Newbie Needs Help With Computer Audio

[Darren Cotter]

Hi All,

I'm a novice when it come to computer audio, and would like some start up advice. I allready have a Caiman DAC with a USB connection.

So apart from a laptop and a USB cable, what else do I need? Is there any preferred software? Is adding a USB hard drive to the laptop sonically as good as using the internal hard drive.

Any advice would be welcome.

Regards,

Darren

[Stratmangler]

Get a Squeezebox Touch and use your laptop to run server.

[Stratmangler]

You could of course try Foobar2000 - I use it in preference to the Windoze stuff (Winamp too for that matter).
It's bare bones, and uses little in resources when compared to the the other two media players, and you can get plugins to cope with APE (Monkey's Audio) files and ALAC (Apple Lossless) files.

Which OS is on your laptop ?

[Welder]

Most of the questions you ask have been covered pretty extensively on other threads on this forum. May I suggest you use the site search function and have a read :)

[Stratmangler]

Most of the questions you ask have been covered pretty extensively on other threads on this forum. May I suggest you use the site search function and have a read :)

Oooohhhhhh!!!!!!
Thread killer:ner::ner::ner::ner::lolsign:

[Tim]

Oooohhhhhh!!!!!!
Thread killer:ner::ner::ner::ner::lolsign:
It may well be, but John said exactly what I was thinking :eyebrows:

[Darren Cotter]

You could of course try Foobar2000 - I use it in preference to the Windoze stuff (Winamp too for that matter).
It's bare bones, and uses little in resources when compared to the the other two media players, and you can get plugins to cope with APE (Monkey's Audio) files and ALAC (Apple Lossless) files.

Which OS is on your laptop ?

Hi,

I haven't got one as yet.

Regards,

Darren

[Stratmangler]

Hi,

I haven't got one as yet.

Regards,

Darren

So you have desktop ?
Wireless router ?

If so, then my first suggestion was serious.
Save yourself the cost of a laptop and stream wirelessly (or wired if you prefer) via a Squeezebox Touch.

[Darren Cotter]

Hi All,

Sorry for starting a thread rather than using the search function, it’s just that as I know pretty much nothing about what I need, I thought one or two quick replies to this thread would be better for me and other newbie’s, rather than trawling through other existing threads.

Regards,

Darren

[Tim]

Have a look through here, then read post #9 which should lead you to your answers?

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10674&page=3

But read the whole thread as there are other links and information then you need decide which way you want to go, PC or otherwise - both have +'s and -'s

[Stratmangler]

It may well be, but John said exactly what I was thinking :eyebrows:

It crossed my mind too ;)

[Darren Cotter]

So you have desktop ?
Wireless router ?

If so, then my first suggestion was serious.
Save yourself the cost of a laptop and stream wirelessly (or wired if you prefer) via a Squeezebox Touch.

Hi Chris,

I have a tower system running Windows XP (SP3), and a wireless router.

Regards,

Darren

[Tim]

Save yourself the cost of a laptop and stream wirelessly (or wired if you prefer) via a Squeezebox Touch.
Or buy a cheap Netbook for virtually the same money as a Touch and be able to use it for other things as well ;)

[Stratmangler]

Well I use and like the Squeezeboxes here at home.
I have a Squeezebox Touch connected to a Caiman DAC downstairs, and there's a Squeezebox Classic upstairs in my son's bedroom, connected to some desktop speakers.

Both machines are served by Squeezebox Server, running on a PC with XP Pro SP3.

[Stratmangler]

Or buy a cheap Netbook for virtually the same money as a Touch and be able to use it for other things as well ;)

That's a fair idea :)

[Tim]

That's a fair idea :)
I think Darren should be well confused by now, but at least he has a lot of info to sift through and hopefully enough to make a decision :scratch:

[Welder]

You’ll have to forgive Chris, Darren. Somewhere in his early Hi Fi years he accidentally swallowed a Logitech Touch and now every time he types, the word “Touch” gets spat out shortly followed by “Streaming”.

We have it on good authority from his mum that what he is actually trying to say is “Ouch” and “Screaming”.

