DCAudioDIY.com

I get the sense that not a whole ton of folks in this group are into computer audio yet, but since we are having a RARE thunder storm here in Southern Oregon and my wife and daughter are monopolizing the living/music room to watch a Disney movie on an iPad, I thought I;d share my recent experiences.

I'll keep it short. In the past year I've tried dozens of configurations and just about every software suite out there. At one point I almost gave up on USB--so flat and gritty sounding. A cheap blu-ray player sounded better! But I persisted and here's what I've found sounds the best:

A recent Intel Mac Mini connected to a USB DAC of your choice (mine is the Arcam irDAC, a superbly musical and flexible critter) with files streamed from a 4TB Seagate "Personal Cloud" storage drive ($200) directly connected to the Mini via BlueJeans ethernet cable. The nice thing about the new Minis is that the ethernet port lives on a completely separate card from the USB ports, thus you are not cluttering the USB output with incoming information. In the network preferences, you can set up two network sources, Ethernet and Wi-Fi...OR, even better, Ethernet and Thunderbolt Ethernet (with an adapter) for internet access. This keep Wi-Fi off. The Mac Mini recognizes the Seagate and establishes a closed "network" for music files only and the Seagate shows up as a server on the Mac desktop. To my ears this provides the cleanest, smoothest delivery of files, without question.

I run a little optimizer script on the Mini that shuts down excess processes. You can find this by googling "optimize Mac for audio." It's from one of the pro audio web sites. There is also an optimization script from CAD that goes further, but in my system it's a little too much.

For software, well, I've tried (and paid for) them all. JRiver Media Center is, in some ways, indispensable, in that it scans and catalogues your collection in the simplest way, and the search function is powerful and comprehensive. You can also use the JRemote app as a remote control or to stream music to any i-device you like--phone, pad, whatever. But sonically it's a little generic on the big system. I keep a copy for searching and remote listening. For critical listening I've found that HQ Player offers the most accurate sound. You can hear the acoustic space in which the performance is taking place. I have it set to maximum upsampling (192 on the Arcam) with the custom filters the author has provided (the manual makes this easy to set up) and it preserves the quality of the original file while clearing away a lot of digital haze. Amarra adds a lush halo to everything. Audirvana 2+ is very good but not as good as HQ Player, and the options can be daunting, to say the least. PureMusic is actually quite nice if you need to use iTunes and/or want a minimalist player (it offers both). But HQ Player is the best I've heard. HOWEVER***-- HQ Player only plays FLAC, WAV or AIFF, so if you have iTunes stuff or mp3 you have to convert it. AND it's expensive--$150.

The other issue is library functions. I am a minimalist in this regard and simply prefer to drag-and-drop files from my server to the player when I want to hear them. I find tagging to be a godd*mn, shoot-me-now, seventh-level-of-hell nuisance. I have files of old classical broadcasts, 78rpm rips and all kinds of crap I've downloaded, and I frankly prefer to shove it in a folder I recognize and just drag it to the player when I want to hear it. HQ Player lets you do this. Some of the other players have complex library managers so beware. Most of them also allow drag-and-drop as well. I avoid any player that doesn't allow this function.

So this is my current configuration and it's BETTER than my best CD player and mucho convenient to boot.

In terms of ripping CDs, avoid iTunes because it s*cks at tagging and organizing. Use Max and a script from Doug's iTunes scripts that will transfer the Gracenote tags from iTunes, a very handy thing for obscure discs or imports. For the new Mac Minis, you'll need to buy a $50 external CD-ROM.

Just about all of this you can do on a cheap Windows laptop (HQ Player and JRiver come in Windows versions) but I think it sounds worse than Mac. Optimized OSX sounds much, much better to me. The current base model is $499, which is a steal. Add $200 for the Seagate, $70 for a Supra USB cable, $20 for a BlueJeans ethernet cable (this is very important, BTW) and $$$? for a DAC and you've likely spent less than a high-end CD player.

BTW, I've tried the "dual computer" setup (one to do the processing and one to send the signals to the DAC) and I don't see/hear the point.

If this is boring or repetitive I apologize in advance!

Thanks for the comprehensive information Grover.

I have already read it twice and will likely read it a few more times to try and comprehend it all, since I am unfamiliar with most of the products and I'm a neanderthal when it comes to terms such as scripts, optimizer scripts, Gracenotes, Max, etc. But I have this friend named Google who, I'm sure, will explain it all to me.

I look forward to being able to take advantage of your hard won knowledge.

Stuart

PS, we cretins LOVE pictures! Just saying......

Some of us are

Have you tried a linear power supply for the mini? I've heard good things about that as an upgrade, but never heard a comparison...

HP Player is also available for Linux, I may try that route, currently running jriver 19 on a windows 8.1 tablet with the media on a linux file server.

I'm surprised to hear that the sound is better off an external drive than an internal one, or have you not tried internal because it's just too small?

There are sites listing all the things you should do to a Windoze box to optimize it for audio, did you do any of this on the windows machine when you compared to OSX?

Roscoe

_________________
I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.

Yes, I knew some of you were. It rarely comes up as a topic though, so I thought I'd break the ice.

