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[ethan417]

Hi

i'm not very tech savy - but i'm pretty good at figuring things out and getting them to work

i just learned that i can stream audio from my windows 7 pc to my stereo.

i read a very helpful white paper on AudioQuest

http://www.audioquest.com/pdfs/Computer-Audio-Demystified-WhitePaper-EN-R2.pdf

it seems pretty easy.

i have a few questions that i hope you can help me with
- i looked around for other guides and haven't been able to find any - can someone point me in the right direction
- it seems that to connect my PC to my stereo, i need to purchase a wireless DAC - are there any other solutions you might recommend?
- as for wireless DAC - the AudioEngine D2 seems to be held in high regard - it is a little pricey - about $500 (i have 2 children in college -ouch) - is there another solution that you recommend?
- the white paper suggests that CDs (i have about 600 CDs - prefer the highest possible sound quality - also - formats come and go - so i prefer a format that will lend itself to "porting" to another format without losing sound quality if that is ever necessary - the audio quest white paper recommends that CDs should be ripped in AIFF format - when i did a search - most sites recommend FLAC - thoughts or opinions?
- the white paper suggests moving all sound files to an external NAS - when i researched NAS drives - they all get 3 1/2 stars - the other concern - none of the moderately priced (under $200) offer a backup solution for the NAS - what NAS do you recommend and what is the best way to handle backing up my music library?
- finally - the white paper (written in 2012) strongly suggests that i use JRiver - thoughts?

i know that these are a lot of questions
i've tried to find the answers but am having trouble wading through all the technical stuff

i want to thank you for your help and guidance

-Ethan

[fitbrit]

Let's get a few more specifics from you first.
1) I assume that your PC isn't in the same room as your 'stereo'?
2) What comprises your stereo? Do you have an AV receiver? If so, does it have HDMI and/or SPDIF? Or is it simply an amplifier, with no audio processing ability, connected to speakers?
3) $500 IS a lot of money. Would you consider spending that buying other hifi equipment, such as a network capable AV Receiver (which would have a DAC built into it)? Or you could get a wireless DLNA audio reception device to connect to your current equipment for a fraction of the cost.
4) Would you consider running some network cable if you had to?

JRiver is an excellent choice, with probably several solutions to your questions built around it. It depends on which solution you like best

[csimon]

Alternatives to the rather expensive wireless DAC as shown are wired DACs, where you have dozens and dozens of choices. You can get a USB DAC or one that connects via SPDIF if your PC has SPDIF output. A decent soundcard in your PC would also be acceptable and you could connect the analog outs straight into the amp, and I'm sure many people are getting good results with stock sound in off-the-shelf PCs.  You can also get external soundcards, analogous to the external DAC.

Or you can use a media streamer (e.g. WD TV Live) sitting on your network, if you can't get your PC or USB DAC close enough to the amp.  Possibly the uiltimate in digital audio connections is HDMI audio, especially if you want surround on movies, so you would need a video card in the PC that does HDMI audio, and an AV amp that accepts HDMI.

A NAS is useful if you haven't got a large disk in your PC or it isn't expandable. I think most NAS's should come with the ability to use it as a backup destination AND to backup the NAS itself. I have a Synology NAS and am very pleased with it, it allows you to back it up to a choice of cloud services or to another NAS or USB external disk. There is a large range of Synology NAS's at all price points and number of drives and they all come with exactly the same operating system.

Lossless encoding formats for music files are obviously the way to go and there is no real advantage to any of them - if they're lossless then they reproduce the music exactly as recorded. But FLAC is probably the one that is both widely supported and allows storage of metadata, so it is very popular. I think AIFF is uncompressed?  So it will produce files that are larger than FLAC would be. But note that both are lossless, so you are not losing any quality with either.

For what it's worth, I've also got around the same number of CDs as you and have them stored as FLAC, and they take up around 170GB disk space. I would guess storing as AIFF would be two or three times that size.

