streaming set up advice

[diviy]

I have following coming
Muse Digital Sound Card HIFI USB to S/PDIF Converter Optical Coaxial DAC Decoder
Beresford DAC TC-7510 mk6 with Little Pinkie 12v PSU
I have the choice of computers a toshiba windows pc or a five year old Macbook pro( needs a charger )

What computer would be the best for sound and would this wiring set up work
A TosLink Optical Cable Lead Adapter to 3.5mm Mini TOS Jack Plug Adaptor SPDIF to a Toslink lead to give me a straight digital signal for the Beresford dac
then connect my cd player Creek evo to dac and also connect my dab radio to dac so one connection is going to have to be phono or toslink as there will be three sources going into the Beresford any advice 2 toslink`s or two rca coaxial connections :scratch::scratch::scratch::scratch:

[Stratmangler]

Is this the kit you mention?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/USB-DAC-PCM2704-Optical-Converter/dp/B0093KZTEA

[diviy]

Yes

[Stratmangler]

Why?

[diviy]

Why what ?:scratch::scratch::scratch:

[walpurgis]

What?

[Stratmangler]

Why that particular interface?

[diviy]

I asked on another thread and was offered one at a good price so I bought it

[Stratmangler]

At the price on the link I posted it's completely over priced.
It does sample rates up to 48kHz.

Which media player are you going to be using?

[diviy]

I have only paid pennies for the interface
I am looking for any advice got foobar 2000 on pc at the moment

[Stratmangler]

Foobar is spot on.
Add the ASIO & WASAPI driver plugins, and see if your device is shows up with either in the output options.

[struth]

Used foobar wasapi and a usb dac for years, and can still stream it upstairs using this. Easy and plenty cheapish usb dacs available. Foobar with the bubble upnp app and pluging will send it to your tablet etc as well.

[diviy]

cheers for the player side of things any opinions about the cabling set up

Gerry

[struth]

Depends what you get, but usually, like mine you need a usb A to B cable .. some say it doesnt matter what you use as its all 1's and 0's, but a half decent one can be had for not too much so no harm. then with most you need a set of rca cabled to amp. again it depends how close you can get the pc to the stereo. The rpi needs are dependant on how you store the music and such. but an ethernet unless your going wireless, rca's again unless your going out to a dac, and I use a usb to a self powered hdd which works just fine with me and sounds great. rpi 2b and audiophonics dac in a wooden box(can be seen in the header of this site actually)

[struth]

Might add, if you have an android tablet then you could buy a chromecast audio2, and wirelessly stream it from foobar to your tablet and then tablet to chromecast which is connected to amp. ou get redbook quality and no wires

[jandl100]

Here's what's coming to Gerry ...

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/2PYAAOSw1vlUuLM7/s-l1600.jpg

(In silver not in black, though)

Plug the USB from the computer into the USB input on the left.
Plug the digital cable going to the DAC into the RCA or TOSLINK socket depending on which you want to use.

btw - the headphone output socket at the other end is surprisingly good!

[Stratmangler]

For SPDIF coax cables go to Mark Grant.
https://markgrant.co.uk/digital-cables/138-belden-1694a-digital-coax-black-phono-to-phono.html#/24-length-1_5_metres
You're better off getting 1.5m length - it's to minimise signal reflections in the cable.

[diviy]

so windows laptop or macbook pro as source ?

[Stratmangler]

so windows laptop or macbook pro as source ?

I'd like to see you trying to run Foobar on a Mac ;)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar2000

[diviy]

1. Install Wine.app and WineBottler.app
2. Open Wine.app and update it
3. When Wine.app is is updated, a MenuBar icon should be installed in the upper right corner of your screen (icon surrounded by red in the screenshot below)
4. Click on the Wine.app MenuBar icon and click on Winetricks
5. Wait for it to do its thing
6. Download Foobar2000 onto your Mac
7. Click on the Wine.app MenuBar icon again and click on Control Panel
8. Double-click on Add/Remove Programs and press Install
9. Search the Z: drive for the Foobar2000 installation .exe file (make sure you search for Program files of .exe extensions instead of the default Installation Programs)
10. Run through the Foobar2000 installation process
11. Go to Finder.app and navigate to where the Wine.app files are stored on your hard drive (in my case it's under Mac OS X/Users/Michael/Wine Files)
12. Go through the folders: drive_c/Program Files/foobar2000 and create an alias of foobar2000.exe to create a shortcut to the program
13. Place the foobar2000.exe.alias shortcut anywhere on your hard drive for convenience (I put mine in the Applications folder)
14. Double-click on the alias to open the foobar2000 app!

