PC streamer.

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pre65
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#31

Post by pre65 »

Anyone got any advice about a half decent soundcard (with SPDIF phono out) for a PC.

A used one would do. :wink:
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#32

Post by floppybootstomp »

Depends on budget really but a few folk I know like this one and it's a reasonable price: Asus Xonar DS

A page load of Asus cards Here

A have an Auzentech Prelude X-Fi, no longer made.

The Creative cards are also good.

And if you only want two channels this card may be worth considering but I know not a thing about it: M Audio
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#33

Post by Andrew »

I would suggest an m-audio 192 or ESI Juli@ just in case you want to use the balanced outputs either in a measurement system or in their own right.

The Juli@ has a reverse-able output stage so you can use either balanced or single ended output.

If you are not worried about balanced out then the ASUS look very nice too.

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#34

Post by Mike H »

For what it's worth I use this, seems quite good

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CITRONIC-AC-1US ... 203&sr=8-2
 
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#35

Post by Ray P »

Sorry, late to the party, it's been a busy festive season.

Addressing Phil's original questions;

If you build a truly quiet PC you wouldn't need to 'stream' anything as it could be located within interconnect distance of your amp.

SSDs will fail (everything does eventually) but on average it shouldn't be many years. If I recall correctly my SSD quotes a MTBF of 2million hours, which is over 200years (of course it might fail much quicker or take much longer and I have no idea of how they arrived at the 2million hours). The beauty of SSDs is the absence of any noise but at a price.

For a sound card the ESI Juli@ has a good solid reputation; you can pick one up on ebay for less than £100.

I've been investing some time on computer-based audio recently and will post where I'm heading in a seperate thread.

Ray
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#36

Post by pre65 »

Ray P wrote: I've been investing some time on computer-based audio recently and will post where I'm heading in a seperate thread.

Ray
I look forward to that Ray. :)
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#37

Post by pre65 »

Mike H wrote:For what it's worth I use this, seems quite good

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CITRONIC-AC-1US ... 203&sr=8-2
That would seem a good idea when I get round to digitising some of my vinyl, but unless I'm reading the online bumph incorrectly it does not output SPDIF from digital mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosic on the hard drive.
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#38

Post by Mike H »

N-no, well, it outputs whatever program can play audio files to phono sockets :D

On Windows Vista you plug it in and it goes "A-ha that's my (new) audio input/output device then." Usually from then on everything that plays goes to that. The only exception so far is Cool-Edit Pro which has to be told to use it in its "devices" list
 
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#39

Post by pre65 »

What I wanted was to send FLAC on the hard drive to an external DAC using Foobar.
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#40

Post by Dave the bass »

:idea:

Squeezebox!

:)


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#41

Post by The Stratmangler »

Hook a Squeezebox up to your DAC and run Squeezebox Server on yer PC.
Is your router capable of wireless?
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#42

Post by pre65 »

The Stratmangler wrote:Hook a Squeezebox up to your DAC and run Squeezebox Server on yer PC.
Is your router capable of wireless?
Router has wireless capability. :)

I have a Squeezebox phobia. :lol:
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#43

Post by Mike H »

This is getting complicated. :D

pre65 wrote:Anyone got any advice about a half decent soundcard (with SPDIF phono out) for a PC.
Ah now I presume you meant sound card with SPDIF out, then a SPDIF to phono converter on the other end? Originally I thought you meant just phono out, which doesn't need the SPDIF bit.

How long a distance does it have to go?
 
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#44

Post by The Stratmangler »

pre65 wrote:
The Stratmangler wrote:Hook a Squeezebox up to your DAC and run Squeezebox Server on yer PC.
Is your router capable of wireless?
Router has wireless capability. :)

I have a Squeezebox phobia. :lol:
Why?
Mr. I's experiences?

I've not had any bad experiences of using them, nor has Dave the Bass (who was a virgin in all such matters) :shock:
Steve the Shadow has come back into the fold, and I don't for one second think that would happen if he was unhappy with Squeezebox either.
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pre65
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#45

Post by pre65 »

My aim was to use the FLAC files on my PC direct to a DAC and see if this was a good way to play music.

Or I could just burn my FLAC to a CD (after converting to WAV) and keep playing CDs.
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