New and excited to learn

[Warpneo13]

Ok I'm a geek, a computer geek that is, but in my years I have been lazy to learn about the audio side of the world. I would like to get into this not only as a hobby but it would help me a some in the computer world I am currently in. Just wanted to say thank you to all the people who post here and I have been going through some posts trying to pick up on stuff. I see alot of model numbers of different brands (even some brands I have never seen before). My question to you audio geeks is as follow's (and I'm sure you have seen this question before so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out).

I want to reconfigure my current room set-up so I can do the following in the end. If you have links to other web-sites and or forums on this I would love the links as well. I would like to hook up my computer up to my receiver. At the moment and for starters I am going to turn my second computer into a media-center for mp3's and such (maybe later when I build a 3rd computer take my 2nd to newest computer into more than music adding video files and such). I would assume for basic audio you would just need a male to male RCA cable something you can get off of monster cable (would need to be at about 12ft in length though)? I would assume there would be minor settings in the audio portion of the computer I would have to change, but that shouldn't be difficult. Does it matter what kind of cable I guess, as in the more expensive ones have more shielding, but for a basic audio cable from computer to receiver does it really need to be that thick? I'm sure there is some stipulation but I never could get a solid answer on that. Is there any programs for the computer end that any of you audio geeks use to control what gets played from the computer to the receiver, if so any listed would be sweet. I can take some pictures of my basic room set-up but its not even close to my vision, minuse the fact its small so I don't have alot to work with I haven't done a horrible job I don't think /shrug maybe I'll post some later.

So any help with the above confusion or any suggestions for a comptuer geek wanting to get into the audio geek world for a side hobby I am open ears.

Thanks for the help, I will try and think of some more detailed questions after some replys and thanks ahead of time to those that reply. I hope this helps others that maybe are in my shoes at the moment....Go Go Computer Geeks!



Tom

 

[jaxvon]

Go computer geeks! I'm one too, so welcome brother. First things first, you'll probably want to grab a copy a Windows Media Center. Now, I must say that I don't have experience with it, but considering its purpose, I think it would be the best way to go.

Second: go the digital route. Your computer's sound card (onboard or separate) probably has garbage D/A converters (digital/analog). Any good quality reciever or preamp will have good, high-quality converters that you should take advantage of. The best way to do this would be to use a TOSLINK optical connection or SPDIF coaxial connection. Both are digital options and can be found on most computer audio products. Plus, digital can transmit all 6 channels of surround sound with one cable, so you can have all the gaming goodness you desire!

Third: Don't waste your money on Monster Cable! It's just a brand name. There are many other cable products that meet or exceed the quality of monster for much less money. Unlike computer components where brands really matter (I shudder to think about the bad mobos I've played with), audio cables don't need the flash. Of course, this doesn't mean you should just be using the cheap cables that come with your components. There are great companies where quality cables can be had for good prices. These include Blue Jeans Cable, Ram Electronics, Impact Acoustics, Cobalt cable, and River Cable.

I'm not really sure about programs. I would think that any media player will work. However, assuming you get some quality speakers, you will notice that 128kbps mp3s sound horrible. You're going to want at least 192kbps. Still, you'll be finding that you gravitate more towards CDs and lossless codecs on the computer.


Well, that's all for now. I hope this helps you.


Lastly, welcome to Audioholics!

 

[gregz]

Hi fellow geek!

A few years ago, I brought my stereo system into the bedroom and hooked it up to the computer through a Radio Shack 1/8" to RCA cable that I plugged directly from the output of my sound card to the CD input jacks of my receiver. Finally, I was going to hear all my MP3's on a real system!

Unfortunately, I discovered that while all my MP3's sounded pretty good on my computer speakers, about half of them were of such poor quality that I could hear on my stereo I couldn't stand to listen to them. About 20% of the remaining MP3's were actually of good quality, while the rest were just mediocre. It reminded me of when I had a nasty 1980's low end Fisher all in one record player/dual tape deck/receiver with the three band equalizer. In fact, I'd swear some of those MP3's were recorded off that same model Fisher with the equalizers cranked to max effect!

Sorry to go off track, but I need to brace you for a possible disappointment.

As for fat cables with mondo shielding: unless you know you have a noise problem, you don't need all that shielding. In fact, go with cheap cables for now and see how things work. If improvement is needed, it's more likely to be that you need a better sound card or more likely better speakers (almost always the weakest link).

 

[gregz]

jaxvon, we posted at the same time. It looks like we're pretty much in agreement on the main points. Except for the parts where I'm right and you're wrong, of course.

