Creating Digital Media

Michael8it
Michael8it Posts: 192
edited August 2011 in Electronics
I am putting together the specs to build my own Digital Media center, and would like some input on the best way to copy music to a PC.

Here is what I currently have:

W7x32 PC with an M-Audio Delta 66 soundcard.
As much hard drive space as is needed.
Cakewalk Sonar 7.0
Carver CT-7 Preamp
Carver DLT200 MkII Cd Player
No Turntable (yet)

I am primarily into Classical Music, and I have a friend who has an extensive collection of classical music on vinyl.

I can easilty record the vinyl in wav and loose nothing, but would like to condense it somewhat. But my goal here is to keep the fidelity....

is the CD drive in the PC good enough to rip Cd's or should I look at a CD with digital out taht I could run directly into my M-Audio card?

I have read some favorable reviews on the Asus Xonar Essence soundcard, but dont know how much better it would perform than the M-Audio Delta card.

Whatever method I use to connect the PC to the Hifi I would like to keep under $200.

Thanks!
Carver C-1, M-500 MKII, Yamaha HTR-5835, Polk RTA 12BM's (M-for mod'd).
Post edited by Michael8it on
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Comments

  • EndersShadow
    EndersShadow Posts: 17,598
    edited August 2011
    Michael8it wrote: »
    is the CD drive in the PC good enough to rip Cd's

    Yes, its good enough to rip CD's. The format most choose for CD's though is FLAC as its a lossless format.

    Check out a program like MediaMonkey or dbPoweramp. Also check out these threads:

    http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117400


    http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/544790/ripping-cd-s-to-flac-what-program-to-use/15#post_7375844


    Regarding ripping Vinyl I will leave that to others. I am totally out of my league with that.

    Now what you will want to connect your computer to your setup is a Asynchronus USB to RCA Digital Audio Converter. That way you can keep your Carver CT-7 in the mix and not worry about anything there.

    Some reading here:

    http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119288
    "....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963)
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  • heiney9
    heiney9 Posts: 25,248
    edited August 2011
    Michael8it wrote: »
    I can easilty record the vinyl in wav and loose nothing, but would like to condense it somewhat. But my goal here is to keep the fidelity....

    What hardware and software are you using that you "loose nothing"? Also what do you mean by condense it?
    Michael8it wrote: »
    is the CD drive in the PC good enough to rip Cd's or should I look at a CD with digital out taht I could run directly into my M-Audio card?

    Is your end goal to rip the vinyl and then record cdr's to listen to? Or are you going to rip the vinyl and listen through the computer?
    "Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Puritan Audio PSM136 Pwr Condtioner & Classic PC's | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node3 - Tubes add soul!
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  • Joe08867
    Joe08867 Posts: 3,919
    edited August 2011
    heiney9 wrote: »
    Is your end goal to rip the vinyl and then record cdr's to listen to? Or are you going to rip the vinyl and listen through the computer?

    Key Question.
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  • Michael8it
    Michael8it Posts: 192
    edited August 2011
    Rip the vinyl and listen through a computer.
    Carver C-1, M-500 MKII, Yamaha HTR-5835, Polk RTA 12BM's (M-for mod'd).
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  • Gatecrasher
    Gatecrasher Posts: 1,550
    edited August 2011
    heiney9 wrote: »
    Is your end goal to rip the vinyl and then record cdr's to listen to? Or are you going to rip the vinyl and listen through the computer?

    Why would it matter? Once you rip audio to a lossless format you can do either with ease. You can listen to it via a PC or burn it to disc. An HTPC gives you everything you need as an awesome component for your home audio/video system and at any time you can burn a lossless cd to play in your car or share with friends etc.

    I have digital audio in all of the current popular lossless formats, both uncompressed and compressed.

    WAV is an uncompressed lossless audio format that is widely used. Sounds great and can be used to burn flawless CDs.

    The compressed lossless audio formats are more popular though because they offer everything WAV does but also dramatically reduces the total file size. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is the most popular lossless audio format nowadays.

    I obtain music in other compressed audio formats such as WavPack & Ape but usually convert them to FLAC. Compressed audio formats can reduce the size of a CD in half or less.

    I also have an extensive video library in full Mpeg2 DVD VOB and Blu-Ray format too. You can do the same thing with it. Either watch it on your HTPC or burn discs any time you choose. One thing that is nice about hosting DVD files on an HTPC hard drive is that you can play PAL or video from other regions with ease that normally are unviewable with an American (NTSC) DVD player.

    The sky's the limit on how much audio and/or video you can store and is only limited by the size and number of hard drives. I use a hot-swapable RAID tower which provides the potential for unlimited media storage.

    I convert vinyl to digital using an older music CD recorder. My particular deck has 44.1 kHz sampling (which is the standard CD audio rate) but you can also get recorders that have 96kHz sampling rates if you want to go all-out. I honestly can't tell the difference but some hard-core audiophiles claim they can.

    Music CD recorders can be had for cheap since they have kind of been phased-out and are really only good for ripping vinyl to digital. You can rip music from an audio CD much faster from a PC.

    You can have the music CDR deck connected to your home audio system and do some "remastering" if you want enhancing bass and other features if you choose via an equalizer. There are also various software out now that can be used to remove the sound of "scratches" and other flaws from vinyl rips.
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