Home Computer Audio Asylum

Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

HTPC's RE: Dealing with Hi-Rez downloads

Important topic and some good suggestions already!

I agree on the Touch solution for hi-res up to STEREO 24/96. A strong wireless connection is fine for this application.

If you "want it all" though - audio multichannel, maybe play back 1080P MKV videos, Blu-Ray (3D) playback... then some kind of HTPC in the media room with HDMI output through the video card into a good digital processor/receiver is the most flexible way to go.

CPU speed has reached levels now where very quiet air cooling solutions can be had quite easily and fan-less video cards are good enough for HTPC purposes including HDMI 1.3+ output for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio and HDMI 1.4 for the 3D video folks.

This is in fact my setup at home. That machine is on 24/7 and doubles as my home network file server, web server for some work I do, and SqueezeBox music server.

As for reducing computer electrical interference, I plug my audio stuff into a Belkin PureAV PF60 I got a number of years ago... Seems to work well - no background interference when I turn up the amp with computer active. I'm sure the Monster and APC power conditioners would be great as well.

Old Belkin review:
http://www.laaudiofile.com/belkinpf60.html

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Archimago's Musings: A 'more objective' audiophile blog.


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  • HTPC's RE: Dealing with Hi-Rez downloads - Archimago 12/11/1118:39:20 12/11/11 (0)

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