Well I'm going to bite the big one and build a music server. Like most every project I take on these days I have been doing lots of research on the www and thought I would bounce my plan off you guys. As this is all new to me, and I’m about to step into a world of no return, I would greatly appreciate your feedback on my decisions.

I have a fine running spare computer I built several years ago that I'm using as the server. Mother board is an ASUS A7N8X deluxe running with an integrated S/PDIF that will be connect to a DAC I will probably use one of the internal drives to store the initial copy but will utilize an external server hard drive for permanent storage. This external is the new 2TB Maxtor Central Axis. It will be set up as Raid 1 (mirrored) so I’ll have 1TB of secure storage. The EHD has a gigabit Ethernet port and I’ve upgraded the ASUS with a 1000 RJ-45 PCI card.

OS will be Window XP.

I have been reading good things about EAC and I plan to utilize it as my copy application. I’ve been playing with it and I think I can figure it out but any reference material sources would be appreciated. Gaps, cue sheets, ID3 tags are all foreign to me…

I have not decided on uncompressed AIFF or lossless FLAC. I see no reason not to gain the disk space (although I will have plenty) and utilize FLAC.

I like the feel of Mediamonkey so this is how I’ll manage my music library.

I think I’ve settled on a DAC. The DacMagic looks like a great deal at $400. A friend is trying to talk me into the PS Audio Digital Link III which is around $1K but I’ve seen on the web for closer to $700. I am leaning towards the Music Hall DAC 2.5 (yes it is made in China). Its $600 and I guess it had a good showing at CES in January.

"Music Hall was showing a new USB DAC with a tube output stage. The Music Hall dac25.2 ($600) uses an Electro-Harmonix 6922 tube, a Texas Instruments PCM1796 24-bi/192kHz DAC chip, a TI SRC4192 Asynchronous sample-rate converter (with a high-precision active crystal oscillator master clock), and four digital inputs (S/PDIF, TOSLINK, XLR, and USB). It sports re-clocking and user-adjustable upsampling (96kHz or 192kHz). It outputs analog via XLR or RCA."

All three of these have good reputations but to tell you the truth I doubt if my ears can tell the difference between them. I like the added volume and headphone jack on the Music Hall. The XLR input is a nice touch, and I don’t consider myself a tube guy, but it sounds impressive to tell my friends it has an Electro-Harmonix 6922 :)

Once I get a library built I will connect the external drive to my wireless server in another room to supply music to my stereo system (through the PC) and into my family’s various computers.

Anyway, I’m about to start ripping into my CDs so keep me from doing something stupid so I don’t have to start all over.

Sorry can't help with Windows machines. I am running a newly released Mac Mini with a PS Audio DAC. Sounds awesome!

http://www.apple.com/macmini/

Looks fine to me on your options and selection."IMO" Just be aware if you try to use rca/spdif connectors to import sound into your PC. I'd get a Hammerfall or M-Audio card for that task. PC's are very noisy on input of sound NOT output.

Looks fine to me on your options and selection."IMO" Just be aware if you try to use rca/spdif connectors to import sound into your PC. I'd get a Hammerfall or M-Audio card for that task. PC's are very noisy on input of sound NOT output.

Thanks for the input. So far I am just planning on using the internal drive to play the CDs for capture and have no need to input with spdif. It is an LG drive that EAC seems to really like. Anyone have knowledge on buffer vs no-buffer advantage with the drive?

Thought I'd note that I will not be using the Maxtor drive. Nice looking unit but I went through two and they were both DOA. Not sure what I'll use now. Anyone have a good luck with a dual drive server storage that runs RAID 1?

Sorry can't help with Windows machines. I am running a newly released Mac Mini with a PS Audio DAC. Sounds awesome!

http://www.apple.com/macmini/
Hello
I want to use a Mac for a Music Server. Could you elaborate on your setup?
Will you permit private email? Thanks.
Bob Helms

Well I'm going to bite the big one and build a music server. Like most every project I take on these days I have been doing lots of research on the www and thought I would bounce my plan off you guys. As this is all new to me, and I’m about to step into a world of no return, I would greatly appreciate your feedback on my decisions.

I have a fine running spare computer I built several years ago that I'm using as the server. Mother board is an ASUS A7N8X deluxe running with an integrated S/PDIF that will be connect to a DAC I will probably use one of the internal drives to store the initial copy but will utilize an external server hard drive for permanent storage. This external is the new 2TB Maxtor Central Axis. It will be set up as Raid 1 (mirrored) so I’ll have 1TB of secure storage. The EHD has a gigabit Ethernet port and I’ve upgraded the ASUS with a 1000 RJ-45 PCI card.

OS will be Window XP.

I have been reading good things about EAC and I plan to utilize it as my copy application. I’ve been playing with it and I think I can figure it out but any reference material sources would be appreciated. Gaps, cue sheets, ID3 tags are all foreign to me…

I have not decided on uncompressed AIFF or lossless FLAC. I see no reason not to gain the disk space (although I will have plenty) and utilize FLAC.

I like the feel of Mediamonkey so this is how I’ll manage my music library.

I think I’ve settled on a DAC. The DacMagic looks like a great deal at $400. A friend is trying to talk me into the PS Audio Digital Link III which is around $1K but I’ve seen on the web for closer to $700. I am leaning towards the Music Hall DAC 2.5 (yes it is made in China). Its $600 and I guess it had a good showing at CES in January.

