[Hantra]

Pros are easy use, no change to cd methods... dedicated device, simple, clean solution.

As I see it, the pros on the PC are: easy use, dedicated device, simple, clean solution, amaaaazing bang for the buck. . .

I can't see modding your current player.  Call me a skeptic, but I have heard a LOT of gear. . I just cannot imagine how spending $700 to mod that player will bring it near the quality of PC audio.

If you want to keep costs down, there are a ton of guys right now using PC's with no sound card, and just going out to a TubeDAC.  I hear that's amazing!  Asus Deluxe mobos all have a SPDIF out right on the mobo, and you just plug a nice digital cable in.  Voila!  No mess, no expensive sound card to buy.  Just add your favorite DAC.  The improvement is dramatic over any optical based transport.

Is 2 Gig too much processing power?

Probably. .  Unless you're going to be doing editing or recording.  I don't think it would be detrimental or anything.  Keep in mind that I am running 1.4Ghz, and I rarely ever see over 30% processor use.  That's when I am upsampling in slow mode to the highest I can go.

How much memory is needed? What kind?

I have 320.  I think more is better.  I doubt it makes a difference what kind, but who knows?

How much cooling is needed?

I have three case fans, all on a rheostat, and all barely turning.  I have a regular stock CPU fan on a stat as well.  That's one reason to stay away from the speedy processors.  The newer P4's are HOT.

What's the best soundcard for the money? I saw someone post there was an RME clone out there... that was cheap. However, I'd like something with L&R RCA outputs on the card. Does the RME have that?

I wish I could answer this one.  It's not something I have played with.  I can say that I am enamored with my Lynx L22.  They are rare on EBay, but I found mine, and hit "Buy It Now" within twenty minutes of it going up.  It helps to use RSS feeds when looking for something rare.  I have one running now for Pixies tickets.  LOL!

If anyone is interested in comparing sound cards to the Lynx, I will be happy to use my place as a venue, or even bring over my box.  My Lynx is semi-permanent now that I mounted RCA jacks to the chassis.  

So far I'll probably get the Seagate Barracuda HD and the Lite-on CD drive looks nice..

Now... What case, motherboard, and power supply do you recommend? I've seen some on quietpc.com but that place seemed pricey on everything.

Barracuda IV is sweet.  VERY quiet.  Buy a small one for the OS, and large one for the music.  

I like the Asus Deluxe boards. . .  As I said, they have SPDIF outs.  Can't beat that!  Power supplies vary, but get a quiet one.  I got one that was rated quiet, and it's NOT quiet.  I strayed from real reviews, and bought one to save $20.  Don't do it.  DO get one with Active Power Factor Correction.  It HAS to sound better.     Seriously. . .


HTH, and good luck whatever you decide to do. . .

B

[EchiDna]

I'll add a little more to Hantra's comments...

personal favourite Power supply and cooling fans:
http://www.nexustek.nl
the power supply really is under 20db in use as I've got a professional type 1 sound meter to test with (from work).

personal favourite case:
http://www.kanam.co.kr ht400 series
full size ATX motherboard and power supply, comes with remote and VFD built in, looks like it belongs in my equipment rack.

other benefits of a pc based source: can use as a HTPC for dvd playback and scaling, run a projector for home theatre use, wireless control via PDA etc... I'm doing all of this now except the PDA thing (Trying to get the company to spring for this!)

basically the biggest difference is that you must take the time to upload all your music, after that there is no need to ever have to touch the disk itself again, a big positive in my books!

[skchow]

As far as hard drives go, the barracuda are kickass for their noise but beware of the higher capacity, more recent seagate drives.  I have a 160 GB SATA seagate and while it runs decently quiet (no where as quiet as the barracudas), the seeks are loud enough to keep me awake at night.

Sunny.

[JoshK]

I have been kicking this idea around for a long time, just haven't committed because not sure what all I intend to do with mine yet.   When I move into my new house I think this will be when I actually do it.  

My office will be upstair, directly above my living room.  I was thinking of dropping a network cable down through the wall and having my storage upstairs in the den.   I was thinking of using an old PC, barebones and turning it into a NAS and possibly using my IDE Raid board to add a ton of drives.   Since this will be in another room from the listening room, there won't be a big need for the quiestest drives, reliability will be the big factor, but Seagate and Western Digitals have been good for me in the past with reliability.  

Then the source PC can be in the LR with a small quiet drive for OS, a network card and either an optical out, or a kick ass vid card.  This PC should be minimalistic as I see it.  I don't need it for HTPC as I have all that now (DVD player, DVR and DVD recorder) and I don't care to deal with setting up the interface for all of that but could some day in the future if I wished.  

For interface, I have a friend who is giving me an old laptop in exchange for another favor.  It isn't new or small but I am going to strip it down to lessen the weight and add a 802.11b/g card to it so that we can surf the internet in the LR if we want and this should also allow us to control playback easily.  

