Currently have 1000 ish albums ripped onto my PC system at roughly 192kbs mp3 format. I sync my iPod with everything then just plug into my AVR350 with a Russ Andrews cable iPod connector.
Toying with trying to improve sound by moving to uncompressed/lossless + getting a nicer way to browse/choose music than faffing around with the iPod interface at the end of a cable.
Meridien Sooloos looks very cool, but don't like the idea of big boxes or having to hardwire everything together (or £12k!), and I don't want to reinvent the wheel with one box whatsits like Naim or Solo, and I like flexibility of hardware upgrades on my existing PC, so wireless it must be.
Have come up with a few options:
[*]Sonos ZoneBridge £79 wired to my router to provide access to PC music library + CR200 Controller £279 + ZonePlayer £279 with digital out/in to the AVR350
[*]Apple MacMini £700 ish with keyboard/mouse, share my library on the PC so the mac can pick it up over it's in-built wireless then digital out to the AVR350.
Not much in it price wise but with Mac would get option of having a computer in lounge using my plasma as display so could browse web etc. Also could use digital in on the MacMini to record sound/music recorded off-air e.g. from Satellite.
Anyone doing this? Thoughts? Not even sure it's possible for Mac to share a library running on a PC? Is a MacMini any louder than a Sky+ HD box?
Secondly, I'm assuming that the onboard DAC in the AVR is good enough that I'd have to spend lots more on an outboard DAC for the differences in sound quality to be significant?
Toying with trying to improve sound by moving to uncompressed/lossless + getting a nicer way to browse/choose music than faffing around with the iPod interface at the end of a cable.
Meridien Sooloos looks very cool, but don't like the idea of big boxes or having to hardwire everything together (or £12k!), and I don't want to reinvent the wheel with one box whatsits like Naim or Solo, and I like flexibility of hardware upgrades on my existing PC, so wireless it must be.
Have come up with a few options:
[*]Sonos ZoneBridge £79 wired to my router to provide access to PC music library + CR200 Controller £279 + ZonePlayer £279 with digital out/in to the AVR350
[*]Apple MacMini £700 ish with keyboard/mouse, share my library on the PC so the mac can pick it up over it's in-built wireless then digital out to the AVR350.
Not much in it price wise but with Mac would get option of having a computer in lounge using my plasma as display so could browse web etc. Also could use digital in on the MacMini to record sound/music recorded off-air e.g. from Satellite.
Anyone doing this? Thoughts? Not even sure it's possible for Mac to share a library running on a PC? Is a MacMini any louder than a Sky+ HD box?
Secondly, I'm assuming that the onboard DAC in the AVR is good enough that I'd have to spend lots more on an outboard DAC for the differences in sound quality to be significant?