The doctors are still working on the compulsion to stick a T in many words associated with Hi Fi.
Not that the Touch isn’t a possible route of course ;)

:lolsign:

[Stratmangler]

You’ll have to forgive Chris, Darren. Somewhere in his early Hi Fi years he accidentally swallowed a Logitech Touch and now every time he types, the word “Touch” gets spat out shortly followed by “Streaming”.

We have it on good authority from his mum that what he is actually trying to say is “Ouch” and “Screaming”.

The doctors are still working on the compulsion to stick a T in many words associated with Hi Fi.
Not that the Touch isn’t a possible route of course ;)

:lolsign:

:lolsign::lolsign::lolsign:

[Darren Cotter]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies. I do have a lot to go through, but a netbook sounds good.

Regards,

Darren

[StanleyB]

Do like me. Get a Dell Latitude D430.

[Tim]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies. I do have a lot to go through, but a netbook sounds good.

Regards,

Darren
A netbook and a Caiman will blow many so called 'hi-fi' CD players clean out the water :)

[Ali Tait]

So will a Touch.

[Darren Cotter]

Do like me. Get a Dell Latitude D430.


Hi Mark,

There are quite a few on eBay, but what spec should I be looking for, and are there any disadvantages in having your music files stored on an external USB drive?

Regards,

Darren

[WAD62]

Hi Mark,

There are quite a few on eBay, but what spec should I be looking for, and are there any disadvantages in having your music files stored on an external USB drive?

Regards,

Darren

Perfectly fine, more secure than keeping them on a laptop system drive too...I keep mine on a NAS :)

[Tim]

Hi Mark,

There are quite a few on eBay, but what spec should I be looking for, and are there any disadvantages in having your music files stored on an external USB drive?

Regards,

Darren
With a very large music collection (around 1TB) I have very occasionally had buffering stutters. But when I say occasionally, I mean once in a blue moon! Nothing to get hung up about and the drive was a 5400rpm WD Green, so a quicker one should have zero problems.

[Darren Cotter]

Hi Mark,

There are quite a few on eBay, but what spec should I be looking for, and are there any disadvantages in having your music files stored on an external USB drive?

Regards,

Darren

Hi All,

Can anyone help me with what sort of specification I should be looking for in a laptop or netbook.

Regards,

Darren

[jantheman]

Hi All,

Can anyone help me with what sort of specification I should be looking for in a laptop or netbook.

Regards,

Darren

I would say dont get hung up on getting the latest fastest wizz bang pc. If you ONLY intend to use it for music streaming then the system requirements are quite modest. I run a Samsung NC10 very well on my second system and never have a problem with dropouts etc etc.

[Darren Cotter]

Hi Ray,

Thanks for the reply. Can you give me an idea what specs you have, as I don't want to buy something thats not up to the job.

If I get a laptop, I will be buying second had so the specs might be a year or two out of date compared to new. I may get a new netbook if someone can recommend a suitable model.

Also, are there any makes/models of external USB drives that are considered better for audio use?

Regards,

Darren

[jantheman]

http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/detail/supportPrdDetail.do?menu=SP01&prd_mdl_name=NP-NC10
That'll tell you all you need to know about the NC10 but there are others out there.
As far as external drives are concerned, I haven't found any real differences between them as far as sound quality goes. I'm now using a NAS drive for convenience but USB drives would be well up to the job...choose what ever takes your fancy....

[StanleyB]

Hi Ray,

Thanks for the reply. Can you give me an idea what specs you have, as I don't want to buy something thats not up to the job.

If I get a laptop, I will be buying second had so the specs might be a year or two out of date compared to new. I may get a new netbook if someone can recommend a suitable model.

In what respect would a 2 year old laptop not be up to the job :scratch:?

I am using a 4 year old Dell Latitude D430 with 2GB of RAM and running Windows 7 x64. I fited a Creative PCMCIA card that has an optical output (amongst many things ). I looked at all sorts of alternative media players, but none of them can handle all the possible CODECs, have a big enough screen, can accept extarnal drives, etc. My next step is to fit a SSD hard disk.
It's 12" small size allows me to carry it about quite easily.

[Darren Cotter]

In what respect would a 2 year old laptop not be up to the job :scratch:?