Advantages of MC as a media server include the ability to process the audio to high standards (e.g. upsampling, software crossovers, mixing...) and also incredibly flexible organisation and cataloguing functions, you can also use mobile devices for remote control.

[ethan417]

Fitbrit and csimon

thank you so much for your comments

here's a little more info

the computer and stereo are in separate rooms - about 25 feet apart

Krell KAV 400xi integrated amp - it does not have HDMI or SPDIF
Rotel CD play
B&W speakers

i am open to a wired solution

What wired solutions do you suggest?

as for the NAS - i have been looking at Synology - which model and how much storage would you suggest?

please let me know if you need other info

many thanks
-Ethan

[spiggytopes]

If you have Krell and B&W you must like good quality sound!

My experience was:

1. Tried a cheapo USB DAC (100USD or so) - better than the on board PC sound card
2. Upgraded to An ASUS Xonar STX internal sound card to avail of 192kHz --- very disappointed, no improvement, lousy drivers ....
3. Forked out for a QuteHD external DAC --- wow, what a difference, absolutely fabulous open, clear, fruity sound, finally getting close to vinyl.

Lesson learned was not to waste money on budget stuff (although some will say that the QuteHD is budget!).

So, I'm running HTPC, QuteHD dac, Quad 303 power amp and PMC OBD1 speakers. Also have two 12 TB nas drives by QNAP - happy with them.

BTW, you don't need to buy a dac, you can connect to the pc's analogue output, but don't expect too much.

Good luck with it.

[csimon]

That wireless DAC seems expensive and there's no real way of knowing how well it will work in your particular room configuration - and I don't know where audiophiles sit with wireless transmission, I would have thought that it would introduce more "distortion". However, there are DACs that are far more expensive too.

If you want to try your PC's internal audio outputs directly into the amp, you can try CAT5 audio baluns to allow the signal to be carried over longer distances via CAT5. Or just get a long audio cable for starters "just to see" how it works and how it sounds. This will by far be the cheapest and easiest solution and if you're not happy with it then go up from there.

Or if you put network into the room with the amp, you can use a "media streamer" aka DLNA Renderer (DMR) such as WD TV Live and use MC as a DLNA server. You can then use its analogue outputs to go directly into the amp or take its SPDIF output into a higher-quality DAC and then into the amp.

Have you thought about how you're going to control it?  Presumably you're not going to be sitting in the room where the PC is in order to listen to music?  Do you have an iOS or Android mobile device?

I would think that any model of Synology NAS will work extremely well for serving audio files. The amount of storage depends on how much and how quickly you think your collection might grow and whether you want to use RAID (but remember, RAID is not a backup solution).  I have a DS209, the 2 indicates the number of drives and the 09 indicates the year in which it was released. so the current equivalent will be the DS214.

If you are not too bothered about cataloguing your collection in comprehensive ways or using DSP to modify the audio, then you could actually dispense with the idea of using a PC completely because Synology NAS's have built-in media and DLNA servers. You can plug in a USB DAC to the NAS and play music directly from the NAS to the amp, using a handheld app or a web browser. See the Synology web site for further information.

[spiggytopes]

The outboard dac would be next to the pc; dac line output level is 2V from it to the amp, so you try a connection from this to the amp - don't know what loss there would be over 25 feet, but it is not art!

Or, put the amp next to the pc then its output to the speakers should arrive intact in the next room.

[Vincent Kars]

There are many claims about improving the sound quality by tuning the computer hardware.
Storing the data on a NAS is one of them.
Like all of them, they are not backed up by any measurement.
Take them with a grain of salt.

My opinion (not backed up by any measurement either  ), if you use an outboard DAC, the AD conversion is not exposed to the electrical “noise” inside a PC.
There are a lot of DACs today with asynchronous USB and some kind of galvanic isolation on sale. I do consider them reasonably shielded from the “noise” generated by the PC.

