<sigh> Digital to Analogue

[northwest]

This post should serve as a warning to anyone who joins this forum!
Since joining, I have become acutely aware that I am lacking, seriously lacking some pieces of important kit - well, make that WAS lacking!
I am now the proud owner of a Beresford Caiman DAC, I have reformatted my Samsung Netbook and formatted a couple of 200 gig notebook hard drives. I have all of my 'digital' files on a couple of terrabyte HDD's (full disclosure - I have been busy emptying the Internet since 1994, they were the good old days usenet was populated with some good people back then. Then Napster, remember that? Although some of the files are pretty poor a good number are irreplaceable so I can play them through something other than the iPod).
So now I am about to embark on the Digital Journey. Prepare yourselves for some really dumb ass questions
First up - what do you think I should use for software on the Netbook? I have NEVER used Windoze Media player and Winamp was my player of choice, it is still around but I was wondering what you are all using?
I am not proud, I'll take all the help I can get!

[Welder]

Next post down

[northwest]

Next post down

Wow! Bloody clairvoyant! You don't happen to have six numbers for Saturday?

[northwest]

All joking aside, which other software were you going to suggest John? Jplayer is not cheap at 99Euros and TBH I can as swift install linux on the netbook and I would be certain that there would be something decent about for that.
Any more suggestions guys?

[Welder]

Nope, sry, can't help with the numbers.

What I can do is help you get Linux up and running which, depending on the spec of the netbook you have, may be the only sensible option.

If you're stuck send me a PM and I'll get you sorted; and no it wont cost you anything.

[aBe]

You might want to have a go at :

1) Andy's Minimalist Player - no frills memory player (no GUI even) and it's free..
2) Foobar2000 - lightweight, very customisable. Freeware.
3) J River Media Centre - pay usd50 and get this to better Foobar a wee bit.

Use them with Wasapi, set to Play from Memory and you'll cuss at yourself for not getting into all this digital shite much earlier..

[bobbasrah]

Sorry for being a little puzzled Graham, but however laudible the above recommendations are, there is too little information on what your basepoint and objective are IMHO....

I have to guess from what has been said that you have you been using mp3 as your library base, which however fine for portable use, will not really show digital at it's best through the Caiman. So pardon me for asking these seemingly dumb questions...
1 What way physically are you feeding the DAC from the Netbook, usb, optical, coaxial???
2 What OS are you currently using, and does it need/share duty for browsing, office work, etc.?
3 Are you intending to feed FLAC/WAV/Hirez to the Caiman in future?
4 Do you have a load of CDs to play or convert, and if so do you have a suitable drive?
5 How are you going to listen to the Caiman's output on by way of the audio chain?

The first thing that hit me were the 2 drives of 200Gb, which are going to restrict storage. eg There is not a single storage drive in my home under 1000Gb, and my FLAC library just fits a 1Tb.
FLAC/WAV are the very least you should want in your library if you want to improve things later, as it is probable that mp3 limitations will show up somewhere down the road in this new adventure....

[John]

Not that John will agree with me but also consider Jplay for a eaiser life and great sounds

[Alex_UK]

IMO the FLAC advantage is in the tagging.

[Clive]

IMO the FLAC advantage is in the tagging.

I agree flac does have an advantage there. It's easily fixable with wav if a standard were developed, indeed that's an issue flac has. Different players and servers implement different levels so tagging so it's not universal but yes it's better than basic wav.