ordered a pair of SongTowers; best solution for computer audio playback?

[jglim0109]

I ordered a pair of Salk SongTowers and will be using my computer for music playback. All my music is in FLAC already. I have a 5 year old laptop with whatever internal soundcard it came with (it most likely is not very good because I don't remember upgrading it when I bought it). I also have a Yamaha HTR-5450 receiver that is now 7 years old. That's it.

As far as spending money wisely, what's the best way to use a computer for music? Should I buy a soundcard or a USB DAC? Invest in an amp and just play through my computer as is? Combination of things?


Any suggestions please. I would like to keep this as cheap as possible, but don't want to sacrifice sound quality trying to save a couple hundred bucks if it will make a significant improvement.

Thanks. I've already searched for older discussions but there didn't seem to be any consensus and some were 2 or 3 years old by now.

 

[strube]

I think the sound quality on built-in laptop audio is abysmal. I have a PCMICIA SoundBlaster Audigy2 Notebook that took care of the problem, and they have a new Express Card X-Fi that would probably be better than that.

I have also heard good things about external USB audio, and I had an old SoundBlaster that was of that format too, but I don't remember what it was, just that it was much better.

Bottom line is that you should get something besides the built-in laptop audio, no question (IMO of course).

Keep in mind, these were all for improvement of analog output, or for adding an option of digital output. I haven't had a laptop that had a functioning built-in digital output until my current one, but it is only through HDMI, and so I haven't used it that much.

 

[Swerd]

I ordered a pair of Salk SongTowers and will be using my computer for music playback. All my music is in FLAC already. I have a 5 year old laptop with whatever internal soundcard it came with (it most likely is not very good because I don't remember upgrading it when I bought it). I also have a Yamaha HTR-5450 receiver that is now 7 years old. That's it.

As far as spending money wisely, what's the best way to use a computer for music? Should I buy a soundcard or a USB DAC? Invest in an amp and just play through my computer as is? Combination of things?

Any suggestions please. I would like to keep this as cheap as possible, but don't want to sacrifice sound quality trying to save a couple hundred bucks if it will make a significant improvement.

Thanks. I've already searched for older discussions but there didn't seem to be any consensus and some were 2 or 3 years old by now.

Congrats on the new SongTowers! I've had mine for about a year and a half and I'm still in the honeymoon phase! What finish did you order?

Because your lap top is now 5-years old, you should consider something that will work with a future replacement. Look into Slimdevices Squeezebox. They make a variety of products, the least expensive of which is the Squeezebox Classic. Amazon seems to have the best prices for it. This device hooks into your receiver either by the standard analog or digital audio cables and plays digital audio files stored on your computer sent via a direct ethernet connection or wireless router. If you use wireless, the advantage is that you do not have to have the computer in the same room as your receiver, and with the Squeezebox's remote control you can access any audio file on your computer without using the computer's keyboard or mouse.

There is a good Audioholics review of this product.

Slimdevices (Logitech) makes the much more expensive and capable (?) device called the Transporter, and other items that will work with multiple hifi systems all by wireless network with one computer.

There are other newer audio and audio/video servers now available, but the Squeezebox has been around longer, and has been widely accepted and praised by users. If it helps to know this, Jim Salk uses one.

 

[scott911]

this is what I've heard - hopefully some of it is true and helpful to you!

first - you need to get digital of your pc or laptop. Little effort, alot better than the headphone jack, especially if your media PC is in another room and you're runnign cabling any distance.

* I've been told the digital out of any onboard sound in a PC is as good as you'll get - and investing in a better third party sound card isn't going to help anything. In other words, the zeros and ones do not need the sound card's higher quality componets to become 'better' zeros and ones.

* I've been told that USB 2.0 does not have enough bandwidth to carry a full signal and to avoid the route of a USB sound device. If you're using a laptop, then I guess that directs you to get a PCIMA sound card as the other poster recommented.

Personally I think a laptop should be fine - it's the digital PCMIA sound card doing the work and putting out the signal that matters -as long as the hard drive and processer can keep up, then the laptop itelf should have little effect on the sound quality - I was, in fact, quite happy using a laptop to do just what you're doing - benefit is that you can have the laptop right on top of your audio rack and control playlists etc. right from your living room.

Other thing to consider. If using a PC, think about getting a video card with HDMI out. Then, interconnect your digital sound to this video card - entire video and sound will come through HDMI into reciever - this will allow you to remote control your PC from your LCD panel to control your playlists, - and watch youtube in grand style

Laptop wins for simplicity though, in my opinion. When I had that configuration set up, I played and enjoyed more music than ever before - which is kind of the point!

 

[jglim0109]

Yeah I've been reading a lot about the Squeezebox and people seem to recommend it. Just so I understand. The Squeezebox would bypass my computer's soundcard, right? That's my goal: to play music with my laptop without the loss of quality that the mediocre internal soundcard offers.

 

[Hipnotic4]

Keep in mind that music will only sound as good as it's recorded. Speakers, amps, eq etc help somewhat, but the original file will never really sound better than what it is..

 

[Swerd]

Yeah I've been reading a lot about the Squeezebox and people seem to recommend it. Just so I understand. The Squeezebox would bypass my computer's soundcard, right? That's my goal: to play music with my laptop without the loss of quality that the mediocre internal soundcard offers.

Yes, the Squeezebox bypasses your computer's soundcard. It gets a digital FLAC file from your hard drive. Then you have a choice of using it's internal DAC to generate 2-channel analog audio, or sending the digital audio signal to your receiver and using it's internal DAC, just like most people do with CD or DVD players. I would guess that the second way might work better.

Here is what the Squeezebox rear panel looks like:

 

[WmAx]

* I've been told that USB 2.0 does not have enough bandwidth to carry a full signal and to avoid the route of a USB sound device. If you're using a laptop, then I guess that directs you to get a PCIMA sound card as the other poster recommented.

USB 2.0 is sufficient for full duplex simultaneous 96kHz/24 bit ADC/DAC loop back, or simple playback or recording of 192kHz/24 bit. What exactly is it that you would need to do that USB 2.0 is not sufficient for stereo audio?

-Chris

 

[sploo]

Just backing Chris up with some data (I work for a company whose business is in data transfer over USB, 1394 and eSATA):

USB2.0 is theoretically 480Mbits/s = 480/8 = 60MBytes/s.

In reality, the USB transport mechanism isn't that efficient, and combined with the stacks/drivers on your average PC/Mac you're likely to see real transfer rates in the 30-45MBytes/s region.

If I've got my math right, a single 192kHz/24bit stream is approx 0.55MBytes/s, so there should be enough bandwidth for 50+ simultaneous streams.

 

[RequiemX]

Because your lap top is now 5-years old, you should consider something that will work with a future replacement. Look into Slimdevices Squeezebox.

I also recommend a solution such as this.

I personally use an AppleTV for this task, though the Squeezebox will do the same thing for you.

 

[strube]

FYI Logitech bought out the Squeezebox guys, so now it is Logitech Squeezebox.

 

[jglim0109]

I think I will go with the Squeezebox. It seems like a pretty good solution for the money. When I save up some more money, I will look into an amp.