A NAS is a relative expensive solution.
If the collection fits on your PC, all you need is an outboard HD for the backup.

A lot of routers do allow for an outboard HD. If this is the case you do have your “NAS”.

25 feet I don’t consider “long”, probably a well shielded RCA will do the job
If you go the USB DAC way, you might fool around a little, long USB (5 m max) / short RCA and the opposite.

As you budget is limited, there are small USB DACs within the budget getting positive reviews like Meridian explorer, .LH labs Geek, iFi iDac, Firestone, iBasso, AMI Musik, etc.

AIFF is a popular format most of all on the Mac. It is the Apple equivalent of WAV.

I recommend FLAC
•   Lossless
•   Excellent tagging support including cover art
•   Allows storing custom tags in the file
•   Checksum stored in the file. This allows you to verify if the audio is corrupted
•   Wide support on Win, OSX, Linux, Android

Guides: there is a lot of information in the WiKi.
Maybe my website is of use: http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/MC14/MC14_intro.htm

[csimon]

Another option (LOL!) for the distance problem might be that you do want to use a high-quality USB DAC but want the DAC next to the amp rather than running audio cables over a distance. The afore-mentioned wireless DAC would work for that but I've also seen a USB over Ethernet device which should work.  http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/cyp/usb-over-ethernet-extender-/PUUSBX.html  (this is a UK site but if you're not in the UK I'm sure these things must be available in your country too). Or a cheaper option would be USB over CAT 5 baluns, e.g. http://www.amazon.co.uk/over-Cat5-Extension-Cable-Adapter-Black/dp/B002WJ9S6Y.

[mojave]

Audioengine also has the cheaper W3 for $150. I have an older model and it works great.

Since you are only 25' away and the Krell has balanced inputs, I would recommend a pro audio DAC with balanced output. You can run balanced cables up to 500'. I have 25' cables going from my DAC to my amps. I would recommend the Steinberg UR22. It is $150, supports 24/192 Khz, has balanced output, great drivers, and is a very high quality DAC. I and several others here own its big brother, the UR824. You will need to purchases two TRS to XLR balanced cables to go to the Krell.

[kstuart]

Audioengine also has the cheaper W3 for $150. I have an older model and it works great.

Since you are only 25' away and the Krell has balanced inputs, I would recommend a pro audio DAC with balanced output. You can run balanced cables up to 500'. I have 25' cables going from my DAC to my amps. I would recommend the Steinberg UR22. It is $150, supports 24/192 Khz, has balanced output, great drivers, and is a very high quality DAC. I and several others here own its big brother, the UR824. You will need to purchases two TRS to XLR balanced cables to go to the Krell.

+1

HiResTech makes a very well reviewed balanced Asynchronous USB DAC which runs about US$500 (just one example).

The USB cable for a USB DAC should be as short as possible.  HRT does not recommend any sort of fancy one.  I use a standard one that is about one foot long.

25 foot balanced cables are used in pro situations all the time.

[Zhillsguy]

I'm going to take a different (budget) approach.....

If you have a wireless (or wired) network already, get any laptop/netbook running windows, and install JRiver. Share your music folder/files from the main pc/server/NAS on the network, and play them remotely with the laptop/DAC, set up near the amp. Set up JRiver on the laptop to start with windows. Playing music takes very little horsepower, and an older laptop unit will fit the bill easily.

For a DAC, get either the Behringer UCA202: http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-UCA202-Audio-Interface/dp/B000KW2YEI/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1384475242&sr=1-1&keywords=UCA202

or the HiFimeDIY Sabre USB DAC: http://us.hifimediy.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=50&tracking=5113890266baa

Folks can debate all day long about DAC sound quality, both of these are hard to beat for the money, and they really deliver the goods.

Install either Gizmo or JRemote on your smart phone for remote control of JRiver on the laptop, or use one of the windows compatible remotes.

One great thing about running JRiver while on your network.... the music possibilities are limitless (play lists, internet radio, etc. etc.).