"Music Hall was showing a new USB DAC with a tube output stage. The Music Hall dac25.2 ($600) uses an Electro-Harmonix 6922 tube, a Texas Instruments PCM1796 24-bi/192kHz DAC chip, a TI SRC4192 Asynchronous sample-rate converter (with a high-precision active crystal oscillator master clock), and four digital inputs (S/PDIF, TOSLINK, XLR, and USB). It sports re-clocking and user-adjustable upsampling (96kHz or 192kHz). It outputs analog via XLR or RCA."

All three of these have good reputations but to tell you the truth I doubt if my ears can tell the difference between them. I like the added volume and headphone jack on the Music Hall. The XLR input is a nice touch, and I don’t consider myself a tube guy, but it sounds impressive to tell my friends it has an Electro-Harmonix 6922 :)

Once I get a library built I will connect the external drive to my wireless server in another room to supply music to my stereo system (through the PC) and into my family’s various computers.

Anyway, I’m about to start ripping into my CDs so keep me from doing something stupid so I don’t have to start all over.

Hello,
Let us know your progress, I'm pondering to undertake the same project. I want to build a music jukebox. I guess you could compare that to a music server. However I don't know enough to say for sure.:scratch2:

You don't want to use the buffer. Hydrogen has a great tutorial on EAC here:
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=EAC_Drive_Configuration
flac is a little more mainstream in the consumer audio market and will save you some hard drive space. If is not natively supported in Itunes, though there is a plugin
http://www.xiph.org/quicktime/download.html

You don't want to use the buffer. Hydrogen has a great tutorial on EAC here:
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=EAC_Drive_Configuration

Excellent help! Thanks

I've checked all of my drives with an old scratched up CD. Had problems with all of them except for the LG GSA-H55L. It worked perfectly.

I ended up using a Maxtor OneTouch III 2TB for external storage. Setup for RAID 1 it has 1TB storage. My wireless modem has a USB so the drive can still be set up to on my home server. Plus it was about $150 cheaper than the Maxtor server storage version. Installed a WD SATA Black 1TB internally for initial transfer.

Been ripping all morning. Having only used MP3 in the past, this FLAC is like a god send to my ears.

Can't wait until my Music Box DAC comes in (maybe Monday?)

1) Do NOT utilize digital inputs on your soundcard for any ripping purposes. Rip directly from your internal CD/DVD/BD drive. This gets you speed and data accuracy. Also, listen to what the other gents here said about using EAC. The newer versions are all idiotproof and will even direct rip-to-flac for you. You won't even have to enter in a filename or create an ID3 tag (or its equivelant) as long as the CD is in the FreeDB database.

2) FLAC is mainstream - to a point. It is easy enough to get it to work with WMP and subsequently WMC. If you have another monitor output this makes for a great large-screen GUI - otherwise, and I HATE to say this, WMP is your best for data access in a large database of music. It's realtime search is eons ahead of iTunes and Winamp, and I HATE waiting.

3) Utilizing the external DAC is a good idea, if it is USB capable run the USB out to the dac directly, if not, oh well. I personally run on my music box to an external box that has the digital output to the McIntosh MDA1000. The car uses a HagHSB to yet another McIntosh DAC. Both are far away from the main machine to minimize any noise that may come over the line (easy enough to penetrate a PCM signal, not quite as easy in a USB datastream.

3) If possible, keep your media server in a different room (if you are running extensive arrays or it is creating tons of noise) and use something you can stream from. This creates the best musical playback experience. I have enough sound dampening material in this server you could probably shoot a rifle off inside it and barely hear it, but I can still hear it a bit. Depending on how sensitive you are to ambient noise, this may or may not play a role.

4) Good job on getting the system up and running to your liking, and staying in a respectable budget. Expect to never want another MP3. Unless it is the ONLY way I can find a track, I typically get a .WAV.

5) TURN. THE. VOLUME. UP. Rock out man! :D

Vesuv1us thanks for the input!

1) I am using the internal drive (LG, I think it might be built by Hitachi) and it is working fine. I have figured out EAC.

2) I am using media monkey as my music manager/player and I like it just fine.

3) I am using a new Music Hall DAC 2.5 which I think is awesome (but it is the only DAC I have owned). I am utilizing USB mostly because I cannot get the coax and optic to work between the computer and the USB. I think USB sounds fine but I was currious if I could tell a differance with the other connections. The computer works fine with my reciver directly using the coax and optical, and the DAC works with other Coax and optic sources just fine, but they will not work with each other (strange). But again, I have no complaints with the USB.

3 #2) Long term is to have the Maxtor drive on my other computer and a wireless connection to a fanless CPU at the DAC.

4) I use MP3s only on my ipod my car but will probably be converting my FLAC library to apple lossless just for the Ipod. I have an 80GB Ipod so it will handle quite a bit of music. could go to a 120GB model?

5) yes I am, and it is awesome!

You mean you are going PC via USB to DAC then Analog to Receiver, or PC via USB to DAC then S/PDIF or Toslink to Receiver?

If you are using the digital connection you are bypassing the DAC process entirely, go get a HagUSB instead (cheaper and probably more effective for a true digital passthrough).

You mean you are going PC via USB to DAC then Analog to Receiver, or PC via USB to DAC then S/PDIF or Toslink to Receiver?

If you are using the digital connection you are bypassing the DAC process entirely, go get a HagUSB instead (cheaper and probably more effective for a true digital passthrough).

USB to DAC, and of course Analog to receiver (there is no digital pass through on this unit).

OK - good deal then. Your previous post left me kinda scratching my head. Thank you for clearing it up.

Enjoy it, there is nothing better than a real media server. :D