I'm not sure if this really belongs in this forum (having just read all the DRC stuff) but I thought I'd share my recent experience with a strictly non-audiophile setup that turns out to be pretty good.
The existing system includes a reasonable NAD amp and a pair of Kef speakers that were seriously bank-account-breaking 25 years ago. They are installed in a large room with a lot of hard surfaces. The particular speakers seem to be an extrordinarily good match for the room without any correction. I started looking at SlimDevices and SlimServer with the idea of improving the multi-room audio distribution possibilities in the house. To be frank, I was mostly thinking of internet radio, in particular BBC, as the top requirement. But I also had in the back of my mind the idea of moving over to server-based music playing too. So, I was expecting that, after some experimenting with the basics of the system and proving that it was manageable for all the family (not just the geek), I would be in the market for an SB3 or similar. But before I went there I built a pure (Linux) PC solution. The server is a basement room, connected to the living room by 20-30m of S/UTP Cat 5e (overall-foil-shielded unshielded twisted pair as used for 10/100BaseT networks), which acts as one of the main network links in the house. I stole one pair from this cable for audio, along with the foil. At the PC it is connected to just about the cheapest new audio card I could find: a Creative Audigy SE 7.1 (not so terrible), and at the other to one of the line inputs to the NAD. I guess that you are all shuddering pretty badly by now. But, for its primary purpose of listening to internet radio, often talk radio at that, it should be just fine. And it is. But what about music? Playing CDs ripped with 128k constant bit rate MP3 encoding was sort-of ok but clearly a poor substitute for the original CDs. I had already started using lame's 'medium' variable-bit-rate preset for stuff that I wanted to listen to on my MP3 player so I wondered how good the 'standard' or 'insane' presets would be. I was not really expecting all that much as I considered the sound-card and, especially, the long bit of wet string between it and the amp to be the weak links in the system. I was very surprised. I sat and listened carefully to several tracks with good dynamic and acoustic range, switching back and forth between the two sources (playing simultaneously). I also tried with a good pair of Sennheiser cans. I could detect some very minor differences in the base response and some slightly more noticeable variations right at the top (I thought) but it was very difficult to tell the two sources apart. Of couse, this was not a "blind" test. Last night I tried a short blind test on my wife and she could not tell the difference. Ok, so I'm 46 and my hearing is not what it once was. I guess the next testing needs to be with my 12-year old. And I'm sure that channel separation must be significantly worse after 20m+ of analogue twisted-pair transmission. Even so, the solution is remarkably good. I wonder what the addition of DRC at the server side (see http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25381) would bring. But all is not lost for our sponsors, as the overall system is sufficiently good that I plan to install SBs in a couple of rooms with straightforward powered speakers. -- awy ------------------------------------------------------------------------ awy's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7480 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28803 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
