On 10/28/05 18:25 ET, Shoe said...
The difference between MP3 bitrates is easily
heard by anyone with a mid-fi rig or better. Garbage
in garbage out. The only one I've heard that isn't
to f***ed up is 320 kbps. If listening to crap
is OK, then it is OK but why make believe it sounds
"good". 300 gig hard drives are under $100 so
what's the big deal about going lossless. Almost
any PC with a SPDIF out can be connected to a
surround receiver and an outboard DAC will keep
the computers RF noise away from the analogue
signal needed for your multiroom setup and improve
on most sound card as well.
Thanks Shoe, I don't know why but this post really brightened up my day.
compression/equipment issues asside there are certainly some big differences in PC sound. There are some serious sound cards out there but for a budget setup with good sound I'd say you will need to go the suggested route of optical out to an outboard DA converter.
I wonder if maybe it wouldn't be easier to use a squeezebox? On paper it should sound decent and I'm betting there are some creative web enabled ways to control it.
