PC audio

[joeparaski]

I'm in "research" mode towards putting together a music server and ripping my cd's to a hard drive.

The PC will connect to my sound system, soooo, how important is the sound card in such a setup? If the optical out from the sound card goes to the sound systems' dac, how good does the sound card need to be?

Joe

[Dennis Gardner]

Joe,

Check into a Squeezebox or similar device to handle the interface. Your soundcard choice isn't too important as long as the external DAC is used. I use the Soundblaster Audigy with success. I also love my Squeezebox V3 Classic.

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_duet.html
http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html
http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_transporter.html

[joeparaski]

Dennis, thanks for the link, I've got to read a bit more about this. How does the music get from the pc to the squeezebox? Is there some software to install? I'm a little confused on how this thing operates.

I'm downloading the user guide now and will do some reading.

Joe

[Dennis Gardner]

It doesn't use the PC at all except as a storage device. It is networked and gets the music off of your hard drive by streaming it to itself, then it passes it on in digital or analog form to your rig. I should have made my post about sound card need clearer. It doesn't use your soundcard, it gets the music over the ethernet or wireless whichever is better for your situation. The Squeezebox could sit in your rack and stream the music to itself wirlelessly from your music server.

[joeparaski]

Documentation talks about music on the pc being "tagged". Which rings a bell because I did something yesterday (transferred something to something) and I got a message about missing tags and it couldn't transfer everything.

There's also something about "tag editors" in the documentation. Looks like I've got a lot of work ahead of me if I go that route....but it is intriguing I admit.

Joe

[Eric W]

Depending on the DAC, you may not even need a sound card. Some DACs (or receivers and preamp processors) have USB input. In which case, just hook up.

Some soundcards may resample the digital material too.