Newbe Questions

[jp1]

Would appreciate any and all assistance on the below questions. I'm a bit swamped, but definitely want to upgrade.
thanks much
jp

Which format is best to import in? Lossless or WAV? (FLAC vs. Itunes lossless, vs Windows Media lossless or uncompressed WAV?) From what I’ve heard FLAC is best, but it’s a bit temperamental, and not supported by Itunes or WMP

· Is EAC the only Audio grabber / ripper you would recommend? Or is WMP 10 or Itunes sufficient?

· What “song container” should I use? Does Windows media 10 support FLAC? I know Itunes doesn’t. If not, what should I use – or just say screw it and go with ease of use?

· Which external hard drive should I use? (lacie vs wdc or something crazy like this http://www.infrant.com/products_ReadyNAS_X6.htm),

· Once I run out of room, can I just add 250 gig drives like popcorn? Or does it add complexity / high cost?

· Do I stay away from a Network drive to eliminate wireless issues and use firewire / USB drive?

· Do I need to modify at all my dell Pentium 4 win xp box (circa 2005) to get rid of the fan noise or other random things?

· Once the CDs are in the drive, and I have the Squeezebox do I need a “Brick”, “DAC” or other digital converter / transporter to get past the USB interference / bad computer fuzz?

· What speakers / receiver / amp / preamp etc. should I eventually upgrade to? I’m basically running a medium level sony component system that’s anywhere from 5 to 15 years old, with pretty-much-blown-out old TDL speakers

thanks !

[ceejay]

Would appreciate any and all assistance on the below questions. I'm a bit swamped, but definitely want to upgrade.
thanks much
jp

Which format is best to import in? Lossless or WAV? (FLAC vs. Itunes lossless, vs Windows Media lossless or uncompressed WAV?) From what I’ve heard FLAC is best, but it’s a bit temperamental, and not supported by Itunes or WMP

· Is EAC the only Audio grabber / ripper you would recommend? Or is WMP 10 or Itunes sufficient?

· What “song container” should I use? Does Windows media 10 support FLAC? I know Itunes doesn’t. If not, what should I use – or just say screw it and go with ease of use?

· Which external hard drive should I use? (lacie vs wdc or something crazy like this http://www.infrant.com/products_ReadyNAS_X6.htm),

· Once I run out of room, can I just add 250 gig drives like popcorn? Or does it add complexity / high cost?

· Do I stay away from a Network drive to eliminate wireless issues and use firewire / USB drive?

· Do I need to modify at all my dell Pentium 4 win xp box (circa 2005) to get rid of the fan noise or other random things?

· Once the CDs are in the drive, and I have the Squeezebox do I need a “Brick”, “DAC” or other digital converter / transporter to get past the USB interference / bad computer fuzz?

· What speakers / receiver / amp / preamp etc. should I eventually upgrade to? I’m basically running a medium level sony component system that’s anywhere from 5 to 15 years old, with pretty-much-blown-out old TDL speakers

thanks !

Hi there! That's an awful lot of questions in one go! You'll find discussion on many of them in the forums, so a bit of searching will cover many of them. But I can understand why you're feeling swamped, there is a lot of stuff to work out. As well as the forums here, I also recommend hydrogenaudio.org, where you will learn a lot about FLAC and other formats, also about EAC and other rippers.

I'll pick on just a couple of your questions that are perhaps not going to be amenable to a quick search:



Once the CDs are in the drive, and I have the Squeezebox do I need a “Brick”, “DAC” or other digital converter / transporter to get past the USB interference / bad computer fuzz?

If you have a Squeezebox there won't be any USB interference or fuzz. The SB links to your computer using ethernet (either wired or wireless) so you should get "bit perfect" delivery to the SB outputs. Some people do choose to add a separate DAC downstream from the SB, but most find the DAC inside the SB to be perfectly adequate (or even very good).



What speakers / receiver / amp / preamp etc. should I eventually upgrade to? I’m basically running a medium level sony component system that’s anywhere from 5 to 15 years old, with pretty-much-blown-out old TDL speakers

You won't get an answer to that one here! This is an enormously subjective area, dependent on budget, ears and space. Spend as much as you want on stuff that you like! The SB will deliver the music to it perfectly, though, whatever it is.

HTH...

Ceejay

[Jim]

From what I’ve heard FLAC is best, but it’s a bit temperamental, and not supported by Itunes or WMP
Is that of any relevance now you'll be using a SB? iTunes don't support WMP either....and WMP iTunes....

It seems to me a bit like saying my new DVD player is incompatible with my old VHS collection of fave movies....which I have since bought on DVD....

Temperamental? Where did you see that? It's job is to make lossless versions of WAV audio files. It cannot afford to half-work or it would be as popular as a Sony rootkit.

[cliveb]

Like others, I'll just address a few issues...


Is EAC the only Audio grabber / ripper you would recommend? Or is WMP 10 or Itunes sufficient?
If your CDs are in good condition and your CDROM drive is capable of correct DAE (nearly all modern drives are), then pretty much any ripper will deliver a perfect result. EAC's advantage is that if there are any uncorrectable errors on the CD, then it'll make a much better job of getting a decent rip than most others. (I can only speak for Windows here - my understanding is that cdparanoia is equally good for *nix).


Do I need to modify at all my dell Pentium 4 win xp box (circa 2005) to get rid of the fan noise or other random things?
Your PC doesn't need to be in the same room, or anywhere near the listening room. Mine is in the attic, and so the fact it has a not-very-quiet fan isn't an issue. If you only have the one PC, and it's in your listening room, then yes, you'll have to address noise issues. There's not much point in having playback as good as you get from a Squeezebox if you're listening in an environment with high levels of background noise.


What speakers / receiver / amp / preamp etc. should I eventually upgrade to? I’m basically running a medium level sony component system that’s anywhere from 5 to 15 years old, with pretty-much-blown-out old TDL speakers
TDL speakers (pretty much all their models) are excellent designs. You say they are "blown-out": what does that mean? If the drive units are damaged, then it would be worth getting them repaired. To replace them with better speakers would cost a great deal. Mid-level Sony gear probably doesn't do them justice. When considering replacements, bear in mind that TDL speakers do need quite a lot of oomph to drive them.

[Jim]

If your CDs are in good condition and your CDROM drive is capable of correct DAE (nearly all modern drives are), then pretty much any ripper will deliver a perfect result. EAC's advantage is that if there are any uncorrectable errors on the CD, then it'll make a much better job of getting a decent rip than most others. (I can only speak for Windows here - my understanding is that cdparanoia is equally good for *nix).

What about Drive Offsets? How many other rippers account for those so the cues (tracks) are 100% aligned with the sample stream? Regardless if it's a brand new CD you're extracting or not, unless you're lucky enough to have a drive that doesn't need offset correcting (yeah, right!) then it will not be perfect.

IMHO it's either lossless or it's lossy, it's either perfect or it isn't. Surely the one thing worse than having something in lossy format is thinking you have it in lossless when it in fact isn't?

[cliveb]

What about Drive Offsets? How many other rippers account for those so the cues (tracks) are 100% aligned with the sample stream?
Fair point if you're aiming for absolute perfection.

(To keep things in perspective, typical drive offsets are in the tens or hundreds of bytes. Even an offset of 1000 bytes represents an error of only about 5 milliseconds).