Tablet for FLAC files?

Suggestions?

Looking for something small with 2 USBs, one for a DAC and one for external storage. Just going to be used as a music download(er?) / player.

Currently using a laptop but would like a much smaller footprint next to the turntable.

Bob got me going on this dang FLAC file thing.

Tom wrote:Suggestions?

Looking for something small with 2 USBs, one for a DAC and one for external storage. Just going to be used as a music download(er?) / player.

Currently using a laptop but would like a much smaller footprint next to the turntable.

Bob got me going on this dang FLAC file thing.

You'd honestly be better off with a Mac Mini (or something similar) wired into the dac/external HDD.

Use the phone or tablet of your choice to control the music playback. I use rompr and MPC - but there are several alternatives.

Dave

Apple TV or Airport Express is $99. Broadcast from your 32gb or 64gb iphone or any iTunes WiFi device and have a wireless server and remote in your pocket at all times.

Mac mini's are cheap in the used market or, an older Macbook. I use both. One as my music server with USB drive(s) attached/shared and the other as the player in another room/floor. Both allow you to use TOSlink to the DAC, too!

With this I also run VNC server on each and can access either host from my phone (VNC client) or iPad to select music.

Usually I recycle laptops from the kids once the screen or keyboard gets flaky (but still OK when controlled remotely). One challenge I found with older Mac laptops (Windows, too) is that the latest versions of cool stuff - iTunes, Remote, iCloud -- don't work on very old machines. The good thing is that if you have all the music on an external drive, it's easy to move the drive to a newer machine when your hardware can't support the new software that you really need.

TorontoDave wrote:

Tom wrote:Suggestions?

Looking for something small with 2 USBs, one for a DAC and one for external storage. Just going to be used as a music download(er?) / player.

Currently using a laptop but would like a much smaller footprint next to the turntable.

Bob got me going on this dang FLAC file thing.

You'd honestly be better off with a Mac Mini (or something similar) wired into the dac/external HDD.

Use the phone or tablet of your choice to control the music playback. I use rompr and MPC - but there are several alternatives.

Dave

I wasn't aware Dynaco ever made tablets and laptops and phones. What kind of tubes do they use?

A tablet with 1 or 2 standard USB ports to handle an EHDD or flash drive would be nice with something other than iTunes as a music manager would be nice.

My thoughts exactly Mr. Sprags.
Winamp for the player, Android for OS.
Now to find the device.

Thanks All for the suggestions.

And Darth, expect to see vacuum tubes on the DeathStar sometime soon;
tubes, as we all know, have certain advantages over semiconductors.

http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc99/11_6_99/fob2.htm

I was looking for pretty much the same idea. I heavily contemplated the Mac Mini which still may be the way to go in my opinion. I ended up with a 320GB Gateway Netbook for $200: http://us.gateway.com/gw/en/US/content/lt-series/lt-series
I removed all the bloatware and other unnecessary to me programs and use it as a music file only player. I also upgraded the RAM from 1GB to 2GB for $10.

It has some size to the hard drive, handles iTunes and iTunes remote via Wi-Fi, has the USB connectivity, and is near tablet size. I use it with a driver-less Shiit Modi which sounds great playing MP3's and FLAC using foobar2000. For about $350 it has proved to be a pretty convenient player setup for me.

Just a thought.

BJ

Tom wrote:And Darth, expect to see vacuum tubes on the DeathStar sometime soon;
tubes, as we all know, have certain advantages over semiconductors.

http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc99/11_6_99/fob2.htm

Anybody remember the Nuvistor? (Besides Bob)

[quote="DarthBubba"]

Tom wrote:
Anybody remember the Nuvistor? (Besides Bob)

And RCA's bad pun, in the name of the TV sets that used Nuvistors in their tuners? The "New Vista" series?

Not including, of course, the "New Vista Color Solid State" models.

The Nuvistor tube had much lower inter-electrode capacitance than the 7-pin and 9-pin miniature tubes
they replaced, making them better for use in radio-frequency applications.

BJ,

Thanks for the heads up on the netbooks. Very close to what I'm working toward. Would rather have a small tablet to lay flat than a notebook/netbook but the $$ and capability are exactly correct.

Very nice.

Oh and heck yeah on the Modi! Crazy good for $99 bucks!



Tom

I would build a PC with a mini ITX mother board with an external power brick. There are some very small cases and you wouldn't be locked in to a USB Dac. PC Audiophile is a good place for info.

I would build a PC with a mini ITX mother board with an external power brick. There are some very small cases and you wouldn't be locked in to a USB Dac. PC Audiophile is a good place for info.

Hey Tom!

You bet. There are lots of options. A tablet size/portability wise is hard to beat. Like a Netbook it comes with a resident monitor which cuts down on connection clutter. Harpy brings up a good point I have also considered. I will probably build a music only computer from scratch sometime in the future. I have spoken to some savvy computer builders at my local Micro Center and it appears it wouldn't take much to build such a machine. It also allows for flexibility in ending up with exactly what you want with better quality components as compared to off the shelf products.

So many possibilities, so little time/$!

Let us know what you end up with and how you like it.

BJ

[quote="GP49"]

DarthBubba wrote:

Tom wrote:
Anybody remember the Nuvistor? (Besides Bob)

And RCA's bad pun, in the name of the TV sets that used Nuvistors in their tuners? The "New Vista" series?

Not including, of course, the "New Vista Color Solid State" models.

The Nuvistor tube had much lower inter-electrode capacitance than the 7-pin and 9-pin miniature tubes
they replaced, making them better for use in radio-frequency applications.

I preferred them in the front end of a Fisher 500C, or as a moving-coil cartridge head amp. 6CW4, 6DV4.

