[serengetiplains]

Having recently discovered that PC computer playback sounds better than Mac, it looks that I'll be converting my iTunes Mac music source to PC Foobar.  I have a few basic questions that, being new to PC playback, have surely been answered thousands of times, but if someone can give me a quick answer, I'll be forever in that person's debt:

1. Can my iTunes music files be imported into Foobar?  A sub-question here is whether I should rip my CDs again using EAC, or if iTunes ripping using error correction is pretty much identical.

2. How does one get CD and track names into Foobar?  Is this a manual entry job?

3. What PC (laptop) performance characteristics are important for PC playback (XP/Vista? CPU speed? Simple graphics card for perhaps less power supply noise?)?

4. Can a PC-based laptop system operate, without sonic compromise, from an external hard-drive (I need >500MB for all my CDs)?

Thanks all!   

[mranger211]

Hi there,
I have no answer to your first two questions, but might be of help with your last two.

As far as I can tell, music playback does not stress the CPU much (playing .wav files). I have two gigs of memory which also seems way more than enough. Since I didn't have a lot of space in my case, I used a motherboard with built-in graphics which seems fine. One thing I noticed (and which has been pointed out by others before): the anti-virus causes trouble in the form of ticks and pops. Also, I had to remove the wireless network card for the same reason. Another thing I noticed is the unpredictability of things: some MBs seem to work better than others for no reason that I can find.

Using an external HD seems to work as long as it has an e-SATA connection, but I found that it was easier for me to silence the HD inside the computer case than in the external HD enclosure. I haven't tried USB, though.

Hope this help,
Martin

[audioengr]

2. How does one get CD and track names into Foobar?  Is this a manual entry job?

3. What PC (laptop) performance characteristics are important for PC playback (XP/Vista? CPU speed? Simple graphics card for perhaps less power supply noise?)?

4. Can a PC-based laptop system operate, without sonic compromise, from an external hard-drive (I need >500MB for all my CDs)?

Thanks all!   

2) EAC will tag the files using FREEDB.  Use the option in the EAC menu.  You will have to register an email name I believe.

3) CPU performance can make a difference.  Faster is usually better, but unless you have a really old slower PC, you probably will be fine.  Newer OS's require larger memory, so I recommend 2 GBytes for XP and 4GBytes for Vista.

4) Yes, you should be able to use an external HD over firewire or USB etc.. without any sonic compromise.  Set the buffer size in Foobar to the max.

STeve N.