Build High-End Audio System w/ Hard Drive Storage?

nganju asks: "Hard Drives have finally reached the size where I can rip down 1000 CDs directly to WAV files, and skip the compression step (read: headache) altogether, ensuring that the audio playback is what the original CD author intended. Now the question is, how do I get that WAV data off the computer and into the amplifier with minimal distortion? Are there D/A PCI cards comparable to high-end CD players? Or is the best solution some direct digital output card (SPDIF) and a standalone D/A converter component? Specific model names would be greatly appreciated."

Comments

Of course

[b00m3rang]

MOTU, M-Audio, Digidesign, and many other companies make audio interfaces capable of 24 bit 96 Khz audio encoding and decoding, which is well above the 16 bit 44.1 Khz that CDs use. Any of them should do.

Re:Of course

[theLOUDroom]

MOTU, M-Audio, Digidesign, and many other companies make audio interfaces capable of 24 bit 96 Khz audio encoding and decoding, which is well above the 16 bit 44.1 Khz that CDs use. Any of them should do.

Exactly.
Want good sound....buy pro gear.

Consumer stuff you get at Best Buy is crap made for people who don't know what they're buying and "audiophile" stuff is snake oil. Pro audio gear from a respectable manufacturer (Mackie for example) will be much better and actually includes enough specs so that you can make informed buying desisions.

The nice thing is that pro gear really isn't that expensive any more. Sites like Musician's Friend give you a place to by gear that will might just last the rest of your life at very low prices.

Pro gear has better interfaces, better connectors, more honest specs, higher reliability and is targeted at people who have actual money riding on their audio system.

Lossless compression does exist.

[fatty bimble]

You really should consider some type of lossless compression. The "headache" is minimal, and although it isn't the 10x compression of its lossy brethern, 2x is nothing to completely ignore. http://flac.sourceforge.net/

Wrong forum to ask this question in.

[Murphy Murph]

You really should be asking this over at Hydrogenaudio:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php
The signal to noise ratio is much better there for this kind of question.

ABX test.

[Murphy Murph]

Do an ABX test (http://www.bostonaudiosociety.org/bas_speaker/abx _testing.htm) comparing a MP3 extracted with EAC and encoded with Lame 3.93 --alt preset standard and a wav file.
Come back to me with the results.
I think you will be suprised.
99% of the population can't tell a difference.

http://www.chrismyden.com/nuke/modules.php?op=modl oad&name=Elite_DAE&file=painless for an easy guide.

MP3s are not only smaller, they work on portables, and they have great metadata.
Regardless of your decision regarding encoding or not - EAC is a must for a quality extraction!