Listener Posted April 5, 2010 Posted April 5, 2010 As requested here are the details of the PC we used and the reasons for my choices. I must stress though, that my choice may not be the best or the most appropriate, and may not apply to your situation. First of all this is a HTPC, not a stand alone audio PC. That is my choice, if you want a stand alone device, then some of the stuff here is overkill. As a HTPC it has to have the nuts to do several things at once, like play a Blu Ray movie and record 4 channels of TV all at once. Or play music and record TV at the same time, without any glitches. It may even be overkill for all that, but, hey, we like our toys to be big and shiny around here. First of all, the choices:- CPU. AMD or Intel. Intel are by far the best [=fastest] at the moment, but they are much more expensive and the motherboards for them are also much more than equivalent AMD motherboards. I went for AMD purely for 'bang for buck'. An AM3 Phenom II 2 core x2 555 Black Edition. This is an unremarkable CPU at $120. But. If placed on a motherboard with the correct chipset - an AMD 770, then, with a couple of bios selections, it turns into a 4 core 955 Black edition, which is $70 more! It is then equivalent in performance to an Intel i5 750, which is $250. Not bad for $120. Motherboard. Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3. This board had the PCie and PCi slots I wanted and in the right order, so it was on the list. The other good points are 1. Extra thick PCB tracks, which is supposed to be good. USB 3, future proofing. SATA 3, future proofing. 3x USB power, sounds like a good idea to me. No on board Video, did not need it. Memory. 4 GB from the motherboard compliance list. 8 GB may be better. Video Card. Went way over the top here. XFX, ATI Radeon HD 5670. Needs some nuts for Blu Ray. I have tried integrated video and been disappointed so spent some $$$ here. Power supply. Needed 300 watts so got 650 watts to give a good overhead. Xigmatek NRP_MC651. Hard Disk Drive. SSD. went for an OCZ Vertex 60 GB. Plenty for Windows 7 and some more programs. SSD is supposed to be better for audio. I have not done any comparisons, but trust the people who make these claims. Case. Silverstone Lascala LC10-E. Plenty of space for Hard Drives, Good cooling. Not too expensive and looks good. Audio Card. Lynx AES16. I wanted AES for the DEQX. USB is almost as good and the new Asus sound cards are supposed to be good as well. Just my choice. Operating Software. Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Much better than Vista and who wants to run XP? Video Software. Totalmedia 3 Platinum for Blu Ray. Any DVD HD for the discs I legally buy on my travels. Audio Software. J.River MC15. TV. Phillips 47 " LCD. Regarding software. Windows Media Center is very good, it does TV and Video excellently. Music playing is also very good, easily on a par with iTunes and with a much better interface. Sitting in my chair, in full command with the remote is very nice. However, add Pure Music or Amarra to iTunes and you get better sound, not much better, but enough to want it. That means going to a Mac which I can do, I have a G5 and a Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh but I prefer to stick with a PC for all sorts of reasons. And, no, I do not want to get into a Mac vs PC thing, so don't even bother. J.River Media Center does do bit perfect, does sound excellent and has a compelling interface in Theatre View. It is supposed to do TV and Video as well, but doesn't. The TV part is a disaster and I have not even bothered with playing video on it. So, I play TV and Video in Windows Media Player and music in J.River Media Player. This means a great amount of effort for me as I have to get up and actually shut one program down and start the other up. Or I could get a wireless mouse. I have heard Amarra, on tthree systems, and even compared it directly to my old HTPC. I accept that it is better than iTunes or Windows Media Player, but it is not worth A$425. At A$140 Pure Music is just as good as Amarra [from memory] and I have bought it for my Mac's. During our little test we had the HTPC, a Macbook Pro, a Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh with OS X Leopard and a Dell Mini 9 with Windows 7 Ultimate. In windows we used J.River and in Mac's we used Pure Music. The result was in decending order 1. HTPC 2. Macbook Pro 3.Mini 9 Win 7 4.Mini 9 OS X. Let me say that all three of us agreed with no argument, that although the order was easily derived, there was little difference between them. Only the HTPC raced ahead and then not too far. I hope some of the above will help you on your journey to audio nirvana. It is always nice to let others do the work. Please remember though, my reasons for doing it this way may not apply to you and YMMV as they say. Steven.
myminirocks Posted April 5, 2010 Posted April 5, 2010 That's another way of saying that it's the best DAC I've heard. Holy Begeeeezzzasss!! I should have had a look at what the weiss was worth before i asked. proftournesol that had better be the best damn DAC you have ever heard, It had also make a damn fine cappuccino! So, rather then in the budget of a small car, is there anything decent in the, say, $300 mark? Or would it be a waste of money and no better then the MacMini internal one? I think I have better try upgrading my $5 rca's first, is there a specific place/brand for quality cables? Are the top quality ones on Cable Chick going to be any better then tandy? cheers
waricle Posted April 5, 2010 Posted April 5, 2010 I would also like to add the observation that Listener's PCHT is a very quiet unit. My MacBook pro has a fan that is easily audible on the occasion that it kicks in. Bang fo buck listener's HTPC has got to be marvellous value!
davewantsmoore Posted April 5, 2010 Posted April 5, 2010 So, rather then in the budget of a small car, is there anything decent in the, say, $300 mark? Or would it be a waste of money and no better then the MacMini internal one? Much better. Although spending a bit more will be quite a step up again.
myminirocks Posted April 6, 2010 Posted April 6, 2010 Much better. Although spending a bit more will be quite a step up again. Ok, so, the CA DacMagic, seems well reviewed and in the price range, any thing else I should consider?
myminirocks Posted June 21, 2010 Posted June 21, 2010 Ok, wow, what a busy couple of months! I have been pretty much totally out of action on the audio/toys front for a few mths, but I really need to try and get a DAC I think. Also I am heading to the USA next month so there might be an opportunity to pick something up a bit cheaper (lovin the AUD at the moment) So the CA DACMagic, MF V-Dac, Centrance DACPort, Maverick TubeMagic D1 all on the list. Anyone care to comment?
proftournesol Posted June 21, 2010 Posted June 21, 2010 I have 3 DACs: a Weiss minerva, a DACMagic2 and a V-DAC. The Weiss is miles ahead of the other 2 of course. Of the other 2, I prefer the DACMagic2, especially if you connect via USB. Both sound much better using an optical conection, and the V-DAC is much closer but still not as detailed or open as the DACMagic2.
myminirocks Posted June 21, 2010 Posted June 21, 2010 I have 3 DACs: a Weiss minerva, a DACMagic2 and a V-DAC. The Weiss is miles ahead of the other 2 of course. Of the other 2, I prefer the DACMagic2, especially if you connect via USB. Both sound much better using an optical conection, and the V-DAC is much closer but still not as detailed or open as the DACMagic2. Hmm good to know a direct comparison of the 2 front runners. Thx I am confused with the Maverick D1, the tube is only part of the pre out yes? So of no benifit if using as a DAC?
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