Home Computer Audio Asylum

Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

Bottom line... Don't give up yet.

ABliss:
I would highly recommend you not give up on computer audio yet.

As the other posters said, Grooveshark (like most Internet streaming) sends a lossy compressed audio to your computer. In the case of Grooveshark it's between 128-192kbps. Realize that a CD data rate is 1,411.2kbps in comparison. That's about a 10x reduction in data rate between the CD and Grooveshark. Thanks to psychoacoustics, the reduction in data rate at least still makes the music listenable.

Why don't you just take a few minutes to rip even the 1st track "Bye Bye Blackbird" off that Nightclub CD and have a listen thru the netbook --> DACMagic? I bet you it would sound pretty damn good compared to Grooveshark!

As for your followup comment:
"I am a old school audiophile, all things digital is suppose to be crappy, remember that? so if I have a cd thats been already recorded, processed, engineered, packaged to reproduce the best playback possible, why would I think that I can rip it back to its very basic digital state, reengineer it, and repackage it to return it to the best sounding analog I can.

So, I am only interested in the simple plug and play stuff, not interested in ripping or filing anything. I know a $1000 dac would be better, but I don't need another endless upgrade path."

You sound like you're quite biased from the above comment and have already made up your mind (which of course begs the question of why you bother posting here at all!?). I wonder if you might have some very basic misconceptions about what digital is about. Also, if you're not interested in "ripping or filing anything", then you're relegating yourself to streaming audio which for the time being just isn't hi-fi.

I don't like the ripping and filing either but I prefer it over the meticulous care for vinyl. It's been 6 years since I transitioned my CD's (then DVD-A, now SACD's) over to the computer server and have never looked back.
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Archimago's Musings: A 'more objective' audiophile blog.


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