Super Audio CD, DVD Audio and Computer Audio

[chisoxpurdue]

I was wondering if anyone uses a computer for most of their audio. I love the sound of the vinyl and of the CDs, but it is also nice to have every song at your fingertips. I have an HP Pavilian Media Center now but am looking to upgrade. Anyone have any thoughts.

I also have a few SACD and DVD-A (as I call them) and access to quite a number of them. Any recommendation on a newer player? Thanks for the help.

[wuzzzer]

A lot of people have had great results getting a large capacity hard drive and ripping their songs in a lossless format and using an outboard DAC.

[o0O Bill O0o]

I have SACD, Vinyl and Computer. iTunes is just about the best music management software. (Free Mac/ PC) There is also the Logitec Squeezebox, which just needs a NAS or something to share the music over your local (home) network. It would be great if Sony Computer made some sort of SACD playing computer.. I don't know about DVD Audio, but i think PowerDVD (PC) can play DVD Audio. But my recommendation is a Oppo Player.

[lo123]

Oppo has a good reputation and a growing presence for disc
players. They have a Blu Ray model at around $500 or less and an
upgraded unit at closer to $900. At that point, the name brands
such
as Denon and Marantz begin to have serious disc player offerings
also.
I'm talking CD, DVD, SACD, DVD-A and probably variour picture and
compressed audio file formats. Been awhile since I've checked
anythign
but Oppo so take these price ranges with a grain of salt. I love
the
SACD and DVD-A formats and am fortunate to have a player which will do
both. From Pink Floyd DSOTM in 5.1, to Living Stereo classical
discs
with 3.0 to Blood Sweat and Tears in 2.0, the higher def sound discs
can be really great. I've had more great experiences than marginal
experiences with these formats. I've stuck with discrete
components so far, so cannot say much about the computer based
appproach, however lots of good info on that subject in this forum.

[chisoxpurdue]

Thanks for the help. They were actually two discrete questions. I probably should have made two discussions. I will run the DVD Audio and SACD player separate for now. I have one friend whose computer said it ran the DVD Audio and Super Audio CD but it converted to stereo instead of keeping the format. If someone knew of a system that could run it from the computer, I would be interested. As for my CD and Vinyl, some have been stored on the computer in apple lossless (actually both apple lossless and flac) and I am working to get all of them onto it. I am looking for computer type to upgrade to (HDMI 1.3 or better audio output right?) as well as media player. Itunes seems to do fine for now.

I have been looking at Denon, Oppo, and Marantz. Sitting on buying a Denon right now, as my other friend wants to get into the SACD and DVD Audio and I told him he can buy my Pioneer. He will not buy anything on eBay and I will so thats how it goes. I hate selling to friends just in case anything goes wrong. Thanks again for the help so far and I will continue to check back.

[chisoxpurdue]

The only problem with sony is it doesn't support DVD Audio. If it did, I would have most likely got a PS3 first generation that did SACD and was backward compatible with hardware to the first two playstations. I know it would not have been the best for audio playback, but at the time it would have really set a market (it already did) with a Blu Ray, SACD, DVD, DVD Audio, CD, and video game system that was backward compatible. Damn format wars for sony not having DVD Audio but it was because of the format war the Sony put a Blu Ray in the PS3.