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Thread: Suggestion for a new 'Audio' laptop..?

  1. #11
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: Berkshire

    Posts: 2,739
    I'm Paul.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Frankyc2003 View Post
    Hi everyone,

    My dedicated music streaming laptop decided to go and meet its maker last night... Fortunately all my music is safely backed up on RAID drive...

    Phewww!

    Now, the big question is what to replace it with?
    I am running a SBT into a rDac.
    My previous machine had SBt server and WhiteBear server installed.
    And I was pretty happy with it.

    Any suggestions from you guys?

    Cheers in advance
    I'm sure you'd expect this to come from me, but, if you have to have a laptop an Apple MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air are all excellent machines. If you can live without a laptop, what about an Apple Mac Mini or an iMac... Hope this help, and yes, I do love Apple computers lol
    Streamer: NovaFidelity X40, Turntable: Rega RP3, Arm: Rega RB303, Cartridge: Audio Technica AT120E, Amp: Belles Aria, Loudspeakers: Quadral Aurum Montan VIII, Rack: Creaktiv Trend 1, Cables: Beresford, Chord, Coherent, MCRU, Rega, TCI.

  2. #12
    Join Date: Jun 2013

    Location: Rayson, Birmingham, UK

    Posts: 12
    I'm Paul.

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    This forum could be dangerous for impoverished me. It's got me thinking about NAS now. Never really looked into it much. I'm not even bothered about the network-attached bit. Something that could connect to my 70s equipment and allow me to play my music files, at decent quality, without having to spark up the computer every time. Dream.

    Being essentially a know-nothing, I'm limited as to the amount of help I can bring but, to point in a general direction from your original request, I've read a few places that the Asus N56VM is a good all-round laptop and the marketing at least shouts about its audio fidelity.

  3. #13
    Audio Al is offline Pishanto Specialist & Super-Daftee
    Join Date: May 2012

    Location: Dagenham Essex

    Posts: 11,215
    I'm Allen.

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    http://www.mains-cables-r-us.co.uk/s...hure_WHITE.pdf

    Is this the sort of thing you are looking for ?
    [

  4. #14
    Join Date: Aug 2010

    Location: Bergerac, France

    Posts: 567
    I'm Francois.

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    Thanks everyone for your input...
    Work has lent me a macbook pro, so I presto installed LMS and got going... quite happy with what Spotify sound quality has to offer...
    Now, onto some serious Hires files though... Some nice 2L recordings from Norway...

    I will check the Zyxel as a NAS has always been on the back of my mind...
    Francois, Bergerac, France
    Source component/s:
    Musical Fidelity M1 Dac, Allo Digi One, Sony SCD-XE800, AVID Ingenium Twin arm, Audio Note Arm One, Groovemaster II 12in, Audio Note IQ3 MM, Denon DL103R MC, Croft Basic 25, TQ Iridium Phonostage, Puresound T10 Stepup Transformer, Zavfino majestic tonearm cable
    Amplification:
    Audio Note OTO PP, Dussun V6i
    Loudspeakers:
    Triangle Comete ES, Klispch RP600M
    Cables/stands:
    Quadraspire, Belden 9497

  5. #15
    Join Date: Nov 2008

    Location: Valley of the Hazels

    Posts: 9,139
    I'm AMusicFanNotAnAudiophile.

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    Just checked out what the Zyxel won't handle.
    It looks like the Zyxel corporation are part of the Apple backlash



    Chris



    Common sense isn't anymore!

  6. #16
    Join Date: Aug 2010

    Location: Bergerac, France

    Posts: 567
    I'm Francois.

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    Funny enough, I am experiencing drop outs on Hi res files, 96Khz or 192Khz while using the Macbook pro...

    It never happened on my PC laptop...
    Having said that the PC is dead in a skip now...
    Francois, Bergerac, France
    Source component/s:
    Musical Fidelity M1 Dac, Allo Digi One, Sony SCD-XE800, AVID Ingenium Twin arm, Audio Note Arm One, Groovemaster II 12in, Audio Note IQ3 MM, Denon DL103R MC, Croft Basic 25, TQ Iridium Phonostage, Puresound T10 Stepup Transformer, Zavfino majestic tonearm cable
    Amplification:
    Audio Note OTO PP, Dussun V6i
    Loudspeakers:
    Triangle Comete ES, Klispch RP600M
    Cables/stands:
    Quadraspire, Belden 9497

  7. #17
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: Napier, New Zealand

    Posts: 1,519
    I'm Andrei.

    Default Laptop

    Good question! however it is not one for which I have an answer. If you were to ask 'how to build a PC for audio optimization' then I could really help.
    The pointers I can give come under the generic heading: The better the specs the better the sound.

