Tír Na HiFi

I found this link on another site but I think it is useful enough to post here ...

http://www.dcsltd.co.uk/page/assets/dCS ... _Audio.pdf

Basically it's the dCS guide to computer audio [dCS are the manufactures of very expensive transports / upsamplers and DAC's. like the Puccini, Scarlatti etc ...]

In some ways the guide would frighten you off computer audio, also it pushes USB connections [which is not necessarily the best option], but it s still worth reading.

The easiest way into computer audio is to have a PC and a wireless network and get a Logitec Squeezbox [about 200-euros on amazon] ... that's how I started [there is something similar for a Mac but I have no personal experience].

Computer audio is great for saving space in your listening room [if you have lots of CD's] but it is a pain to 'rip' your CD's .. I am learning the hard way that the time involved in ripping is a lot longer than you expect [but on a positive note it also gives you a backup of your priceless stuff if your house ever burns down ...]. Also in principle with computer audio you can get higher resolution stuff than CD which is 16-bit/44.1kHz ...


James

I use an Airport Express and stream my lossless files from iTunes. Works like a dream and can be controlled easily with an iPhone/iPod touch. The Airport Express has an optical out so you can plug it straight into a DAC or AV receiver.

I love the convenience of having so much music to hand.

The beauty of the squeezebox is that the computer itself can be located far away, so you don't have the noise of it in your listening room. Plus of course its a dream to use.

However, USB has come a long way, and there are now USB chips in common use that allow hi-res files to be streamed. So you can stream your 24-96 flac files from PC through these little devices to a DAC of your choice. Personally I really only use either the squeezebox in the main system or headphones at the PC - but I could a lot of value in a setup: wav or flac files on a tablet PC or mac-mini with itouch as remote>>USB-SPDIF converter>>DAC>>amp. Have a look at the review I did of the jkeny modified HiFace USB-SPDIF converter (main front page of the site) - it surprised me I can tell you....


Fran