Anything you guys think I have neglected to consider? Forgotten about?

[Carlman]

I have not been able to find the Baracuda drive but, I have found general Seagate drives... with an 8M or 2M buffer for IDE.  

That is a very sexy case, Echidna.  A little pricey but probably worth it.  I would prefer a vertical case that will go on the floor, though.  However, I will continue to think about this.

I've been window shopping and built the following:
Case: AcoustiCase Standard Midi Tower, no PSU (Black)
Power Supply: ATX Ultra-Quiet PSU 350W (QT-02350G) Gold Series
Fans: AcoustiFan™ Noiseless Computer Case Fan - 120mm
Motherboard: Asus A7V600-X KT600
Processor: AMD Athlon MP 1.2GHz, 266MHz FSB, 256 L2 Cache
Memory: Kingston 184 pin 512M DDR PC-3200
Hard Drive: Seagate 120G 7200RPM IDE (model ST3120026A)

That's what I've gotten so far.. total price is a little over $500.  This is without a 'pro' soundcard added to the mix.  I've learned the M-Audio 2496 is not going to work for me... a $150 soundcard that gets good reviews (from gamers) but when tested by Stereophile only reproduced 40Hz-15kHz.  The Lynx and RME test to the 20-22 and higher/wider ranges.  Also, I've heard the Lynx and know it's good enough.  However, it's $750!  

So, I'm still stuck on the soundcard.  I found a cool site the lists a bunch of sound cards but I don't know if they're any good... Plus, I can't find it again.  

I was doing all this while AC was down yesterday.  Unfortunately now I have to work pretty hard to catch up on work..

Well, that's what I know so far... how to build a pretty quiet PC... but still no sound.

-C

[vpolineni]

Carl, the rme hdsp 9632 can be bought for 500 dollars... from what i've read, it's supposed to be as good as the lynx (some say more musical)... pm me for more details.

[Hantra]

C:

You can get the Lynx L22 for $649 I think.  I don't have the link at the office, but I think it was fullcompass.com.

There is another card that Chris Runte was talking about.  It's by the pro division of Creative, and now I can't even remember the name of it.  It's from E-Mu.  I think it's the 1810 or 1812a, but it's all the rage at Head-Fi.

[brj]

Anyone consider using a ramdrive?  Add a GB of RAM to the machine, load the (stripped down) OS and a dozen songs into the ramdrive at boot up, and from then on, the hard drive would almost never have to spin up at all (unless it has to load more songs from the harddrive).  Cooling needs would also drop, and with it fan noise.

I haven't tried it, but it certainly seems like a good idea.  Anyone done this yet?

[Carlman]

C:

You can get the Lynx L22 for $649 I think.  I don't have the link at the office, but I think it was fullcompass.com.

There is another card that Chris Runte was talking about.  It's by the pro division of Creative, and now I can't even remember the name of it.  It's from E-Mu.  I think it's the 1810 or 1812a, but it's all the rage at Head-Fi.

I should've mentioned 750 was MSRP....

Good call on the EMU, you're right about the reviews... everyone seems to think it's awesome.
I think this: 1212m ...would be enough for me to get started.

I could then compare the digital out from the motherboard w/ a nice DAC to the Emu's output.  Then of course, I'd have to shoot it out with your PC!

The suggestion about the thumb drive/USB flash sounds intriguing.  What are the seek times and such on those things?  I'm certainly not against it... especially since they have really cool USB flash drive headphone sets like this one.

Thanks again.

[ooheadsoo]

No kidding, the E-mu 1212m is kicking butt and taking names over at head-fi.  Basically only a handful have heard it so far, but they think it tells the RME to go stand in the corner for a timeout at almost half price.  I feel my resolve weakening.  This is really pretty bad...it's supposed to be decent for gaming to boot.

By the way, lan over on head-fi feels that the Emu's digital out is the best he's heard yet.

[hometheaterdoc]

Motherboard: Asus A7V600-X KT600
Processor: AMD Athlon MP 1.2GHz, 266MHz FSB, 256 L2 Cache

I'd personally stay away from AMD in this type of application.  I've always found that pound for pound, the latest AMDs draw a LOT more power than the comparable Intels and run a LOT hotter.  I have a P4 2.5GHz here that doesn't even have a cooling fan on it, just one big mother of a heat sink.  The one case fan is enough to pull air over it and keep it more than cool for 24/7 duty....

YMMV....

[vpolineni]

that emu card looks like a great deal...doesn't have balanced inputs though.. so the rme works for me..plus i've had mods done to mine.. so i'm committed to it.  this card should allow carl to compare its analog outs with using a dac with the spdif out.  are the analog outs on this card rca?  they look like 1/4" connectors...