    Buy a Laptop with a fast processor: The PC WILL multitask (but hint below) but to have it attend to the bits and bytes as best as possible get a good CPU. I have built maybe 25 PCs and I generally go one/two steps below 'top-of-the-line'. If you are looking AMD - go Phenom 2 (yes an older architecture but about as good as the latest AMD offerings. These should be seriously cheap. If Intel, then i5 or i7 according to budget. [Before I get flamed I acknowledge there chips are not laptop dedicated - use discretion].
    RAM. Minimum 4 GB. Get more if you can - not huge improvement but RAM is cheap.
    RAM. Check the specs of the RAM - it can operate at different speeds. This is important; go for the faster RAM. Probably you will find that RAM speed is not specified. This is precisely the area where laptop vendors make money. They flog the cheapest ram (and motherboards) possible. [The price : quality continuum is not a 'straight line' so cheapest dies not necessarily mean bad, but it does mean 'watch out']. Ram is important in a general sense but as you will be 'playing from ram' if you follow my advice it is important.]

    Inbuilt Soundcard. This is a big 'no-no' for HI-FI. Just ignore that 'feature'. Comment: I'm OK with 'Mid-Fi' for a laptop but why not push higher?

    Software. This has nothing to do with the laptop but for Hi-Fi you should cut down on Windows 'processes'. [Dunno but Mac users may not be able to do this. As an aside I accept that Macs are easier to use but cant see what the price premium has to offer apart from that. Seems to me that if I did run a Mac I would be too embarrassed to admit it]. Fidelizer is a shortcut to optimising PC playback for PCs.

    RAM (again). My understanding is that when the data is processed it is played from Memory. However you still minimise 'disk thrashing' if you play from memory. This is blindingly easy if you have Foobar as your player. The other two players that are popular are JRiver and Media Monkey. All great products. In Foobar that I use there is an option to play from Ramdisk. This is a modest improvement and what it does is to create an artificial disk (call a Ram Disk) in memory and you create an artificial memory disk automatically to play from Memory rather than a Hard Disk

    DAC: The inbuilt 'sound' if it exists at all will be (if you are lucky) at the low end of hi-fi. [If you were running a PC I would recommend an Asus Xonar sound card. This offered real hi-fi for peanuts.] Best option is a SPDIF or USB connection to an external sound card. There is lots of info in forums on DACS. I am happy with Wyred4Sound .

    Buying a laptop for audio is both easy and difficult. Easy in the sense that most laptops will do the trick and the quality cannot really be much different. Difficult if you really wish to make a difference you need to do a lot of research and (a) find the right laptop; (b) modifying laptops if much more expensive than upgrading desktop PCs.
    [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]Sources:[/B] [B]1[/B][/COLOR] PC & Wyred4Sound DAC-2 DSDse   [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]2[/B][/COLOR] Oppo BDP105   [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]3[/B][/COLOR] Technics SL·1210 MK5 (Jelco 750D · Benz Wood).    [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]Speaker Cable[/B][/COLOR] [COLOR=black]Nordost Frey.[/COLOR]    [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]Interconnects [/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]Oyaide[/COLOR][COLOR=black] & [/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]Geisha [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Silver.
    [/COLOR][B][COLOR=#a52a2a]Phono Stage [/COLOR][/B][COLOR=black]Fosgate Signature V2. [/COLOR]   [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]Preamp [/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]Ayon Eris[/COLOR][COLOR=black]. [/COLOR]   [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]Power Amp[/B][/COLOR] [COLOR=Black]ATC P1. [/COLOR]  ​ [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]Speakers[/B][/COLOR] Triangle Magellan Cello.     [COLOR=#A9A9A9]Oh Sting, where is thy death?[/COLOR]

  8. #18
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: Berkshire

    Posts: 2,739
    I'm Paul.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Frankyc2003 View Post
    Funny enough, I am experiencing drop outs on Hi res files, 96Khz or 192Khz while using the Macbook pro...

    It never happened on my PC laptop...
    Having said that the PC is dead in a skip now...
    Sounds like user error to me
    Streamer: NovaFidelity X40, Turntable: Rega RP3, Arm: Rega RB303, Cartridge: Audio Technica AT120E, Amp: Belles Aria, Loudspeakers: Quadral Aurum Montan VIII, Rack: Creaktiv Trend 1, Cables: Beresford, Chord, Coherent, MCRU, Rega, TCI.

  9. #19
    Join Date: Oct 2008

    Location: Glasgowshire

    Posts: 9,656
    I'm Gary.

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    Quote Originally Posted by pjdowns View Post
    Sounds like user error to me
    Picnic!

    Problem In Chair Not In Computer

  10. #20
    Join Date: Aug 2010

    Location: Bergerac, France

    Posts: 567
    I'm Francois.

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    indeed, settings in the SBT server were not optimised...
    Now they are and the drop outs have gone!

    cheers!
    Francois, Bergerac, France
    Source component/s:
    Musical Fidelity M1 Dac, Allo Digi One, Sony SCD-XE800, AVID Ingenium Twin arm, Audio Note Arm One, Groovemaster II 12in, Audio Note IQ3 MM, Denon DL103R MC, Croft Basic 25, TQ Iridium Phonostage, Puresound T10 Stepup Transformer, Zavfino majestic tonearm cable
    Amplification:
    Audio Note OTO PP, Dussun V6i
    Loudspeakers:
    Triangle Comete ES, Klispch RP600M
    Cables/stands:
    Quadraspire, Belden 9497

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