-123…a sore spot for me…meh.

Fast forward to today, I’ve purchased both a used Wyred 4 Sound DAC-2 and a new iFi  iUSB and iDAC. The iFi stuff is tiny, smaller than I would have guessed looking at pics.

I don’t have any usb output at the moment to mess with the iFi, but did hook the the W4S coaxially to my Cary CD player. Using balanced outputs to Eastern Electric M88, I am way impressed with the sound quality increase…just amazing!

 Clarity, separation and detail all very noticeably improved. Once again, I’m genuinely excited to be involved in the audio hobby. Ironically, my hearing isn’t all that good…lots of high frequency loss. But these changes are not subtle and the goosebumps I get listening to familiar music is just too cool. I’m lovin’ it!

Once I get server up and running, I’ll comment further and sorta bring this thread full circle.

[*Scotty*]

Peter,what format did you rip your CDs to? I have about 400CDs ripped as Wav Files and they take up about 350G of 500G external hard drive.
Scotty

[Peter J]

Peter,what format did you rip your CDs to? I have about 400CDs ripped as Wav Files and they take up about 350G of 500G external hard drive.
Scotty

Ripped to FLAC, lossless level 0 in dBpoweramp. I'm following methodology prescribed by  this article

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/309-computer-audiophile-cd-ripping-strategy-and-methodology/

Gees, I hope I haven't screwed something up here...

[wisnon]

I've watched my fair share of technological water pass under the audio bridge. Having lived through things like 8 track tapes (bought many), cassettes (also bought many), vinyl (I still have every LP I ever bought), I've become a cautious and plodding adopter of new formats. I still remember buying my first CD player and having the store owner welcome me to the twentieth century, even remember the first disc I bought.

I passively watched MP3 players shoot up in popularity and services like Napster wreaking havoc. Reading about the decline of audio quality and ambivalence of the buying public, I found myself clinging to my CD collection while dismissing it all as not worth persuing. I've had several phones with unused MP3 players, (ok, I ripped one disc just to see how it worked!). I just generally avoided what appeared to be a lossy and unsatisfactory musical experience.

I read much here and other places, somewhat torn between my jaded view of digital storage and playback and what appeared to be a better way that addressed my sound quality concerns.  As my knowledge of a better ways of doing things (software and hardware) grew, I decided to get on the train...late...as usual.

Which brings me to the point of this diatribe. I've started ripping all my discs onto external drives with dbpoweramp and using JRiver to view and playback. Soon I'll build a server like CAPs, invest in a good D/A converter, and control it with a tablet. I've been dreaming about this for two or three years and now that's it's starting to materialize I have to say:

This is so cool!

Having this kind of access to my music collection is nearly intoxicating to me, I'm completely jazzed. I know what you're thinking, so let me save you the trouble, "welcome to the 21st century, Peter"

Better late than never...

If you really want to step into it headfirst, get a Lynx Hilo or Korg Dac and rip your LPs to digital! Those units are ADCs and DACs. More than your stated budget though.

For just $1K, I would imagine that MHDT Havana, Metrum Octave, the new Teac (with DSD), JKeny Dac 32 and the Sonore eXd ($1300) should be definitely on your audition list.

[*Scotty*]

I am probably a Luddite, but I didn't want the player to do anymore work than it had to, plus I'm paranoid.
I also make CDs for playback in the car and burning seems to be simpler dragging and dropping wav files.
Scotty

[srb]

Ripped to FLAC, lossless level 0 in dBpoweramp. I'm following methodology prescribed by  this article
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/309-computer-audiophile-cd-ripping-strategy-and-methodology/
Gees, I hope I haven't screwed something up here...

My average CD is ~ 550MB uncompressed.  Ripped to FLAC Level 0, it reduces it to ~ 55% of the original size, or ~ 300MB per album.

300 CDs X ~ 300MB would put the total in the neighborhood of somewhere between 90GB and 100GB.  Not sure what is happening with your rips or calculations.

Steve

[Jon L]

Lucky for PC audio beginners, things are SO MUCH easier these days compared to even a couple of years ago to get great PC audio sound quality, mainly due to the advent of asynchronous USB interfaces from XMOS and M2Tech, which can be found in many, many DAC's these days, many well-priced. 

Before that, you were stuck with questionable adaptive USB interfaces, expensive audiophile asynch USB solutions, or a bunch of inadequate spdif PC cards.  Tried many of those, and it's just much easier and better to go with asynch usb IME.

[toddbagwell]

Ripped to FLAC, lossless level 0 in dBpoweramp. I'm following methodology prescribed by  this article

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/309-computer-audiophile-cd-ripping-strategy-and-methodology/

Gees, I hope I haven't screwed something up here...

Are you sure you've got all the files selected when your computer is telling you 1.4 GB? it isn't just one artist?
I agree with the others and SRB's math, you should have larger files.

highlight one track, and see what the properties are, making sure it is being read as a FLAC, which should also have a percentage of the original file size/ percentage compressed.

let us know!

todd

[Peter J]

Are you sure you've got all the files selected when your computer is telling you 1.4 GB? it isn't just one artist?
I agree with the others and SRB's math, you should have larger files.

highlight one track, and see what the properties are, making sure it is being read as a FLAC, which should also have a percentage of the original file size/ percentage compressed.

let us know!

todd

  I'm standing up to take my dope-slap, guys. I should proof my own posts better and pay more attention to other's concern. I really can't tell you where that 1.4 number came from, there must be gremlins in my keyboard or something...   After a (better) second look it seems I've eaten up about 133gb. which seems more in line with what y'all are saying.

Glad I wasn't proposing  a kitchen remodel with my funny math.

[JEaton]

Enjoy it while you can.  In a year you will be scrolling through a thousand albums and won't be able to find a thing to ware (hear).   

I swear, sometimes I scroll through and get to the z's and have to start over again.  I can go to the CD rack or start flipping through LP's and pick a few no problem.  Maybe it's just me.   

No, it's not just you.

More and more I'm noticing this, too. Browsing just isn't as easy (or satisfying, or something). With CDs you pick up a jewel box or digipack, read the liner notes, have a better idea of what that album is. You can't get that from browsing through thousands of album covers. Computer software is great for many ways of browsing and putting together random, semi-random, or intelligent playlists, but it really sucks for the situation where you ask yourself "What do I feel like listening to right now?"