I am using a 4 year old Dell Latitude D430 with 2GB of RAM and running Windows 7 x64. I fited a Creative PCMCIA card that has an optical output (amongst many things ). I looked at all sorts of alternative media players, but none of them can handle all the possible CODECs, have a big enough screen, can accept extarnal drives, etc. My next step is to fit a SSD hard disk.
It's 12" small size allows me to carry it about quite easily.

Hi Stan,

Thanks for the reply. It's just I needed to know what spec to look for.

Regards,

Darren

[Welder]

I would have a think on using a USB powered external drive Darren, especially if you’re going to use a USB Dac. USB is fine for data transfer but leaves a little to be desired for power, that’s why you tend to get twin connectors with USB drives. Also bear in mind that with a USB external drive and a USB Dac you may well end up without any spare USB ports.
My recommendation would be to use a mains powered external hard drive. A read of post
#10 here, especially the USB links may help you out.

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8016

Apart from the above most laptops will do the job.
Having Win7 as the operating system will mean you can avoid messing about with asio etc.
If it’s got Win7 on its likely that the processor power and amount of RAM will be more than adequate for audio streaming (1.5 GHz and above processor and 1 Gig or more of RAM)
After that it’s pretty much whatever you can pick up in your price range. There isn’t a lot of difference between one make and another with regard to Windows machines.
Despite the awful slagging off I give Apple products if I just wanted a very easy to set up and decent quality machine I would certainly consider looking at a second hand Mac. Basically you wont have to worry about anything except switching it on and plugging the Dac in.

[Tim]

I have used a Dell Latitude D600 laptop running Windows XP very successfully, not sure how old it is now, but at least 8 years! I ran USB into Stans DAC and the second USB to a mains driven portable HDD (it only has 2 x USB and the slower 1.1 too). Apart from the fiddle of setting up ASIO, no problems at all running as a music server and a player for Spotify Premium. You don't need bags of processing power to stream music. :)

This is the spec;

LATITUDE D600, PENTIUM M725 (1.6GHZ, 400MHZ)
512MB 266MHZ DRAM MEMORY, (2X256MB 266M)
FLOPPY DISK DRIVE : 3.5" 1.44MB MEDIA BAY
40GB (5,400RPM) 9.5MM IDE HARD DRIVE
OPTICAL DRIVE : 24X CD-RW/DVD-ROM DRIVE
POWER SUPPLY : LATITUDE D-SERIES 65W AC
LI-ION PRIMARY BATTERY

[Darren Cotter]

Hi All,

Thanks to everyone who has replied to my questions.

Tim, that's exactly the setup I was hoping to run. Laptop/Notebook into Caimain and powered USB external drive. I don't know anything about ASIO, but I can search this forum or Google to find out what to do.

Regards,

Darren

[Tim]

Have a look through here, then read post #9 which should lead you to your answers?

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10674&page=3

But read the whole thread as there are other links and information then you need decide which way you want to go, PC or otherwise - both have +'s and -'s
It's all in here how to set-up ASIO4ALL :)

[Darren Cotter]

Hi Tim,

Thanks again.

It's a pity there's not something you can buy that is just a hard drive in a box with inputs and outputs that you can store video and audio without the hassle of setting up a computer based system.

Regards,

Darren

[Tim]

It's a pity there's not something you can buy that is just a hard drive in a box with inputs and outputs that you can store video and audio without the hassle of setting up a computer based system.
It's really not that difficult to build one yourself Darren? I didn't have a clue what I was doing the first time I built a PC, so I bought a book. Now the answers are all on the Net - I've built dozens now, it's time you need as I reckon anyone can build a PC if they take the time to find out? It's all plug and play and quite hard to fit the parts in the wrong way round too :scratch:

You can buy a Mini ITX motherboard with CPU for around £50/60 2TB HDD £60 RAM £30, box/PSU depends on what you want, starting at around £30/40. The most expensive single item will be the O/S if you choose Windows, Linux is free. Then you can get the exact system you want. It may sound daunting, but it really isn't, take it slow and be proud of making something yourself that outperforms fancy (expensive) CDP's :)

[StanleyB]

Hi Tim,

Thanks again.

It's a pity there's not something you can buy that is just a hard drive in a box with inputs and outputs that you can store video and audio without the hassle of setting up a computer based system.
There are. But you need a monitor screen of some sort connected to it. I have been using one, but it can't handle FLAC. That's why I went the laptop way.