Laptop?

[andy1971]

Hi, I am looking to buy a laptop to use
as the source in my hifi system. I will only use it for playing music through iTunes( if I ever put my hands on quality CD) or Spotify.
I don't want to spend a lot of money. I don't mind to buy a second hand. Are there essential requirements to meet to get a decent result? Speed of processor, sound card,ram, had, Etc???? I don't think I have to worry about video card. Any suggestions?
P.s. The rest of the system JKSPDIF,Audio Note DAC1X, LebenCS300 or Wavac MD300b, Audio Note AN-E/L.

[tony]

My god a lovely system with an excellent amp and you are using itunes????
Depends on your budget Andy. You should find an i3 laptop for around the €400-430 mark.
It can be used for your music and as a workaday laptop(might as well try and get value out of it)
Windows8 laptop would suggest is desirable but I think the problem if you go secondhand is what trouble are you buying. You can go as low as €300 odd new and they will work fine also especially if you are sticking with itunes.

[andy1971]

Thanks Tony. I do have a laptop already. Newish Lenovo with i5 and windows 8. But I would like to use it while I listening to the music. So I need another one. I suppose I buy new as you suggested. Should be able to pick up one at the good price this time of the year.

[tony]

Celeron I am sure is fine Andy especially if you find streaming or itunes is all it will be used for. Still say new just for comfort. But you will get bargains at this time of the year and W8 and i3 means with jriver,jplay or even MQn if you are brave you will have 16/44 upwards available through your dac/spdif. Quick look in powercity and i3 is coming in at €400.
Maybe hard to get much below that but you might find 1TB or maybe model with more ram.
Sales coming up so good luck there will be something there. Sure somebody else might come up with a different approach/solution for you.

That Leben is a lovely amp and looks like you probably have a very nice warm sounding system going by the other components.

[nige2000]

wouldn't think buying new is a necessity
using windows 8.1 or higher would be of benefit (they've done some audio work in there)
just bear in mind at 500 euro would bring you into into a very basic (self build) dedicated audio pc territory
any intel pc/laptop with over 2gb (4gb preferred) would be up to the task as long as the cpu isnt an atom

[Faddius]

I'm in a similar situation. I have a decent red book selection but have decided to go digital.

My current setup is cd transport to dac to headphone amps to headphones.

Im looking at getting a new laptop for dedicated audio use:
1. to use as a digital source (Im guessing USB into Dac)
2. start ripping my CDs into digital format (Id like to keep metadata so I guess WAV is out. Probably AIFF? Using a program like JRiver)
3. I find MAC ios a pain to use as I'm a Windows lifer.
4. I don't mind spending a bit to future proof it.

What sort of specs? OS, Ssd, ram etc?
Im basically clueless and like a kid in a sweet shop.

Thanks

[Aleg]

I'm in a similar situation. I have a decent red book selection but have decided to go digital.

My current setup is cd transport to dac to headphone amps to headphones.

Im looking at getting a new laptop for dedicated audio use:
1. to use as a digital source (Im guessing USB into Dac)
2. start ripping my CDs into digital format (Id like to keep metadata so I guess WAV is out. Probably AIFF? Using a program like JRiver)
3. I find MAC ios a pain to use as I'm a Windows lifer.
4. I don't mind spending a bit to future proof it.

What sort of specs? OS, Ssd, ram etc?
Im basically clueless and like a kid in a sweet shop.

Thanks

WAV supports ID3 tags for metadata just fine.
It depends on the player you will be using if it can read ID3 tags from WAV.
Don't blame WAV, blame the player if it cannot read the tags :-).

[Faddius]

Thanks Aleg. That's useful to clear up.

For CD rips weekdays the general consensus for rip file format?WAV, FLAC,AIFF..? My guess ill end up using JRiver to rip.

[Aleg]

Thanks Aleg. That's useful to clear up.

For CD rips weekdays the general consensus for rip file format?WAV, FLAC,AIFF..? My guess ill end up using JRiver to rip.

Best ripper software for Windows would be dBPoweramp which does great tagging and also uses AcurateRip verification.

[Sloop John B]

Thanks Aleg. That's useful to clear up.

For CD rips weekdays the general consensus for rip file format?WAV, FLAC,AIFF..? My guess ill end up using JRiver to rip.

Best ripper software for Windows would be dBPoweramp which does great tagging and also uses AcurateRip verification.

And a forum where the software writer himself "spoon" will invariably respond to any queries.

It will rip to more file formats than you've probably heard of.

I rip to flac, uncompressed.

SJB