Computer Source for Music and Home Theater?

[terryme1]

Hi, I am hoping to put together a PC computer system to use as a source for my large music collection. I will then try to use it for storing and playing movie and home videos. My system is good but is not up to date. I have a Denon AVR-5800 Receiver and a 9.1 Paradigm Spearker system. My music source has been two 200 disc CD Jukeboxes, Sony CPD-CX90ES and 70ES. These Jukeboxes still sound great but have issues with control and the video output. I have well over 1000 CD and would like to download then on to a hard drive as a source. I believe that in order to get the sound quality that I am used to, I should maintain the WAV file format and not compress the music data into MP3 or other file formats. I have many questions about this system. I figure I could start with a terabyte or larger source hard drive. I calculate that it could store 1315 CDs at full length of 760 MB each. Does anyone have a recommendation for brand of hard drive for quality and reliability? I plan to buy a second hard drive to back up my data. What sould I use for digital to analog conversion? Is there DAC cards for computers or are they build into the sound cards? What DAC or sound card should I buy? Should I use the DAC in my Denon Receiver? My Denon Receiver does not have any HDMI inputs. It does have a computer connector, maybe RS232. I currently use Digital connectors from the two CD playes to two channels of the Receiver and use the DAC in the Receiver. Any recommendations on this Audio connection? I hear that there are many choices for Software to control this type of system. Can anyone make recommendations for Software? And why? Thank you!
terryme1

[Feanor]

Hi, I am hoping to put together a PC computer system to use as a source for my large music collection. I will then try to use it for storing and playing movie and home videos. My system is good but is not up to date. I have a Denon AVR-5800 Receiver and a 9.1 Paradigm Spearker system. My music source has been two 200 disc CD Jukeboxes, Sony CPD-CX90ES and 70ES. These Jukeboxes still sound great but have issues with control and the video output. I have well over 1000 CD and would like to download then on to a hard drive as a source. I believe that in order to get the sound quality that I am used to, I should maintain the WAV file format and not compress the music data into MP3 or other file formats. I have many questions about this system. I figure I could start with a terabyte or larger source hard drive. I calculate that it could store 1315 CDs at full length of 760 MB each. Does anyone have a recommendation for brand of hard drive for quality and reliability? I plan to buy a second hard drive to back up my data. What sould I use for digital to analog conversion? Is there DAC cards for computers or are they build into the sound cards? What DAC or sound card should I buy? Should I use the DAC in my Denon Receiver? My Denon Receiver does not have any HDMI inputs. It does have a computer connector, maybe RS232. I currently use Digital connectors from the two CD playes to two channels of the Receiver and use the DAC in the Receiver. Any recommendations on this Audio connection? I hear that there are many choices for Software to control this type of system. Can anyone make recommendations for Software? And why? Thank you!
terryme1

Hi, terryyou,

A lot of questions there. It would be unwise of me to talk about video from compter but I do now a little about audio from computer.

Yes, and external drive for you music and another for backup is an excellent idea. Don't rip your CDs to uncompressed WAV files; there is no need. Contrary to what some people suggest, you are very unlikely to hear any difference from a lossless compressed format such as FLAC or Apple Lossless (ALAC). BTW, if you want to, you can burn from lossless like these back to CD with results that are bit-perfect to the originals.

You can use the DAC in your receiver if you are satisfied with it. But in that case you will need a sound card with digital S/PDIF output, either coaxial, perferably, or optical (Toslink). There are quite a few of such sound cards nowadays. If you are less than satisfied with your receiver's DAC, a better solution is likely to be an outboard DAC with a USB connection to the computer. There are many of these nowadays over a broad range of prices. An attractive, quite low cost option here is the Music Fidelity V-DAC (http://www.musicalfidelity.com/products/vseries/vdac.html).

Of course you will need a music player on your computer. A popular choice today is the J.River Media Jukebox (http://www.mediajukebox.com/) which is free, or you can go for their Media Center (http://www.jrmediacenter.com/index.html) that will do your video too. I use the still-great standby, Foobar2000, also free. See my Foobar2000 Primer. (http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=30337)

For software to rip your CDs you can use J.River or Foobar2000, but I highly recommend dBpoweramp Reference, ($36).