I figured we might as well start of with this simple topic to get people started!
Right now, here's how my data flows from my server to my stereo.
Server used for storage, it's a "simple" MS Windows 2k8r2 box with a BUNCH of storage. Everything in my house is ran via Cat6 ethernet cable giving me a solid 1GB connection between my HTPC (Home Theater PC) and the server where everything resides.
My HTPC is a Windows 7 64-bit computer. On this computer I run Foobar2000 which unfortuneately is no being maintained anymore...but has a pretty strong following that is keeping it alive... For mine I've customized it to look like this:
From here, I do not have any SPDIF output, so I bought the WireWorld Starlight Audio USB cable to get the audio out of my computer. Most people think USB cables are USB cables... and they are not. This cable is flat and separates the power legs from the data. This does produce a better sound, believe it or not.
To connect the USB to my DAC, I need a digital transport. I choice the Musical Fidelity V-Link 192. For the price, I feel it's one of the best out there to convert audio out from USB and into a SPDIF format (your typical Digital Coax, optical, and balance connections). The MF V-Link192 only has digital coax and a balanced connection, so if you're looking at this to send the audio to your DAC, make sure it has one of these connections.
Now that we have the Vlink in place, the audio then go through a simple BlueJeans Digital Coax cable into my Cambridge Audio 840c CDP. The Cambridge Audio CDP is nice as it has two digital input sections on the back. This has really helped me as I've been able to compare a CD played on it and switched right over to the same thing that I ripped down to the computer. Up until I got the V-Link192 and made a bunch of tweaks to the computer.... I've never gotten the ripped version to sound as good as the CD in the player. Now, it's to the point where no CD put in the player sounds as good as the audio coming off the computer. That's been a great thing for me that has allowed every change and tweak I've tried to give a definite "is it as good as" the CD being played.
One tip I've learned across the process is that the Digital Coax cable matters the absolute least. I test the bluejeans cable against CatCables SilverCats, against a cheap RadioShack rca cable and I was unable to tell any differences.... So you don't need to go nuts on this cable, basically anything you use here, as long as it's a decent cable, will work fine. I'm sure on the balanced side and the optical side... there's differences (I know there is on the optical side, plastic vs glass especially).
Right now, here's how my data flows from my server to my stereo.
Server used for storage, it's a "simple" MS Windows 2k8r2 box with a BUNCH of storage. Everything in my house is ran via Cat6 ethernet cable giving me a solid 1GB connection between my HTPC (Home Theater PC) and the server where everything resides.
My HTPC is a Windows 7 64-bit computer. On this computer I run Foobar2000 which unfortuneately is no being maintained anymore...but has a pretty strong following that is keeping it alive... For mine I've customized it to look like this:
From here, I do not have any SPDIF output, so I bought the WireWorld Starlight Audio USB cable to get the audio out of my computer. Most people think USB cables are USB cables... and they are not. This cable is flat and separates the power legs from the data. This does produce a better sound, believe it or not.
To connect the USB to my DAC, I need a digital transport. I choice the Musical Fidelity V-Link 192. For the price, I feel it's one of the best out there to convert audio out from USB and into a SPDIF format (your typical Digital Coax, optical, and balance connections). The MF V-Link192 only has digital coax and a balanced connection, so if you're looking at this to send the audio to your DAC, make sure it has one of these connections.
Now that we have the Vlink in place, the audio then go through a simple BlueJeans Digital Coax cable into my Cambridge Audio 840c CDP. The Cambridge Audio CDP is nice as it has two digital input sections on the back. This has really helped me as I've been able to compare a CD played on it and switched right over to the same thing that I ripped down to the computer. Up until I got the V-Link192 and made a bunch of tweaks to the computer.... I've never gotten the ripped version to sound as good as the CD in the player. Now, it's to the point where no CD put in the player sounds as good as the audio coming off the computer. That's been a great thing for me that has allowed every change and tweak I've tried to give a definite "is it as good as" the CD being played.
One tip I've learned across the process is that the Digital Coax cable matters the absolute least. I test the bluejeans cable against CatCables SilverCats, against a cheap RadioShack rca cable and I was unable to tell any differences.... So you don't need to go nuts on this cable, basically anything you use here, as long as it's a decent cable, will work fine. I'm sure on the balanced side and the optical side... there's differences (I know there is on the optical side, plastic vs glass especially).
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