Computer Audio

Post by **Nick** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:14 pm

I won't be leaving the Mac as a desktop computing environment but would like to set up a Linux music server arrangement sometime in the new year. That is Nick if you wouldn't mind helping out as I am not Linux savvy.

Happy to help, just shout. As it happens, I am just setting up a little Fitjusu desktop for Ian for just that use. The PC was about £190 from ebuyer, and Ian added a couple of 500GB drivers, and I am setting them upa s a RAID1 mirrored array, so a failure hopefully wont loose any music. JUst finishing sorting the wake on lan, then it can just sit out of the way.

iansr · Post by **iansr** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 9:20 pm

Steve
Is this ripper meant to be better than itunes ripper (with error correction checked) do you know?

Ian

Cressy Snr · Post by **Cressy Snr** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 9:51 pm

iansr wrote:Steve
Is this ripper meant to be better than itunes ripper (with error correction checked) do you know?

Ian

Yes the rippers that use cdparanoia such as MAX and XLD are supposed to be better than the iTunes ripper with error correction enabled. Some folk on the Slim Devices forums would have you believe that iTunes is the spawn of the devil in terms of CD rip quality, but as usual the truth lies somewhere in between.

The iTunes ripper certainly does not do secure rips but then Apple have had to tread a fine line between speed of ripping and ultimate accuracy. iTunes ripping regularly gets up to 20 times real time on my G5. With XLD secure ripping it averages only 5 times real time because it makes multiple passes when reading the data if secure ripping is enabled.

The main bone of contention seems to be the quality of the streaming you get from iTunes/FrontRow when a computer is used as the source rather than the Squeezebox. Over on Positive Feedback.com this month, Jeff Day gets embroiled in a comparison of different USB cables to his DAC, claiming that some cables improve the sound quality from his iMac when streaming iTunes sourced music.

I recckon he could have saved a few bob and got better sound quality if he had bought a Transporter used over Ethernet rather than the iMac used over the USB connection.

Steve

SimonC · Post by **SimonC** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 12:43 pm

Nick wrote:
I won't be leaving the Mac as a desktop computing environment but would like to set up a Linux music server arrangement sometime in the new year. That is Nick if you wouldn't mind helping out as I am not Linux savvy.
Happy to help, just shout. As it happens, I am just setting up a little Fitjusu desktop for Ian for just that use. The PC was about ?190 from ebuyer, and Ian added a couple of 500GB drivers, and I am setting them upa s a RAID1 mirrored array, so a failure hopefully wont loose any music. JUst finishing sorting the wake on lan, then it can just sit out of the way.

Nick,

Would you be willing to do this as a group 'teach-in'?

I'm doing exactly the same after Christmas and it might save you having to repeat yourself too many times.
(Except I also need mine to act as a mailserver, print server etc eventually....

)

Simon C

Post by **Nick** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 2:26 pm

OK, don't mind trying. I used centos as the OS, its not as good as ubuntu as a desktop, but is great for a server. Make a list of what you want. When you say mail server, do you intend to have mail delivered to your server? If so, you need a domain, and a fixed ip address to point the dns server to.

No reason why not BTW, thats just what I do, you just need the domain naim. If it helps I can run the DNS for you.

I use sendmail for the MTA and cyrus as the mailstore, though you could use other MTA's (postfix for example). Print server isn;t something I have done myself, but should be a simple enough job for samba. And if you are setting up a mailserver its worth installing spamassasin to filter your mail, and possibly a virus filter if you need.

SimonC · Post by **SimonC** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 6:19 pm

Nick wrote:OK, don't mind trying. I used centos as the OS, its not as good as ubuntu as a desktop, but is great for a server. Make a list of what you want. When you say mail server, do you intend to have mail delivered to your server? If so, you need a domain, and a fixed ip address to point the dns server to.

No reason why not BTW, thats just what I do, you just need the domain naim. If it helps I can run the DNS for you.

I use sendmail for the MTA and cyrus as the mailstore, though you could use other MTA's (postfix for example). Print server isn;t something I have done myself, but should be a simple enough job for samba. And if you are setting up a mailserver its worth installing spamassasin to filter your mail, and possibly a virus filter if you need.

I've moved this onto a new thread at http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1149 so as not to hijack this thread with Linux talk.
Simon C

The Stratmangler · Post by **The Stratmangler** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 4:58 pm

Picked up on a very good internet radio station reading Hi-Fi world which can be found here www.radioparadise.com .

For those using Squeezebox the 192kbs stream is http://www.radioparadise.com/musiclinks/rp_192.m3u .

Chris

ed · Post by ed » Fri Mar 13, 2009 6:00 pm

thanks for that Chris...I've been listening for half an hour and it seems like a quality stream.......the separation and the image are superb and it sounds on a par with folk alley....shame they played dire straits though, just as I was getting into it as well.......

The Stratmangler · Post by **The Stratmangler** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 9:15 pm

Glad you like it Ed.

I've got my Squeezecenter set to scrobble back to my LastFM account, and the tracks played on RadioParadise appear there to, so my LastFM channel is starting to get quite interesting. Today I've particularly enjoyed AngÃ©lique Kidjo (w Peter Gabriel).

Chris

The Stratmangler · Post by **The Stratmangler** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:25 pm

Just heard the funniest cover ever - SeÃ±or Coconut - Humo En El Agua (Smoke On The Water) - courtesy of www.radoparadise.com - and it works in a perverse kind of way - Deep Purple given the Big Latin Band treatment - absolutely fantastic !

Chris

ed · Post by ed » Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:13 am

Hi chris

had to abandon paradiso...it worked for a couple of days, fantastic quality.....then the rot set in......it keeps breaking up, I presume because my 1meg broadband gets compromised in the evenings....When I get time I'll see if they've got a slower stream.

how I wish I had a BT line.......

The Stratmangler · Post by **The Stratmangler** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:50 am

ed wrote:Hi chris

had to abandon paradiso...it worked for a couple of days, fantastic quality.....then the rot set in......it keeps breaking up, I presume because my 1meg broadband gets compromised in the evenings....When I get time I'll see if they've got a slower stream.

how I wish I had a BT line.......

Have you tried the lower bitrate stream ?

Just done a URL sniff and came up with this http://www.radioparadise.com/musiclinks/rp_128.m3u

Chris

The Stratmangler · Post by **The Stratmangler** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:15 pm

Been playing around again with Squeezecenter, and ended up installing Alien

BBC (for MPlayer) and the AAC+ plugin http://bpaplugins.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/repo.xml from the Slim forum.

This has enabled me to access the AAC+ 128kbs stream at www.radioparadise.com , and this sounds even better than the 192kbs mp3 stream (which sounds, as Ed will agree, pretty damned good).

The AAC+ stream is found here http://www.radioparadise.com/musiclinks/rp_128aac-1.m3u .

Chris

Dave the bass · Post by **Dave the bass** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:12 am

I put the needle in the groove.

That sounds pretty good too

DTB

The Stratmangler · Post by **The Stratmangler** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 2:15 pm

Dave the bass wrote:I put the needle in the groove.

That sounds pretty good too

DTB

You old luddite you - you'll be decrying the Spinning Jenny being installed in't mill next.

Seriously though, I've heard some amazing music on Radio Paradise that would probably not be broadcast anywhere else. That alone makes it worth all the computer footlings and what not it takes to hear the stuff. And the sound quality is excellent, far better than the offerings from Auntie Beeb (at least as far as t'interweb broadcasting goes).

Chris

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Computer Audio

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