geriboy wrote:Good day and Happy Easter to all of you! I posted this inquiry at headphiles, and would like to repost this question here at wiredstate as well.
Currently, I have a simple audio setup at my apartment: a pair of locally-made bookshelf speakers, connected to a tube pre-amp and power amplifier. I also use an external DAC as well. I use my laptop as my audio source. Most of my music files are FLAC based, and I have a couple of CDs stored as image files. I don't have a standalone CD player and my laptop has a broken CD drive. I copy my CDs as image files (.iso files, for example) and access them via an emulator program (i.e. Daemon tools Lite) and play them using foobar.
how does this [using CD image files and accessing them via an emulator program] compare with the following:
(1) playing CDs on standalone CD players?
CD player ---> digital output ---> DAC ---> pre-amp/amp/speakers
PC ---> USB->SPDIF interface or digital output --> DAC --> pre-amp/amp/speakers
(2) playing CDs through the laptop's (or computer's) optical drive?
(3) playing FLAC files vs. CD image files?
thanks!
Having a digital front end myself, I rip from CD using Apple Lossless, and just store the CD for archival purposes. Whatever ripper you use, always use error correction, if available, and try to limit the CPU usage by just concentrating on the ripping process, so wala munang CPU intensive programs na bukas.
Why the need to use image files, when ripping just takes about 2-5 minutes, and you can add metadata and album art pa (by default if you rip via iTunes and may active web connections ka, as iTunes automatically references your CD with an online CD database, complete with album art)? Get a decent outboard DVD burner connect via firewire or USB and you're ready to rip and store the CD.
My setup:
Macbook via iTunes streaming wirelessly through either my Apple TV or Airport Express, then to a DAC then to my amp connected to my speakers.
You need to have a decent source (your media files) IMHO to start, before you think of upgrading any of the components in your playback chain. Try ripping via any of the lossless formats (Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, FLAC lossless) and see which one you prefer.