Setting up digital music system in home

[jdog65]

Looking for some advice. I want to put all of my music from CD's onto 1 disk and create my own jukebox to use at home. I want an interface that's easy for anyone to use, that will display on my tv. I want the best quality sound to be played through my home stereo. Those are my 2 biggest requirements, great sound and easy interface.

This is a new home setup so the equipment would all be new.
I've looked at a unit from Yamaha that will hold digital music but it's very pricey $2000.

What I'm wondering is...can I get a PC with all the components I need to accomplish this?
Any downside to doing it this way? I'm thinking why not just use Window Media player with a ton of disk space?
What about the actual transfer of music from the CD's to the disk? Should I do it lossless or does the compressed format sound ok on a home system?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

[AVMASTER]

there are several hard disk servers on market, Imerge, Escient, Denon, Kenwood, Yamaha
just to name a few. These unit will stream your media throughout your home, some with on-screen listings of your complete libary; the new Escient Fireball can manager your DVDs as well. While these will interface with your PC, i'm sure you can accomplish the same thing with just the PC but i'm just not the guy to ask

[Wireworm5]

I use a similar set-up but I don't need it on my tv, my computer monitor is sufficient. What I did is bought a 120 gig hard drive. You can get even bigger and the prices have come down since I bought mine.I use Creative Audigy Platinum II, which comes with it own player software. But I prefer to use Winamp which you can download off the net. I find this player very easy to use and has a very good random song selection. With other players I've used the random feature tends to repeat the same pattern if you use the same playlist.
You can store songs in any kind of format as long as the player you use can read it. But keep in mind if you want to make cd's then it easier to have a format that doesn't require conversions all the time and can be played on other platforms. If your hard drive is large enough than you can keep everthing in wav format. If you use mp3's than the higher the compression the better. I use 360 and you 'd be hard pressed to hear any difference from a cd, and you wouldn't need more than a 40 gig hard drive.
Avmaster makes a good suggestion and I would consider going that route as well, if you don't want a computer in your audio room. And should fit neatly in an audio rack.

[Mania]

There are three issues that you will face:

1) what player to use on your computer. I've used Winamp, and its nice, but I think iTunes is actually better. It will also convert CD's into your library.

2) passing sound from the computer to the receiver may end up tricky. Using laptops in the past, I've had problems with ground loops (buzzing sound) whenever hte laptop is plugged in. I don't know if this same problem exists with desktop PCs. This problem has occured when converting from the mini headphone jack to RCA cables. Perhaps having a sound card with RCA outs would fix this, or, it might even be better to use an optical out. I doubt this would cause a grounding problem

3) a video card that displays infor on the TV in good resolution is also a must for you.


As for the hard drive/computer. Volume is also an issue. Are you sure the computer isn't too lound for you? Sometimes the sound of the powersupply fan or harddrive can be distracting. An SATA vs an IDE hard drive is supposed to be quieter.

Good luck

[Slosh]

You might want to consider adding a DVD burner to your computer. One DVD-R can hold over 500 minutes of uncompressed CD audio, pretty much eliminating the need for a music server. Creating a playlist for each disc that you can view on your TV should be easy to do and can be divided up by titles for each album or types of music, then each song would be a chapter within that title. I haven't done this yet myself however. Just throwing out an idea :)

I'm just using the cheap integrated soundcard built into my motherboard connected to my integrated stereo amp via a mini stereo-to-RCA adapter and I've found raising its sampling rate (to decode HDCD) increases the noise I hear from the hard drive and power supply. I may buy a better soundcard with an S/Pdif out down the road since I have an old Sony EP9ES pre/pro that I could use as a DAC (thus keeping the digital-to-analog conversion outside of the computer and its electrically noisy environment). I only listen to music from the computer while working at the computer in my home office (it's not connected to my main system), so the fan noise pretty much eliminates the need for better fidelity.

When I'm serious about listening to music I turn off the computer and go into my living room to hear the "big" system ;)

[jdog65]

Thanks for the info...very helpful