How about both? I went with a full ATX size HTPC in the audio rack and an android tablet as a remote ... jRiver Media Center has all the bells 'n whistles to make it happen.

I only use the android if I'm in another room. Got a Gyration air mouse and wireless keyboard for when I'm camped out in the great comfy chair ...

* Over 100 posts ... may I have a cracker?

Harpy, that's an idea I hadn't considered. I happen to have a laptop with busted keyboard from one of my daughters in college, bought her a new one of course.

New case, get rid of keyboard, keep touchpad, tiny monitor...

Hmmmmm. Project?!?

Whatever hardware you use if it is a windows based system it is hard to beat "Mediamonkey Gold" with support for all the best formats(FLAC) and able to play Apple and other proprietary formatted files, a huge selection of input and output plugins including iTunes WASAPI etc. Mediamonkey can handle up to 100,000 files and convert most any file type to FLAC or MP3 for your portable devices. has tons of skins and is $40 including a lifetime of upgrades. I am slowly going over to a Linux based system but I used it on my windows based computers for the last ten yers and it was always a trouble free, star performer.
If you really have to go with Apple based systems then you should not overlook the Almarra family of playback software. They have it all from studio quality (and price) to a consumer version of one of the best formats around.

One comment about wireless stuff: IMHO using wireless hardwre to fly files is never as good as a cabled setup. Wireless control of a system library is immaterial to sound quality but playback should be cabled for the best quality signal delivery to your amp.

Here is an example of a build for about $400.00:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/494-computer-audiophile-pocket-server-c-p-s-v3-topangas/

My only goal for computer audio is that it's bit perfect. +1 for Mediamonkey. I was thinking of using JRivers with the Iphone App. Using ATV2 now, but have been planning a build of Windows based PC. Easier to play with and mod out. I just plan to use the on board stuff, it's pretty simple for computer to convert 0's and 1's into light or what ever you are using, but it does give you option exploring some half height sound cards with different digital outs.

Once again, it's not all about ones and zeroes. I went thru onboard sound, several driver sets, a Creative EMU, an Asus Xonar, ... etc. before finally going with an outboard DAC and ADC. There's just too much competition for resources inside most computers. Even then, the only way to clean up some leftover garbage was to get a dedicated USB bus card with it's own tap direct to the power supply. I use that ONLY for the DAC and ADC.

Just saying ...



THIS IS THE (oops ... my bad ... turn it down a bit)

This is the voice of experience!

Prepare to be disappointed or lower the bar. Both cards I tried were alleged premium options. The Xonar was just ... not right, and the EMU was just flaky - Hardest part was uninstalling it. Took some serious pillaging in the registry to put a stake thru it's ugly digital heart. Persistent little cuss too - found out every time I made something go away it was dialing home and downloading more until I disconnected.

Then again, yall might just get lucky. Hey ... it could happen!

Have you considered a Vortexbox?
http://vortexbox.org/content/149-Logitech-SqueezeBox-replacement-for-under-30

Root it, install VAMP, and you can then set it up as a "Squeezebox" player. You'll need the Logitech Media Server (formerly Squeezecenter) software installed on your PC to act as the server / music source. You'll also need to add a USB DAC to get the audio out of the box -- those are available from $30.

I was talking about using and external DAC the sound card was just to provide different digital outputs, not using the sound card's internal DAC. I could never figure out why USB was used to carry the digital signal. A SOtM tX USBexp is $300.00 and a Black Lightning for a dedicated battery power supply for the card is another $500.00. Seems like a lot of dough just to clean up USB, but that seems to the standard for computer audio. That's why I always liked optical, but I guess that has band width limitations.
I did take the plunge last night and ordered a and ordered a Lian LI PC-Q058 Thin Mini ITX case and an Intel Thin mini-ITX Intel BOXDQ77 mainboard and heat pipe. Will probably use a 3rd gen Intel I3.

USB's come a long way since the dark daze ... I actually prefer the sound to what's available from my optical and coaxial feeds. All about how a specific machine processes it I guess. My box has RealTek HD audio, which is supposed to be decent, but the USB just sounds fuller and sweeter, even at lower resolutions. Allegedly, all S/PDIF is created equal, but that's not always the case, and my DAC has the Tenor usb chipset which gets rave reviews. USB also wins for ease of use as it's mostly plug and play nowadays.

Here's the USB expansion card I got to cure the system hiccups ... $25 at NewEgg ...



VANTEC 4-Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCIe Host Card Model UGT-PC341

Nice choice on the case. LianLi is some nice solid stuff. Purty too. You'll be surprised at the weight of the case. Only thing you got to watch for is some of their cases require a proprietary power supply, so it's best to check when ordering.

Didja go with the solid state drive for system software? Mine was less than a buck a gigabyte with zero noise and heat. Big change from my old Seagate Barracuda, which was fast, but loud. The SSD runs rings around it in any category, including speed.



SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Tiny little thing too. I just velcroed it down to the baseplate on my ATX case. Kit includes a 3.5" adapter, so they'll also fit in a standard hard drive slot.

Good info. The Lian LI Q05B will only fits the Intel motherboard and heat sink. The BOXDQ77KB uses a power brick, so there is no power supply in the case. The case does not allow for any add on cards.

I was thinking about getting a 60 gig mSATA SSD drive for the OS and burn the other mini slot with a wireless card. That would give me 2 open 2.5" drive bays. Maybe send the USB to SOtM dx-USB-HD to convert the USB to Coaxial, Optical, or AES/EBU so I don't have to switch DACS. It's an external unit the can use battery or a linear power supply. Found one used.