Do Audiophiles want a stand alone high end HDD source?

[Luke]

Actually the Touch can run the Slimserver for you should you want it to. No PC required.

Wow thats fantastic, looks like this stuff is starting to mature.

 

[erin]

I don't see much point in a HDD source. Mechanical, noisy, bulky, power hungry.

A solid state drive, that's a different matter. I can get all my MP3s on a single (micro) SD card. Which is precisely what I've got in my car stereo. I expect developments to keep pace with and outstrip my capacity to buy CDs. If I could get everything on a single card, uncompressed, that'd be something, but it's probably not far down the road. Just so long as I can afford it.

w

I agree that SSD would be the quietest solution, but at the moment, the size of the drives would not hold a persons full uncompressed music collection. But, even if the player was using a HDD, the SSD could be used in the future when storage space increases and prices decrease. So the HDD solution is good for the moment.

As far as noisy bulky and power hungy, I will disagree, as mechanical isolation (rubber spacers or feet) reduces the noise to an acceptable level
Bulky- you could use 3.5" laptop drives.
Power hungry - they seem to use between 5-10 Watts of power.
according to this article here:
HDD Diet: Power Consumption and Heat Dissipation
To me that is quite acceptable. Seems to be about the same as a CD player.
And much less power than using a PC!!

 

[paul_peraic]

Hey Erin

What about the Popcorn Hour C200 it can have what ever hard drive size you want which can be removed in seconds it has a screen so you can select tracks and plays flac and wav files and outputs either through toslink or spdif and supposedly has i2s .

 

[erin]

Sounds good Paul,
Do you happen to know where I can tap the i2s lines?

 

[planet10]

you could use 3.5" laptop drives.

You mean 2.5" laptop drives. This is what is in the MacMini. Max 1/2 TB ATM.

dave

 

[erin]

ahh... yes... thats what i meant

 

[paul_peraic]

Sounds good Paul,
Do you happen to know where I can tap the i2s lines?

You remember I had trouble getting the schematic for this LOL

If any one has access to the schematic I gather it could easily be found ?

 

[paul_peraic]

My Western Digital green 3.5 hard drive cannot be heard at all in my C200 .

 

[erin]

You remember I had trouble getting the schematic for this LOL

If any one has access to the schematic I gather it could easily be found ?

I know that you dont know I was just teasing

 

[paul_peraic]

I gathered LOL

 

[freddi]

I like my new/old Audio Note dac with coax input better than DACs had so far for USB - are there reliable/affordable USB - to coax -S/PDIF converters? I'll look at media players to see which output coax

 

[erin]

Im very happy with my Teralink X (version 1)

USB to Spdif Toslink and I2S Converter for DAC - eBay, Processors, Home Audio, Electronics. (end time 28-May-10 02:14:09 AEST)

The same manufacturer makes a 24/96 version but I have not heard that one.

 

[sandyK]

I like my new/old Audio Note dac with coax input better than DACs had so far for USB - are there reliable/affordable USB - to coax -S/PDIF converters? I'll look at media players to see which output coax

Freddi
Check out the HiFace m2 tech. It is reported to get rid of most jitter.
There are many rave reports about it's performance in the various forums,
and jkeny from DIYAudio even has a mod using lithium batteries that many claim improves it even further.
SandyK

M2Tech

 

[TjiptoHendrawan]

How about this one ?

HIFIDIY APE hard disk player ( free shipping ) [APE] - $599.00 : hifidiy.net

Is it good enought ?

 

[erin]

How about this one ?

HIFIDIY APE hard disk player ( free shipping ) [APE] - $599.00 : hifidiy.net

Is it good enought ?

Gee, that website loads so slowly.

I have actually seen that one before. I think it looks very good, and very promising.

The main problem I have is that there have been no reviews that I have seen.

do you know of any English reviews?

Please tell more.....

 

[Bas Horneman]

Wow thats fantastic, looks like this stuff is starting to mature.

But there are some issues:

Computer Audio Asylum - Internal server details - John Swenson - April 30, 2010 at 16:59:54

 

[Studio Au]

NAS w iTunes streaming - Airport Express - DAC - iPhone as remote control.

Bit perfect, silent and small

 

[staggerlee]

Mac Mini

Dave,
Do you have your mini set up headless? Do you control it from another mac on the network?

 

[planet10]

Do you have your mini set up headless? Do you control it from another mac on the network?

I only wish i has a mini. I am running a 1st generation 20" G5 iMac (it was free, i bought a disk & RAM upgrade for it). Working on getting it, Pure Vinyl, and my Edirol FA66 all working together.

If i had a mini, it would be running into the 42" Toshiba TV.

dave

 

[Peter Daniel]

However, the computer is bulky.

It does not need to be bulky. This is what I've built recently, using latest Gigabyte Mobo and i3 CPU as suggested by cics. No case needed, 100VA transformer connects externally.