[FasterThanEver]

James,

I agree with some other posters that it is early times for playing high quality music from PCs and Macs.  However, things are changing pretty fast.  You and other Bryston people ought to be getting some experience using PC based audio so that you aren't locked out of the future market.

I'm sure than many current high-end customers will adopt PC-based audio slowly and some never will.  That's OK.  There are other audiophiles who have taken the plunge. I doubt that new audiophiles will have much attachment to physical CDs.

On forums liike audioasylum, the focus is on getting better sound from PC based audio than playing physical CDs provided.  For a larger set of listeners, the focus is on getting new functionality from PC based audio. That's the future.  High quality audio is a part of the picture but if you are not relevant to the rest of the picture, you will be stuck selling to a dwindling crowd of traditionalists.

I've been an audiophile for 40 years.  I couldn't wait for hard disks to get big enough to hold my 2500 CD collection in lossless format.  It took 4 months of hard work to get everything ripped and tagged but the result is well worth it. My J.River Media Center player remembers everything so I can browse and find things I had completely forgotten about.

Bill

[
Got this from a customer with the BDA-1 -

"This obviously isnt a true test of the DAC!!!... but getting the PC to talk to it was a 20 sec process.... so that was great!"

james

[brucek]

It took 4 months of hard work to get everything ripped and tagged but the result is well worth it.

What format did you decide on using? (I use WMA lossless myself)

How are you backing up your music to protect all that hard work?

brucek

[James Tanner]

James,

I agree with some other posters that it is early times for playing high quality music from PCs and Macs.  However, things are changing pretty fast.  You and other Bryston people ought to be getting some experience using PC based audio so that you aren't locked out of the future market.

I'm sure than many current high-end customers will adopt PC-based audio slowly and some never will.  That's OK.  There are other audiophiles who have taken the plunge. I doubt that new audiophiles will have much attachment to physical CDs.

On forums liike audioasylum, the focus is on getting better sound from PC based audio than playing physical CDs provided.  For a larger set of listeners, the focus is on getting new functionality from PC based audio. That's the future.  High quality audio is a part of the picture but if you are not relevant to the rest of the picture, you will be stuck selling to a dwindling crowd of traditionalists.

I've been an audiophile for 40 years.  I couldn't wait for hard disks to get big enough to hold my 2500 CD collection in lossless format.  It took 4 months of hard work to get everything ripped and tagged but the result is well worth it. My J.River Media Center player remembers everything so I can browse and find things I had completely forgotten about.

Bill

Hi Bill,

I have been playing with different hard drive systems over the past few months (with the help of Chris at Computer Audiophile) and used them to test the BDA-1 during the design stages.

james

[FasterThanEver]

It took 4 months of hard work to get everything ripped and tagged but the result is well worth it.

What format did you decide on using? (I use WMA lossless myself)

How are you backing up your music to protect all that hard work?

brucek

I use Flac format.  It is widely supported, well documented and open source.  Most utility programs (like media Monkey, dBpoweramp or J.River MC) can convert Flac files to other lossless formats or to WAV without any loss.  I can also create MP3 or AAC files and sync my 60 GB iPod with J.River MC.

If you are wedded to Apple, iTunes and the iTunes music store, then AAC and ALAC (lossless) or AIFF (uncomressed) would make sense.  I don't need to be wedded to Apple and certainly don't want to.

If you are wedded to Microsoft, then WMA and WMA lossless make sense.  That makes far less sense than being wedded to Apple.

---- backup
My library is about 620 Gbytes.  It is stored on my dedicated music PC.  I do incremental backups to a 750 GB Seagate USB hard drive every month or two.  I have 2 of the 750 GB backup drives and alternate between them.  I backup my general purpose PC and my wife's separately on alternative 400 GB Seagate USB drives.

I keep the backup drives at the far end of the house.  When I'm going to away, I take a set of backup drives to a friend's house.  I'd keep a set of backup drives off-site all the time if it were not a burden on my friend.

I also have a copy of the entire music library on my general purpose PC.  It isn't necessary; it just worked out that way for me.

Bill

[Crimson]

Does your 'wedded' commentary imply you run linux? Try the dyne:bolic distro as it's optimized for media.

[nickelbut10]

I have a RAID External Hot Swappable Sata controller that is running 8 x 500 gig HDD's Seagate's in it for a total of 4TB. The computer is just one I built. It is running on a RAID 1. Just using a cheap-0 300 dollar DAC at the moment. Until I get the Bryston one.


James- As far as I am concerned, you and you company have already done all you will need to do by having the BDA-1 in your lineup.

Bryston is an AUDIO equipment manufacturer. Not a crap computer company. Anyone who wants great audio from a PC based music server, build your own, or buy a laptop/external drive combo. Next step buy the Bryston BDA-1. Done. McIntosh make good audio equipment, however, why would they ever make(or market) an over priced music server is beyond me. Marketing crap. Who owns them now a days?lol.  The computer industry is going to overflow the market with crap, overpriced music servers as it is. James already got together with a well know computer dude, tested his product, and now sells one of the best sounding External DAC's around. IMO Bryston has already done, what they will ever need to do. Cheers.

[FasterThanEver]

Does your 'wedded' commentary imply you run linux? Try the dyne:bolic distro as it's optimized for media.

Thanks for the info.  I may wind up with a distributed solution using small headless boxes running Linux

If I use Flac, I can use Windows or Linux. At present I use Win XP.  J. River MC is by far the best player I've found for a large collection of classical music; It is a Windows app.  Most other players are stuck on the Genre-Album-Artist-Track set of tags for browsing.  I didn't find any Linux based players that were satisfactory for my needs.

Bill

[nickelbut10]

I also use FLAC.

I agree that the J. River MC player is one of the better ones out there. I have a server upstairs that is running Fedora 8 linux and the only player that is even remotely decent is the new MPlayer. Its plan, and boring, but plays everything well. Still nowhere close to J River. Cheers.

[FasterThanEver]

James- As far as I am concerned, you and you company have already done all you will need to do by having the BDA-1 in your lineup.

Bryston is an AUDIO equipment manufacturer. Not a crap computer company. Anyone who wants great audio from a PC based music server, build your own, or buy a laptop/external drive combo. Next step buy the Bryston BDA-1. Done. McIntosh make good audio equipment, however, why would they ever make(or market) an over priced music server is beyond me. Marketing crap. Who owns them now a days?lol.  The computer industry is going to overflow the market with crap, overpriced music servers as it is. James already got together with a well know computer dude, tested his product, and now sells one of the best sounding External DAC's around. IMO Bryston has already done, what they will ever need to do. Cheers.

I didn't suggest that Bryston bring out a toe-in-the-water product.  However, products like Sonos and the Logitech Squeezebox / Transporter are viable now and will important sources of DAC business.  Understanding the market for computer based audio so that you design the right products and to market them is necessary for companies like Bryston.

James Tanner mentioned talking to Chris Connaker of Computer Audiophile for insight.  I've followed that web site since it started up and seen Chris's posts on other forums.  He passes on what industry insiders tell him but I don't see real in-depth knowledge there.

Bill

[ian.ameline]

Oops -- replied to a very very old post on the first page -- not applicable any more...