I have been reading with much excitement all the posts regarding PC-based systems. Unfortunately I have now reached sensory overload and am not sure where to go.
I currently have an "all-in-one" media center PC as my office machine. With its built-in speakers and mediocre soundcard it sounds somewhere between a boombox and a bigger boombox. The software, however, is quite cool. I can rip my CDs to the harddrive and then access them every which way one can imagine. I even get pictures of the album covers as one option for viewing what to play. In addition, no need to break out the out lava lamp as a large selection of visualizations that gyrate to the music are also provided. Unfortunately the sound quality of this machine is not at the level of the convienence.
So my questions are how best to get the sound out of the hard disk and into my speakers. From what I can tell there are several options:
1) Use the existing soundcard with analog outs to a real amp. This will not due since the DAC ou the soundcard is a real limiting factor. Since the machine is one of those all-in-ones, I cannot replace the soundcard.
2) Use the optical out on the machine to bypass the soundcard (I think this would bypass it). I can then get one of the optical to coaxial converters to feed by Ack! Dac. This option has some promise.
3) Get a USB external DAC. I assume this is a cleaner way to bypass the soundcard.
4) By something like a Squeezebox2 and either use its internal DAC or feed the Ack! from the Squeezebox.
5) Wait for the new JVC receivers with the USB ports. The trouble with this is that the JVCs are not known for their digital inputs, rather for their analog inputs. I assume they have mediocre, at best, internal DACs.
I am willing to give up something in the way of sonics for a simpler, more convienent solution. I also want to have have remote volume control. My current amp is one of the little Sonic Impacts.
So here are my questions.
1) My media Center PC comes with a remote that does control volume. I assume, however, that this is a poor implementation of digital volume. As such, I will be "losing bits" and sound quality. Is that correct?
2) The Squeezebox also has a remote that controls volume. Is this also subject to the same problems or is it in the analog domain? If so, I assume that I would need to then use the internal Sqeezebox dacs. Any idea how good they are?
3) Is a USB DAC better than the Ack! setup I currently could have?
4) What should I do???
Thanks
