|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
174.70.106.108
In Reply to: RE: Who has used a Computer as Source Longest? posted by Hard Rain on July 12, 2017 at 02:22:34
"Computer as source" is a term open to broad interpretation. I've used PCs in my workplace for more than 30 years and have been a Mac user at home since the mid-80s. I was on board with iTunes when it first came out in 2001, but the breakthrough for me was when I bought a 1st Gen Airport Express in 2004 and was able to play iTunes through my main listening system using a mini-Toslink to RCA splitter. That's how I would define the beginning of computer as source - the point at which the computer was integrated into my listening system as a source component, like a tuner or a tape deck. Not when I began listening to music using headphones or speakers connected directly through the sound card.Soon after that point, I added a couple more AEs for a multi-room system - even my wife was impressed, and that don't come easy. Nowadays I'm running Roon Server on a headless MacMini i7 through a USB DAC, streaming Tidal or my own library from a NAS - and loving it. I still use an Airport Express wirelessly as a Roon endpoint in my detached garage with a pair of AudioEngine powered monitors and it sounds pretty damn good. In the (brief) history of computer audio, the Airport Express has been generally underrated (by everyone except Stereophile's John Atkinson, another early adopter) and deserves wider credit. Without the AE, there never would have been a Squeezebox or microRendu. Admittedly it is limited to 16/44100 quality, but when you're working with power tools in your garage that's good enough, and a whole lot better than .mp3.
. . . in theory, practice and theory are the same; in practice, they are different . . .
Edits: 07/13/17 07/13/17Follow Ups:
It IS a tricky question.
My initial response that I've been at it for 10 years is based on using main stream consumer PC/Mac sources. However, if I were to include the high-end Silicon Graphics Indigo series workstations from 1991 - 2000, I suppose I could include those along with the outstanding SGI Magic desktop interface and AV tools.
I used the 1991/1992 era Indigo Workstation to rip music from CD to disk, capture video clips, and create 3D graphics. We used those systems to demo at trade-shows and to recruit software partners and dealers. This was at a time when PC/Macs were completely incapable of the level of AV & graphics performance seen in these workstations.
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: