NEED ADVICE

ghamilton

Super Member
I am into vinyl and really don't know that much about digital.
My question is:...What component do I need that would perform as good as a good audiophile CD player, but instead of playing CD,s you download your music in a high quality format (ie NOT mp3).
This would go into a hi quality audiophile system. The speakers are Vandersteen 2.
A starting price for basic unit.
Thanks, and sorry for my ignorance. daaaa
 
I'm surprised that nobody chimed in quickly on this one. All you have to do is get the JRiver Media Center program (download from their site) and get a good DAC (like one of the Schiit Multi-bit DAC's) to hook up to the USB out on your computer and you can have a very very high quality digital music set-up. I believe that the JRiver software is about $59 and the Schiit MB DAC's run anywhere from $249 to $2399 depending on how "good" you want your playback system to be. There are other Media Players and other DAC's that can be used and I'm sure that some will be recommended by others in subsequent posts. JRiver is excellent sonically, and the Schitt MB DAC's are very analog like in the sound as they don't suffer too much from Digititis.
 
I have an Audioengine D1 DAC, list is ~$170, playing FLAC lossless flies through JRiver, on a standard PC, sounds good for a relatively modest investment. I use a USB connection, but the D1 also has an optical input if you prefer.
 
I have an Audioengine D1 DAC, list is ~$170, playing FLAC lossless flies through JRiver, on a standard PC, sounds good for a relatively modest investment. I use a USB connection, but the D1 also has an optical input if you prefer.

Foobar is free and can also do bit-perfect playback. Jriver has an indication in the interface for when it is running bit perfect, which is nice. Foobar is much lighter weight - smaller download, faster to start up - which is nice.

Unfortunately, jriver doesn't play well with my DAC's remote. I may pursue it with them, or just keep using foobar.

I'm using an Arcam irDAC-ii which has usb, optical and coax in, and has line as well as variable outputs and a headphone amp built in. It can also do bluetooth, and if you have aptX capable sources will do aptX reception.

It sounds quite good. List is around 800, but you can find them new at 550 online, and lower if you're willing to look at used gear.

It does not sound as good as the Ayre Codex, which I can't afford at nearly $2000.

As an example of the Arcam 'sounds good,' last night I stumbled across https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality and using the headphones (it was late) picked the uncompressed recordings 5 of 6 times. The sixth sample, the Katy Perry, I picked the 320kbps track. I found that I was guessing on two of the tracks in each presentation, and picked the track I came back to more often.

What that means to me is that the Arcam is good enough, paired with decent (Senn 598) headphones that I didn't spend much time listening to low bitrate material and generally gravitated to listening to the least compressed recordings when using it. If I'd truly been guessing, I should have had an equal chance of landing on the 320kbps track as the most interesting sample.

When I listened to the Ayre and the Arcam side by side, the Ayre was able to show me things about the recordings that I hadn't known before. The Arcam reproduces music faithfully and well, but the Ayre gave me insights into what the artists were doing that I was very impressed by.
 
You can get by fairly cheap like me.

I bought a used M/S Surface Pro 3 with a cracked screen that works great but the touch no longer works. Keyboard and mouse still work.

Upgraded it free to Windows 10.

Windows 10 Media Player supports FLAC and it's free.

Purchased a USB hub, a usb soundcard with optical out feeding my Entech DAC.

Total investment is under $250.

I have an external hard drive hooked up to the usb hub with my FLAC files on it.
 
I think I'll start with a simple list of what you'll need to implement a digital solution. I do, however, have some questions for you.

1. Do you have any CDs?
2. Do you have a computer to store digital files?

My questions sort of introduce the list of things you need.

1. A computer to store digital files. (Source)
2. A digital to analog converter. (DAC)
3. Music management tool and CD ripping tool if you have CDs. (Software)
4. Cabling from computer to DAC, (USB), cabling from DAC to pre-amp or receiver (RCA or XLR).
5. Digital files. (Media)

As far as computers go, almost any Windows based unit will work but newer is better. I'd recommend, for best SQ, that you not use the PC's sound card. That defeats having a DAC and it is not the optimum playback method. Instead, use a USB connection from the PC to the DAC. I have two computers, one is a Network Attached Storage device and the name describes it perfectly. It stores my files. The second computer is my music server, another Windows based PC, that has my music management software on it. I access it remotely from a laptop in my listening area. You don't need two computers if you have sufficient storage to hold your files on the PC that will also house your software. One thing to consider is that high resolution digital files require much more storage capacity than compressed files. As an example I have just a shade under 1TB of high resolution files and I'll be adding to the collection regularly.

A DAC with digital inputs and analog outputs obviously will be part of the system. The most oft asked question is, "Which DAC should I buy?" Can't answer that one for you but there are some things to ask yourself, such as what file format and resolution you will be using. Some will say they can hear the difference in the chipset used by the DAC maker. Others say it doesn't matter. I for one am a member of the "I can hear the difference" camp. I've listened to a lot of DACs in my system and the systems of others. Personally, I've owned 4 DACs and much prefer the ESS chipsets. But that doesn't mean you won't like a Burr Brown, TI, AKM or other chipset maker's offering better. If you can audition DACs in your system or do an A/B at a store I'd highly recommend it. Many members here have a Schiit DAC and love the quality for the price. As stated, pricing varies from DAC to DAC.

Software is a key element to digital system management, playback and ripping CDs if you have them. The first tool is a music management software. This package allows you to sort through your music, select files for playback, build playlists, etc... The second tool is used to rip CDs and place the digital files in your file repository. I use JRiver as a music management tool and dbpoweramp cdripper to rip my CD's. There are other tools that do the same thing. I use those two as they work well for me.

Cables are pretty self-explanatory. USB from computer to DAC, RCA or balanced XLR to your pre-amp depending on what DAC outputs you have and what pre-amp/AVR inputs you have.Does the quality of cables matter? That is discussed elsewhere on the forum and I'll leave that discussion for you to pursue in those threads.

Digital files come in different formats and sizes. Compressed files, such as MP3 and the Apple codecs, are the smallest and have the lowest quality of the formats available in most cases. I do have some MP3 that I use in USB thumb drives for car audio and generally use 256k & 320k resolution files for that application. Other file types used are WAV, AIFF, FLAC and DSD. Those acronyms describe the codec used to prepare the digital file and uncompress it for playback plus a whole bunch of other technical wizardry I am unprepared to discuss here. Or anywhere, for that matter.

In many high quality home systems folks primarily use FLAC and DSD. There are those that use some of the other codecs but for me I use FLAC because my DAC decodes it, it's "lossless" and it a high quality file standard.

Here's a little bit about resolution of FLAC files. A standard CD file will rip to a 16 bit (packet size) / 44.1kHz (sample rate) FLAC file. This is what is referred to "CD quality" resolution. Some HD labeled CDs actually rip to a 24 bit/48 kHz. You can download any FLAC file size including 16/44.1, 24/48, 24/96 & 24/192 from the internet sites that sell music, such as HD Tracks and a host of others. DSD files have different values and, from what I've heard, the higher resolution adds just a bit more depth and detail to comparable tracks.

So where does this leave you in making a decision? Maybe closer, maybe not. I can only say that I am very, very happy with having implemented a digital solution to music listening and I have followed through with quality components and media in order to realize the potential of this approach to music listening.

Good luck!
 
Back
Top Bottom