Chrisla,
Here's my Rube Goldberg version that I've put together and that my wife uses daily for hours on end. She wanted something simple to use since she works at home, so that's what I've got. I was looking for a relatively low cost way to put this together. Here's what I've done. I have a Dell PC(2.4 Pent 4 with 1 GB mem) with a 320GB internal drive and one 320GB WD Caviar external drive for backup. This holds my 1000+ CD collection. I use ITunes and cut my tracks using Apple Lossless. My network is wireless using a DLink DI-624M router. On the audio end I have a Squeezebox 3 running into a DAC then to my Preamp. The SB3 has a nice remote, which makes it easy for my wife to find any albums or songs by name or genre, etc, and/or playlists. We also can load our IPOD for car, vacation, etc from ITunes on the Dell PC. The SB3 allows internet music and radio as well.
Total cost for a used Dell PC, 2 large disk drives, SB3, & Benchmark DAC 1 ran under $2K. How does it sound? Very, very good indeed. We use it every day pretty much without fail, no pops, clicks or errors(no pun intended). Once in a while the microwave makes the router blip, but that's minor. I have to say I could spend lots more, but who knows what % better it would sound. I'm sure an SB Transporter and/or better DAC would do more. This was just my way of doing things. I got started trying to build my own music server and this is what I now have 2 years later!!! Good luck and enjoy...
Here's my Rube Goldberg version that I've put together and that my wife uses daily for hours on end. She wanted something simple to use since she works at home, so that's what I've got. I was looking for a relatively low cost way to put this together. Here's what I've done. I have a Dell PC(2.4 Pent 4 with 1 GB mem) with a 320GB internal drive and one 320GB WD Caviar external drive for backup. This holds my 1000+ CD collection. I use ITunes and cut my tracks using Apple Lossless. My network is wireless using a DLink DI-624M router. On the audio end I have a Squeezebox 3 running into a DAC then to my Preamp. The SB3 has a nice remote, which makes it easy for my wife to find any albums or songs by name or genre, etc, and/or playlists. We also can load our IPOD for car, vacation, etc from ITunes on the Dell PC. The SB3 allows internet music and radio as well.
Total cost for a used Dell PC, 2 large disk drives, SB3, & Benchmark DAC 1 ran under $2K. How does it sound? Very, very good indeed. We use it every day pretty much without fail, no pops, clicks or errors(no pun intended). Once in a while the microwave makes the router blip, but that's minor. I have to say I could spend lots more, but who knows what % better it would sound. I'm sure an SB Transporter and/or better DAC would do more. This was just my way of doing things. I got started trying to build my own music server and this is what I now have 2 years later!!! Good luck and enjoy...