I have some unanswered questions from another thread, and also some new ones despite searching the archives. So I hope this thread might be a good place for all of us who are interested in state of the art audio quality from hard disk drive based files.
Kublakhan in another thread suggested using the Sweetwater Creation Stations as hardware for a PC based audio solution and so far this gear looks pretty good to me.
My questions, however, arise from the fact that there may be some disconnect between the conventions for "pro audio" and "audiophile" audio.
So as of this writing, can anyone please explain:
Why does every pro audio person seem confused when I tell them I want to use an external DAC?
What is the BEST way to extract bit for bit data from a hard drive, to export to an audiophile DAC?
Why oh why do expensive $$$ music or media servers, which are supposedly configured to optimize audio use, nonetheless require some sort of cheapo "interface" to stream the data into an audiophile DAC?
Why on earth would I want to buy an audiophile "sound card", which I presume (in addition to an "interface") also has its own DAC?
Given the options which are available for "sound card" and/or "interface" type devices, what is the BEST way to tap the bitstream and/or maximize performance of the audiophile DAC? Optical? TOSLINK? Spdif?
Given the choices I might have for the "interface" between the computer and the DAC, what is the BEST way to minimized "jitter" or other audiophile nasties? Or is that phenomenon more of a downstream issue AFTER the bitstream hits the DAC?
There is a lot of great information in the other threads about ripping, tagging, Foobar vs Itunes and a million other complications of hard drive based audio.
But for now, I would really appreciate just some basic, conclusive opinions on the best way to get bits off the hard drive and safely on their way to my speakers from an audiophile DAC.
Please advise.
THANK YOU. |
