wadia itransport

You can get aftermarket passive cooling so that there are no fans inside.

A fanless PC. That would be perfect for a in-living-room media center PC.
I'll check this out.
What about the price of such cooling solutions?

~dich

Dich, and ReignofChaos - I am getting a little confused as to what Dich is looking for.

I thought Dich was originally looking to use an inexpensive CD player to play regular Redbook audio CDs.

If he looking to play files converted to digital format such as FLAC, MP3 or such, media center is the only option. Another option is to connect an iPod through a iPod transport, route it through an external DAC, and then amplify it. The only issue is that iPod does not play FLAC files, though they are the best. At the same time , though there are other players with equally good capabilities, iPod has a huge market share and thus a number of accessories are available. Even leading companies such as Wadia have bowed to the market pressure and are releasing iPod readers such as Wadia's iTransport.

Of course Apple;s AIF is also supposed to be a good lossless format.

At least for home, A PC gives a much more elegant and simpler solution. It can play any file, and a reasonably good sound card will suffice. Using a wireless solution such as the Squeezebox, you can get excellent music transferred to your DAC, and audio amplifier. Actually to keep the PC noise away, you can place the PC in a different room, and stream the data to your music system.

Yes, if you are using PC based data streaming, a good DAC will be of immense value. Actually you can also use the PC based CD drive to play your audio CDs. These drive are what - Rs. 2000? Connected to a Beresford DAC, you can get a excellent system for less than Rs.10,000.

Andre Wiethoff of Exact Audio Copy has created what I think is the world's best audio ripper. Using something like 20 sampling runs for each track, the software picks up the best of the lot for transferring to PC format. It does not care about the final format and you can store the music in any format of your choice.

He has used a number of CD drives, and in his web side, gives explanation of which ones are good. Please visit Introduction � Exact Audio Copy for more details.

That's what I started with. Cost would have been 2K-3k (inexpensive CD/DVD P) + 7K-8K Bredford DAC. Total: 10K-11K.

However with reignofchaos's suggestion I could get a more versatile solution.
Old unused PIII desktop (free) + 7K-8K Bredford DAC + fan free cooling (hopefully less than 2k-3K). Total: 10K-11K.

I could place the desktop in another room, but the wiring (or wireless setup) would push the price beyond what I'd like to spend.

~dich.

The decision should be based on the quantum of media that you have and are planning to add to your library.

If you have a large set of regular CDs, just use a simple CD Player or a DVD Player that you may already have and route the signals though a DAC. You can always convert your CD to digital compressed forms slowly and start using a P_C based media server after a little while.

If you already have a large set of compressed files, then PC based system may be a more valid choice.



If you do not a large set of MP2. FLAC or similar

You might want to try this:




US price is $79.00.

mobile 24-bit/96kHz USB audio upgrade . Small enough to fit in your pocket, Transit brings hi-resolution 24-bit/96kHz recording and playback to any USB-compatible computer. Digital I/O lets you transfer pristine audio between your computer and other devices such as MiniDisc and DAT. The digital output can deliver AC-3 and DTS from your computer to an external decoder such as a surround receiver. And the bus-powered design allows you play and record virtually anywhere your laptop can go.

Thanks guys. Will look into these too.

~dich