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Computer to reciever question...

S

Striker8118

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
Messages
75
So I just moved into a new house here at school. What I was wanting to do, is buy an old school crap computer and a small crappy monitor. I was going to hook it up through our network and play songs from it, from my main computer. Is the quality of the sound lower if I have a crappy sound card in the computer? I am just curious if I should invest in a half way decent sound card to stick in that p.o.s. I was not wanting to spend more than like $100 on the whole setup. All I really want it for us to play music out of our home theatre system from my computer playlist.

Thanks in advance...

Bobby
 
Your Asus's onboard soundstorm ought to sound nice on your reciever...just connect your mobo's built-in spdif output to your reciever with the correct cable and you're in bussiness. Audio quality is better on soundstorms digital ouputs than its analog ones (higher quality dacs i think). I'm currently doing the same with an NF7-S and an MN31N and was pleasantly surprised initially...enough to the point that i sold my Audigy2 for extra cash. I def recommend you try it before sinking~$100 into a possibly mediocre solution.

btw, here's an ebay seller that sells asus audio accessories (spdif inputs if you need them):
http://stores.ebay.com/Stuff-Zone_W0QQsspagenameZl2QQtZkm
 
Not that you have to do this but here is what i did.

I had a little cash to throw around so i bought an audigy 2 platinum (with the livedrive.) Then i connected the computer to my reciever by an optical cable. I also have my 5 disc changer tied into my computer optically as well. its a nice way to get both mp3's to play and your cd's as well and play games at the same time.

try a usb soundblaster audigy 2 either mp3+ or nx. that will work as well.
 
GodsMadClown said:
Why buy a computer? Buy a Squeezebox for $199. It does exactly what you want with excellent sound quality, and no need for a monitor.
Click to expand...

I LOVE my squeezebox. But just to be fully clear about it, it will NOT store any music. So you need to have a computer running on your network to provide the tunes, however this can be your workstation machine you just have to run a server app on it.
 
Striker8118 said:
I was going to hook it up through our network and play songs from it, from my main computer.
Click to expand...

This is why I thought the Squeezebox would be a good fit.
 
if he's willing to use his main rig then he wouldn't have to buy anything but cables ;)

Thats a big IF

Not 110% sure exactly what configuration he's looking for though :confused:
 
When you run digital you don't you any DACs on the source. The DACs on the other end take care of it. just fyi
 
Jake said:
When you run digital you don't you any DACs on the source. The DACs on the other end take care of it. just fyi
Click to expand...
If true, then i've read plenty of misinformation but i'm not so sure it applies to soundstorm rigs with music stored locally then being outputted to digital speakers or a reciever. Does what you refer to apply to my example? Thx in advance and believe me the question is meant in a inquisitive manner ;)
 
You don't or I should say can't run an analog signal over a digital connection.


It applies to everything.

If you have Ones and Zeros being output by the Soundstorm (or any source with coax dig or toslink) how can you amplify that? You can't, you need to amplify an analog signal. To do that you need a DAC before the amplifier. Which in most of these setups is all in the reciever at the other end of the toslink or dig. coax.

If you ran analog outputs, the Soundstorm (or anything else) would use its internal DAC and pipe it over a set of RCA cables.

If you are into high end audio you see some people using the digital out on their mega buck cd players (considered a 'transport' then), and then piping it in to a self contained DAC.
Here is such a setup: http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/northstarcd_e.html

That is what you are doing with a computer. So for 2 channel audio anything with a digital out should be the same as a soundstorm. However the Soundstorm rises above because it is one of the few that will pass Dolby Digital and DTS.
 
Not only pass, but it can also encode surround sound from games into Dolby Digital in real time. However, digital cables aren't really meant for long runs. I highly doubt that coax or even optical will be able to deal with the distance required. This is why I rrecommended a networked audio player. Ethernet is designed for lengths of the type that you'd use in a household. S/PDIF is not. Perhaps you can go out and buy some super long optical cable, but I've a distinct feeling that it'd be more than cost of the ethernet run and the network player combnined. Even the Squeezebox will be cheaper than a really long optical S/PDIF interconnect.
 
I'd also question consumer level devices with long optical runs but I'd think digital coax should be fine, any quality cable shouldn't have much voltage drop.

And thanks for the update on SS, I forgot it was the only DD encoder for PCs too.
 
there are "boosters" availible for long optical runs. However I have no clue how useful they are for home use pricewise or from any other perspective.


edit: by booster I mean all it does is takes the input and outputs it to the next optical cable, that way your distance issues are lessened.
 
Thx all for clearing up my misunderstandings :)

and sry about hijacking the thread
 
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