RE: [SurroundSound] Playing music from HDD.

For surround sound, I’ve been using an HTPC connected directly to an external multichannel DAC (supports 8 channels of 24bit/192KHz audio with SNR ~129dB/channel – yes, very high quality). The DAC chips are connected via fully differential outputs (balanced) to high quality 400W amp modules. So basically, it is an HTPC connected to a silver box (which is my DAC/amp). I’ve connected the amp outputs to a 5.1 speaker system. I might add a couple more amp modules and speakers to bring it up to 7.1, but I’m not in a big hurry for this.

 

I also have a home network with gigabit Ethernet connecting 6 different computers to the network switches and router/DSL modem. I also have a 6TB linux-based (unRAID) media server where I store all my music, photos, movies and videos connected to the network. I’m currently upgrading the server, so I haven’t had my share available on the hub. It should be ready in a few days.

 

When I want to listen to surround sound, I use the HTPC. I can use any of the other systems for listening to stereo stuff. One of the other computers is an older system that is connected to another external multichannel DAC, but this is configured for 4x stereo so it can feed a bunch of speakers throughout the house (kitchen, living room, sun room, etc.). This is great for whole-house audio.

 

The main program I use for playing music is J.River Media Center. I also use foobar2000 on occasion. However, JRMC v15 plays anything and the sound quality is identical to foobar2000. JRMC has a much better UI and it supports multi-zone playback (for the whole-house system) and it has a very good auto-playlist feature. JRMC v15 also has excellent networking features, including a music library server application. This way, anytime I play music on any computer on the network, the play history is recorded on the library server’s database. Which is nice if you use the auto-playlist feature to create playlists based on your listening history. For example, I can create a playlist that excludes music I’ve listened to in the last month.

 

However, there are a few things I like about foobar2000, so I will also have that as well. I probably need to learn more about some of the UI plugins and its playlist features so I can use it as effectively as JRMC.

 

To watch DVD movies and OTA or cable television, I use Windows 7 Media Center (and a few plug-ins that support playing Blu-rays that I’ve converted to MKV files. For HDTV, I have an HDHomeRun connected to my network.

 

I don’t use any stand-alone DVD or Blu-ray players, etc. Everything goes through my HTPC or other computers.

 

From: surroundsound@googlegroups.com [mailto:surroundsound@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Lewis Simon
Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2010 3:27 PM
To: surroundsound@googlegroups.com
Subject: [SurroundSound] Playing music from HDD.

 

I was wondering if other members here might like to share how they play and listen to music they may have stored on there HDD. I would like to play music l have stored on HDD through my Hi-Fi, don't really know the best way round this,so l'm curious how other members may go about it. l've a Musical Fidelity and Monitor Audio system and would like to add an Olive 4HD, which would appear to be the ideal solution for me but the price is way out of my league at this time.Your experiences and knowledge would be gratefully appreciated.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SurroundSound" group.
To post to this group, send email to SurroundSound@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to SurroundSound-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SurroundSound