 

[jaxvon]

On a side note, my friend hooked up his laptop to his Bose system (the really expensive one with the tiny cubes). And honestly, you can't tell they're mp3s. I can differentiate between mp3s and CDs with my $20 Sony headphones. That should give you an idea on the quality of Bose.

BTW Gregz, I think we know who's right. And since we're all geeks here, I'll leave you with this.


PWNED

 

[Cuteman]

Ive got my creative (49.99 from best buy) external sound card hooked up to my receiver, the sound card is cool because it has optical out.

Only problem ive seem to have is when playing Mp3's, i cant get sound out of all the speakers, only L & R.

Crappy!

Anyway...


Oh, btw ... I don't believe you can buy windows media center, without buying a new computer, Ive heard they dont sell it as an operating system itself.

 

[Rob Babcock]

A little bird told me that a decent media PC can outperform any CD player regardless of price. And why not? Buffering the output in memory can reduce jitter to a near infinitesism point, not to mention the power of DSP that you can apply. Couple that with the ability of keep hundreds or even thousands of CDs worth of wav.files on tap for instant playback and you have a winner.

 

[jaxvon]

Ah, but you CAN buy media center by itself! You just need to shop in the right store! First and foremost, the following are off-limits:
-Best Buy
-CompUSA

These stores will rob you blind. Don't buy stuff from them. I merely use them to try stuff before I buy elsewhere.

For computer components and software, I recommend, Newegg.

BTW, here's the link for Windows Media Center. You can all trust Newegg. Read the testimonials, they're aren't lying. If you want to get real service from an online vendor, Newegg is the place to be (Parts express is good too ).

 

[Warpneo13]

First off thank you for the information and the heads up on the possibility of it not working the way I might picture.

About the SPDIF cables (probably sounds odd, but not too familiar with them). So I went out and found out what it stands for and then looked and found a cable but I'm not sure if its what I am looking for. Here is the link

http://www.impactacoustics.com/product.asp?cat_id=902&sku=29725

I noticed there is only one plug in for each component, one into the computer, and one into the receiver. Just curious how does one transfer L and R through one cable or is that just how the cable works, can't help asking I like to know these little things. Otherwise I can just research more online but I figured I would throw it in here first

guess I will start with the basics for now, I looked at work to see if we sold a cable longer than 6ft which we don't (which is too bad since I work for best buy prices are...well lets just say low

Thanks again,

Tom

 

[mtrycrafts]

Third: Don't waste your money on Monster Cable! It's just a brand name.

Yes, very expensive. And, with the lawsuits they are doing, run the other way like crazy

 

[jaxvon]

Oh, well I didn't know that you worked for BB. If you can get a good price on a quality product there, then go for it. But for the majority of us, the prices are too high.

SPDIF can carry L&R channels on one cable because it's digital. Just like you can transmit Video Signal, sound, and data on one piece of Coax that comes into your home, you can transmit more than one channel of sound on a SPDIF connection. Since it's just 1s and 0s, it doesn't work like a normal analog interconnect, despite that it uses an RCA jack.

Also, the SPDIF connection on your sound card or computer is usually orange, though not always. SPDIF is capable of handling multichannel audio. Anyway, here's some reading material on the subject.


Hope this helps too.

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

Welcome aboard, Warp! May I suggest you also check out Hydrogen Audio. Their focus seems to be digital audio and media computers. A number of Audioholics are regulars there, too. Myself, being an old analog fart, I mostly lurk and scratch my head in puzzlement at the discussions of various codecs!

Sidebar: being a Mac head I think Apple has really dropped the ball on apparently ceding the HTPC market to Windows, especially after their early "digital hub" strategy with iTunes, iMovie, and iPhoto showed such promise in that direction. I would love to make a dual-processor G5 or titanium PowerBook the center of my eventual dream system. Hope Jobs is listening!

 

[jaxvon]

Sorry to tell you Rip, but a dual-proc G5 would cook a laptop sized enclosure. I work on Mac laptops all the time at work, and there isn't nearly enough room in a laptop to cool a G5. It's only a few lil heatpipes and sinks, nothing like the massive heatsinks that are stuck on top of G5s in the desktops.

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

Sorry to tell you Rip, but a dual-proc G5 would cook a laptop sized enclosure....

I was talking about a G5 desktop OR a PowerBook - I know the PBs are G4s!

(I'm still creakin' along with an old G3 B&W here, with a G4 500MHz upgrade.)