cPlay - Building the best PC-based audio server...

[spectral]

You may find http://cplay.sourceforge.net the best all around write-up of how to put together the best PC-based server, the theory behind sampling and especially jitter and why cPlay is claimed to be the best software to play your files, and these folks are not even shy to replace the Windows Explorer shell with their own... It appears that the attention to detail, especially in minimizing jitter all over the computer, is nothing short of fanatical.

Would be curious to see feedback from the tech savvy like JonFo.

 

[miljac]

Jitter is only one part of the whole ... the power supply, DAC(s), analog part, surrounding circuitry .... PC is a too noisy environment for me to even consider using it as a source in a high end system. Has anyone built a linear power supply for the PC (not that it would make much sense either)?
The whole story about the 'memory playback' on that site is just another fancy name for buffering. I cannot imagine a streaming device that would play back data sequentially read in real time from the storage, this is the characteristics of optical playback devices in general. Everything else must go through the computer's RAM (buffers), e.g. sectors form hard disk or packets from the network. Maybe it's new in Windows :devil: (sorry, could not resist ......)

 

[Brian Walsh]

Jitter is only one part of the whole ... the power supply, DAC(s), analog part, surrounding circuitry .... PC is a too noisy environment for me to even consider using it as a source in a high end system. Has anyone built a linear power supply for the PC (not that it would make much sense either)?
The whole story about the 'memory playback' on that site is just another fancy name for buffering. I cannot imagine a streaming device that would play back data sequentially read in real time from the storage, this is the characteristics of optical playback devices in general. Everything else must go through the computer's RAM (buffers), e.g. sectors form hard disk or packets from the network. Maybe it's new in Windows :devil: (sorry, could not resist ......)

As a matter of fact I'm getting ready to build a server incorporating an unusual power supply which gets away from the mechanical and electrical noise of conventional switching power supplies...and no, it's not battery power, either, which is no panacea. Everything about the unit has been carefully considered.

 

[tonepub]

Everyone claims their's is the best...

I've heard a lot about Amarra too.

 

[tonepub]

And the interface is crap.

If you are going to go through all the bother to rip all of your CD's and the interface is wonky, you'll never use it. That's the problem with all of these other shells.

Then by the time you get done screwing around with making a custom PC, disabling this and custom configuring that, and hoping it works, you'll never want to listen to music ever again.

The hassle factor on this stuff is huge. Most people file their music in their head by album art.

If you want a great system but a Sooloos. If you don't want to spend that much money, get the QSsonix. Both sound decent when run to an external DAC and are super easy to use once you get all of your music ripped.

So much of the other stuff is so hard to get through if you have a large music collection, by the time you dig through all the submenus, you could have just walked over to the rack, grabbed an album or CD and been listening to music for 10 minutes...

 

[JonFo]

You may find http://cplay.sourceforge.net the best all around write-up of how to put together the best PC-based server, the theory behind sampling and especially jitter and why cPlay is claimed to be the best software to play your files, and these folks are not even shy to replace the Windows Explorer shell with their own... It appears that the attention to detail, especially in minimizing jitter all over the computer, is nothing short of fanatical.

Would be curious to see feedback from the tech savvy like JonFo.

Well, I agree with Jeff, the UI is pretty bad.

Also, while I know a PC can be turned into a pretty accurate playback platform (using digital outputs, not analog), but hassle factor is huge.

But if really looking to use a PC as your 'transport', you can consider using some really high-quality RME Hammerfall cards (~$500) as the output.
The Soolos uses this card internally.

The other way to get good quality playback is external firewire devices like those from M-audio. If looking to use analog outs, this is a great way to decouple from the electrically noisy PC environment.

For software, I tend to really like Foobar2000. It has excellent audio performance, fully supports ASIO and has a very high quality re-sampler.

But after a decade of screwing around with PC based playback, I've dumped it in favor of what I now consider the ideal playback platform:

Start with a collection of high-quality digital data ripped from whatever source with high-accuracy. Currently, i use dbPowerAmp rippers.

Use a preamp that has built in DLNA Digital Media Rendering (DMR) such as all the latest Denon's. this gives you a clock-synched chain between digital audio decoding and the entire preamp stream right into the DAC's. Zero jitter.

Use a laptop, touchscreen PC or tablet running a DLNA control point such as Twonky Media manager to selected and push playlists to the DMR, and you have a system about as good as as a Soolos in usability but with higher audio quality due to the clock-synch inside the DMR.

It's still not perfect from a usability standpoint, but it's the one area where there is a lot of effort going on to improve.

 

[Shoe]

What am I missing here! I have set up my Vio Sony lap top as a digital play back system and it sounds great and hassle free. The biggest wow factor for me is being able to download 24/96 Hi-Rez music. My system consist of running a M2-HiFace out of the USB port (AISO) that has very low jitter, and dose 24/96 output to a s/pdif into a PS dac III; fed to a 17LS CJ Preamp to a CJ 2500 amp,feeding the summits. I have done A/B testing, comparing the pc against my Naim CDX/XPS and can not hear any difference between the original CD and the same ripped CD. The lap top is very quite, so as this point I have not experience any down side; while the up side is hassle free access to my music, getting closer to the music via 24/96.

Having a PC music server has only enhance my musical journey. Just wanted to share my perspective on this subject.