I'm thinking about modding the Mini with the linear power supply. Should be an improvement, but it's not cheap so I'm waiting a bit.

I ran Windows 8.1 in the Mini as well. Used Fidelizer and Project Lasso to reduce processes and assign cores and priorities. I might go back and try HQ Player on that, as soon as I can afford a second license. To me the Mac OS sounds better. Folks are saying Windows 10 may be a big improvement for audio so I might also wait til that comes out.

HQ Player was really built for Linux and I'd be interested to hear it on Ubuntu Studio, which is what he recommends. But it's difficult to run a Linux partition on the Mac., and my laptops are all pretty crappy. Another option I thought of was to build a streamlined Linux PC with a high-end USB card, lots of memory, etc. Still thinking about that. And then there's DSD upsampling, but that requires a new DAC.

With almost 3TB of music it won't all fit on the Mac, of course. I think the theory is that you don't want the OS processing files and fetching them from the same drive. I know that's a given in pro audio. A neat trick on the Mini is to load some albums onto an SD card and play them from there. The SD card slot on the Mini is mounted on the ethernet card, as opposed to being tied to the USB card. It actually sounds pretty good, but for whatever reasons the best sound I've gotten so far is with an ethernet drive directly connected with BlueJeans CAT 6.

I started working on a digital project but got sidetracked with my VFET SET amp. Here is a photo of the breadboard. The signal starts with my laptop using FOOBAR as a player. Output goes to a USB to SPDIF converter using a CM6631 CHIP. The Windows driver is the one used by Emotiva for their XDA-2 USB to SPDIF unit. The SPDIF output is fed to a nanoDSP crossover/processor. The three nanoDSP outputs go to three DACs using ES9018 chips.

Problems so far include a DC offset using the balanced outputs of the DACs because they are primarily used for unbalanced. I had to build a board to provide balanced output for my amps that had no offset. You can see the three boards between the DACs and the XLR jacks.

Ocassionally there are glitches where the nano either mutes or has ticks like a vinyl record. Don't want to lose the charm of vinyl. I downloaded new firmware for the nano which should solve the problem ( yes and the check is in the mail) but have not had the time to try it. Right now I'm putting together my test system in the basement to begin working on the project again. When it works the sound is glorious. I'll get the bugs out but thankfully I have no hair to pull out.

Tom

Very cool, Tom. I want to know how this turns out!

Hey Grover,

I'm pretty sure we've not met, but I have heard your amps at members homes. Charlie regularly tells me you have good ears, and that he trusts your judgement.

I started working on a computer audio set up a couple years ago with 2 friends. Needless to say, we were generally disappointed with the results. One guy has recently ended up with a CAPS Carbon (http://www.computeraudiophile.com/conte ... v3-carbon/) that he assembled parts for and built. Very good sound quality, but kind of slow due to the small, low powered processor and SSD. He uses JRiver as a controller. The SOTM USB card is fabulous for anyone who may want to upgrade an existing computer server as well.

I was just about to assemble parts to build one of these when I learned about audio Renderers. They are essentially Ethernet to S/PDIF (or USB) converters. Store music on a NAS that uses a simple Linux operating system, and control it with an APP from a tablet. No Windows or Apple operating systems or hardware in the mix. No controller software (JRiver,Foobar, Etc). Moves music on your network via Ethernet to the Renderer. I don't have electronic building skills, so I purchased a commercially available Renderer, however there is a sort of DIYish kit available for an inexpensive Renderer. Perhaps someone here would be interested in giving it a whirl. http://www.computeraudiophile.com/conte ... hifi-here/ I think this is going to be the direction things move toward. Less hardware and software in the way. Wireless control at the listening position, or the kitchen, or the pool deck.

Have you tried DB Poweramp for ripping/converting? It's apparently the only program that allows "uncompressed" FLAC files, not just "0" compressed files, which oddly enough are compressed. It also has some great features that simplify working on the files.

I agree with Jim on dBpoweramp for ripping. I also use r8brainPro for sample rate conversion and Audacity for editing.

Tom

Oh, and the Renderer will also stream music from services like Tidal, controlled by the tablet.



I've only just started using DB Poweramp, and haven't tried r8rbrainPro. Someone showed my how doing FLAC to FLAC conversion on DB can cure many tagging errors. It's a real nice converter.

Hi, Jim, Thank Charlie for the compliment for me! I did try a Raspberry Pi 2 with Volumio after reading that article, and I wasn't thrilled with the sound. However, I did a rather hasty setup, not using the headless version, IIRC. I still have it and might give it another whirl. I *know* Linux is simple but I get a little frustrated using the terminal. I think the Renderer idea is intriguing and agree that it holds great promise. Which one did you buy, and how does it sound? I confess I'm pretty pleased with the current setup, the Mac Mini with a directly-connected NAS and the Arcam, using HQ Player to upsample to 192kHz. But you don't know how much better it can get till you try! I'm always visiting the CA forum for new ideas, it's very interesting.

I have dBPoweramp for Mac and use it frequently to convert stuff. I like Max because there's a little script that pulls the metadata off iTunes when it doesn't show up otherwise, and that is often with the imports and obscure stuff I buy on CD. Maybe I should try my luck with dBPoweramp.