Where to start..?

[SteveR750]

I have today a conventiobnalk CD based system, and am intrigued enough by the possibilities of PC a based music source, if for no otther reason for roughly the same cost as my CDP I can have a second laptop that acts as half the source, plus all the things a PC can do which is no small benefit.

However, I've no feel for VFM and pricing of DAC's so want some system that matches the CD6SE that I currently have at a cost that would be similar (circa £800). I'm not even sure what software to use, am familiar with media player for burning lossless CD copies for the car, itunes for my ipod and also making CD's for the car, and I've used EAC buts it so user unfriendly compared to the former then I have only used it to rip CD's that I want copies of for my own collection. So as a start, what are the pro and cons of the various software programmes, and what hardware do I need, apart from the obvious PC and a DAC........

 

[lordmortlock]

Hey Steve. Obviously theres loads of possibilities and you'll get difference advice from different folk here but I think a pretty good place to start would be Itunes and either a dacmagic or a beresford dac. Theres some pretty amazing software out there but some of its pretty full on so if you know Itunes I'd start there. The next question is wired or wireless. If wired you connect to the dac via ethernet or usb. If you have a wireless network you oculd send the music from the pc to an apple airport express or a squeezebox. This then connects to the dac which in turn connects to your amp. The benefit here is that you don't have to have the laptop/pc near the hifi. I use itunes, several airport plugged into active speakers/hifi round the house and control the whole set up with apples free remote software on an iphone (or touch) so I keep all the music files in one place (study) and stream the music to several rooms.

Hope thats useful!