I am just asking for advice between a laptop running windows or a macbook pro

[Stratmangler]

1. Install Wine.app and WineBottler.app
2. Open Wine.app and update it
3. When Wine.app is is updated, a MenuBar icon should be installed in the upper right corner of your screen (icon surrounded by red in the screenshot below)
4. Click on the Wine.app MenuBar icon and click on Winetricks
5. Wait for it to do its thing
6. Download Foobar2000 onto your Mac
7. Click on the Wine.app MenuBar icon again and click on Control Panel
8. Double-click on Add/Remove Programs and press Install
9. Search the Z: drive for the Foobar2000 installation .exe file (make sure you search for Program files of .exe extensions instead of the default Installation Programs)
10. Run through the Foobar2000 installation process
11. Go to Finder.app and navigate to where the Wine.app files are stored on your hard drive (in my case it's under Mac OS X/Users/Michael/Wine Files)
12. Go through the folders: drive_c/Program Files/foobar2000 and create an alias of foobar2000.exe to create a shortcut to the program
13. Place the foobar2000.exe.alias shortcut anywhere on your hard drive for convenience (I put mine in the Applications folder)
14. Double-click on the alias to open the foobar2000 app!

I am just asking for advice between a laptop running windows or a macbook pro

If you're going to go off piste then your support from me stops right here.
Have fun.

[diviy]

All I was doing was showing it can be done Chris no offence made I am just dipping my toe into streaming and I have the choice of two laptops with different os
I would like to know would the mac be better or my windows machine be better .
The reason is I am due to have two major spinal operation so that will be five in total and I will be laid up for a long time to recover so bending to play a lp will be out so trying to sort out a half tidy streaming system as there is only so much tv I can take I listen to music every single day .
I have been medically retiered since 2010 and have gone through hell with my back so I hope I have not offended you.

Gerry

[Gazjam]

Hi Gerald,

Have some experience in computer based audio...ask around.
My advice is to stick to Windows based playback.

Apple isnt terrible, but Microsoft do it better.
First step (quality wise, as Chris says) into computer file based audio is Foobar from a windows laptop...(i.e, Not Wine) and next step is to tweak the settings and then you'll notice a big improvement!!

It can get a lot better from there too, just depends how deep into the rabbithole you want to go into!
Enjoy the improvements one step at a time I say though!

Happy to help out with any questions you may have.

Gaz.

[Stratmangler]

No offence taken.
Getting Windows programmes to work on Mac machines is something I can't play with (Mac free zone here), and lord knows what goes on driver wise in such a setup.

My experience is with Windows machines, and they're generally acknowledged to have things other than audio playback prioritised.
As Foobar2000 is written for a Windows environment you're going to get wider support if it's installed on a Windows machine - Foobar2000 doesn't seem to be fussy about the Windows OS it's playing with, so XP and onwards should play nice to the same set of rules (with XP you can forget the WASAPI stuff - that was for Vista and onwards).
Installing the ASIO and WASAPI driver plugins should get you on the path to prioritising audio playback with Foobar. What you would need to do is point your audio playback at the interfacing device, so in playback settings you'd pick the ASIO or WASAPI option, and that in turn would give it (audio playback) very high priority in the general scheme of things.

You also have the ability to use a smartphone with Foobar app to remotely control your media player, but that's a separate thing altogether.

[Marco]

Hi Gaz,

You have a PM, mate! :cool:

Marco.

[Gazjam]

Replied!

[aBe]

As a person who regularly flips between Win & Mac machines.

I'd say that perhaps for a start you might want to settle with either :

Win - Foobar (KS/Wasapi/Asio depending on your pref)
Mac - iTunes + Bitperfect

Yes, there are loads of other paid and free players out there and I've probably been using/trying almost all available apps that I could get my hands on.

J River, Audirvana, Decibel, Fidelia, Vox etc are very good at what they are doing.
But after a while, once things have settled and I got used to each of their signature sound - to me ears, them apps apparently did not really sound that different from iTunes or Foobar when reverted.