[Carlman]

Thanks for the good point on the processors, HTDoc... this is the only AMD that I could find that was said to run cool... however, I'll look into the Intel's.  I've had good and bad experience with both AMD and Intel and various ones require various cooling... It's not like all Intels run cool and all AMD's run hot or vice versa.  1 case fan and no fan on the processor sounds very cool, though.  I'll look into the 2.5 Pentium.

The EMU has a daughter board with 1/4" analog ins and outs (among other things).  I was planning on tapping into those leads and making my own rear panel with RCA analog outs which would go to my preamp.  I feel certain this board isn't as good as the RME or Lynx in some or even many ways.  However, if the sound quality is 90+% then I'll be very happy at half or less the price of those.

By the end of this I hope to post the recipe to a very respectable sub-1,k source for digital.  Be patient... it'll be a few months...

-C

[ooheadsoo]

Yes, they're balanced 1/4" trs inputs and outputs.  If you converted them to RCA, you would be missing out on the balanced feature, but I guess it's an option if you don't have any balanced gear.

Soundquality wise, the guys on head-fi feel that in stock form, the emu beats out the modded RME.

[EchiDna]

Carlman,
the Kannam case I mentioned can be bought in the US from digitalconnection.com you are right it is expensive though!

another case option which is very good and looks a bit nicer than the one you are aiming at currently is the antec sonata. it is very quiet out of the box, but you could add some closed cell foam on the side panels if you thought it necessary, hard drives and fans are acoustically damped (mounted in silicon grommets) to isolate them from the case...

BTW, if you can mange to have the storage pc in another room, then you are a step ahead of me! after bootup, there would be no reason for the local HDD to spin up at all as it would not be accessed for anything unless you change programs... a laptop with wireless would give you a big but very fine remote system from anywhere in range.

the EMU looks the dog's bollocks (don't worry that's a good thing in Australia!) for the money and I'm very tempted to get one to step up from my m-audio revolution 7.1

regarding processors, as long as you stay away from the bleeding edge of a new series, you should be fine for heat, that is don't buy the highest spec of a certain design type, stick with something middle to lower end of the range in the current form factor and slap a top end zalmann fanless cooler on it. silence is golden


Ramdrives? I have read about them a bit, but from what I've seen they are a very homebrew kind of thing and for this, I'll stick with simple and easy to operate for now

[ooheadsoo]

I'm in the same shoes as you, EchiDna.  After finally comparing my revo to my sony scd-ce775 ($90 open box) I was totally disgusted by the revo.  After hearing the emu at an upcoming meet, I hope to be able to make a decision regarding it.  Unfortunately, that emu is going to be modded with $140 worth of parts...

[brj]

Ramdrives? I have read about them a bit, but from what I've seen they are a very homebrew kind of thing and for this, I'll stick with simple and easy to operate for now

I probably should have clarified.... I wasn't referring to the specialized solid state disk products that are available (but expensive), but the software concept/product.  Basically, a ram disk is a lower level piece of software that sets aside a chunk of RAM on bootup as a virtual hard drive, complete with file system.  The OS treats it as any other hard drive - except that it generates less heat and has no moving parts!

I'm more familiar with the concept than currently available products, but I do know that there are commercial and free ramdisk tools for Windows.  I'm not a Windows guy (prefer Linux/UNIX/Mac), but I'm sure Google will offer plenty of options.

Now to see what audiophile grade sound cards have audiophile grade Linux support...  

[EchiDna]

I'm in the same shoes as you, EchiDna.  After finally comparing my revo to my sony scd-ce775 ($90 open box) I was totally disgusted by the revo.  After hearing the emu at an upcoming meet, I hope to be able to make a decision regarding it.  Unfortunately, that emu is going to be modded with $140 worth of parts...

geez... my revo sounds better than that... what's your setup? revo analogue out to headphones?

I'm usually using revo rca digital out to my ART DI/O to my preamp

for movies, I switch to analogue out from the revo to get the 7.1 surround sound

[ooheadsoo]

revo analog out to a custom tube preamp/headphone amp.  I actually dont use my headphones too much these days.  My observations were based on my impressions over my speakers (NHT Pro A-10 powered studio monitors and diy dual 10" peerless drivers in 55-60L vented cabinet.)  My cd player has considerably deeper soundstage, more textured bass, and highs that don't sound as plasticky.

Oh, the cd player did sell for $300 at some point.  I happened to get mine boxless and remoteless.

[dave_c]

Thanks for the good point on the processors, HTDoc... this is the only AMD that I could find that was said to run cool... however, I'll look into the Intel's.  I've had good and bad experience with both AMD and Intel and various ones require various cooling... It's not like all Intels run cool and all AMD's run hot or vice versa.  1 case fan and no fan on the processor sounds very cool, though.  I'll look into the 2.5 Pentium.

You could also look for the mobile athlon processors and underclock them if processing power isn't a concern.  They run on lower voltage naturally and might need even less (meaning less heat) if you underclocked them.  It's just a little weird to make something run slower than it should.