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Internet music player


BentMike

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Most of my listening has migrated to Spotify, Pandora, and such. My inclination is to think that I haven't even heard most of the good music out there, and those sources are the best for finding surprises. I am not sure the best way to get from laptop PC to stereo system.

Is there such a thing as a better way to get and play music from the Internet? Some sort of good sound card in a little box with browser capability? Like an Internet music player?

Thanks to you all for building up a fine forum over the years,

BentMike

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I'm a Mac guy, so I use a Mac Mini as a dedicated Home Theatre PC and Music Server. Pretty much all computers have a stereo Headphone/Speaker jack, so you could go as simple as a Mini Plug to RCA cable and plug that into your preamplifier. What you really want though is a Digital Analog Converter (DAC). Lots of folks here like the HRT Music Streamer - it's tiny, inexpensive, runs off a USB port and sounds excellent - noticeably better than what you'd get from stereo jack and the computer's internal circuits. Buy it from a place like MusicDirect.com and you'll get a hassle-free return policy as well in case you're not satisfied for whatever reason.

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Thanks for the rec, AnalogWave. I went with a Musiland 01 USD. Amazon $64.

I didn't want to spend much money until I had time to digest all the information on these things.

I see there are now 32bit boxes. Are there opinions on these?

BentMike

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Hi All,

I need to do more research, so I went cheap and got the Musiland 01 USD for $70 (half the lowest HRT).

Clearly the HRT product is a favorite here. Looking at the spec for the HRT products it doesn't use any software not already on a PC or LT.

Information that Pacific Valve is offering says that the standard software of PC's is likely incapable of producing better than 48k sampling.

To truely achive 32 bit and 48k+ perfomance they say you need different streaming drivers at that kernal level in the OS. Apparently, the normal means for streaming are onboard to handle wrting to the HD which does not need to produce a steady stream, so there are no provisions in it to do so. This forces the DAC to fill in when data is late or missing, and there is not way to manage corruption en route.

PV says that to really get the highr resolution and bit rates you have to have better drivers.

I have no idea if any of this is significant or just hype. But their claim that no internet players are really exceeding 24bit 44k perfomance is probably surprising to many. They are selling the Musiland product which is accompanied by driver software the is supposed to do the trick.

I am interested in fact checking all this.

Here are links to the stuff outlining what PV thinks:

http://victrolax.blogspot.com/2011/07/its-192k-degrees-in-here-recently-i-had.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAYohdX7BhU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP2FrxXddA8

I would really appreciate hearing what other think of this? Any other intersting links?

Thanks,

BentMike

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I'm no Guru at all the bits, bytes and digits, but... I believe there is some truth to that. Again, I'm looking at this from a Macintosh perspecitive.

I own two DACs, a Benchmark DAC1 USB and a Bryston BDA-1. Both are excellent and critically acclaimed, but I prefer the sound of the Bryston over the Benchmark (for substantially more $, the major problem at this end of the scale - diminishing returns). Both DACs however, sounded better after I installed a dedicated piece of playback software called Pure Music. It runs in tandem with and as a framework to iTunes, which I still use to view/filter (playlists, etc) all my ripped music. But, it totally takes iTunes out of the music playback and feeds whatever port I choose (stereo jack or USB), which then feeds my DAC. It makes a difference for the better. What you'll also find though is, even with DACs that don't reach the highest fidelity output, there will be differences in their sound because of the chipsets in use, so one may appeal to you more than another, of course due to your own ears, particular gear and room acoustics.

I've never heard the HRT DACs, so I would think their best model is a very good next step. From there, it will become difficult to justify more expensive DACs - you'll likely hear a difference, but is it worth the money?

You may like this site for information...

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/331-computer-audiophile-suggested-hardware-list/

They underwent a major site revision in the last month or two and now I can't find a lot of the tutorial stuff (really good) that was, and I can only assume still is, there.

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