Question on using CPU to audio whole house

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scan

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I'm in the process of building my place. I wanted to know of anything that I should do, to run my CPU for audio. What I mean is this. I want to store MP3 on the cpu, and then run in-wall speakers thou-out the house. Just need to know if it could be done, will it sound as well as a home stero. Any idea on certain program that would que up the mp3's. Thanks for the help, and hope this made sense.


Mike
 
Sure you can.

get some good speakers. Klipsch pro medias come to mind + subwoofer. (klipsch package runs about 200.00 on ebay). A decent Soundblaster card should be fine as your sound source. Look for the newer ones with Surround Sound capability (5.1). Stay away from the platinum 5.1. The "Live" Drive is a piece of garbage.

Winamp is perfect for queing MP3's + it is free. Remember that your sound system will only sound as good as the MP3's that you are playing.

If you are not going to use powered speakers, you will need a powered amp.

Hope this helps.
 
Nattn, you mentiond that "sound system will only sound as good as the MP3's", but if ey are good as cd or copied from cd, they will sound good right? Or is cd just better? You also mention about powered speakers, what do you mean? I'm building this from the ground up, I want this to work with little effort and not cost as much money. It seems you might have done this already or have a good idea on how, I would really appreciate it if you can help me out on this one. Once their in the walls I cant fixit. Thanks so much for the help.




mike

Email if you would rather, XxfossilxX@aol.com
 
mike,

Mp3's vary in their quality dependant on what resolution they are burned in. You typically can burn a song from a resolution of 16kps to about 320 kbs, with I think 128 being CD quality. The higher the resolution the better the sound. This also means that the higher the resolution the larger the file size.
MP3's inherantly do not have the same audio fidelity that CD's do, due to the fact that they are a 2nd generation of the consumer CD. Generally though, consumers will not notice the difference.

Seeing as you are going to install your speakers into the walls, I would seriously look at a quality home theatre type scenario (satellite speakers, power amp, subwoofer, receiver). This way you can wire up all of your entertainment features into the same system. What you can do then is run a line from one of your receivers aux channels to your computer's sound card, & play your MP3's over your speakers. This is what I do.

By all means, be budget concious, but do not substitute a "great deal" for quality. This means that you should be wiring with quality cables (monster cables are the best in my book) & you should purchase the best speakers that your budget will allow.

Do some research on the net, & speak with you local audio pro. They can get you started in the right direction.

Best of luck
 
Regarding the quality of MP3's... another important thing is which encoding algorithm you use. Fraunhofer rocks. Blade sucks. :)
 
I wouldnt go crazy spending money on monster cables; by some wire and make your own calbes if necessary you'll save lots of money or just by good speaker cable. You dont have to worry about shielding unless your amps are in your speakers ala powered speakers.
 
Hey Scan, here is another option for you.

The site below sells low-power FM broadcasting boxes, either ready made or kit. I'm planning on buying one myself. You hook one up to your primary home stereo system (which you hook your PC into) and you can broadcast on a FM band of your choosing. The broadcast radius is typically about the size of your house. So you can go to any room or backyard area and just tune in a radio to pick up your MP3s, or CDs, or digital cable, or whatever you feed into it. Works great in conjuction with a dedicated MP3 server - set up a jukebox program and away you go!

http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/
 
Go to Home Depot for the wire. You can get some good stuff 12awg for 36 cents a foot.

And aviod creative products and buy turtle beach the sound quality is four times as good and Ive seen montego 2 cards for 20.00 that blow away Sblives.

Get a good amp at a pawn shop. (2 channel amps are cheap at those places) then get a room switcher for arround 50.00.

Inwalls are great but putting in plates with box speakers is cheaper and you can take them with you. plus you can take advantage of deals at pawn brokers.

get a large hard drive, all those mp3s take up room.

download real player to manage your Mp3s
 
where will said mp3 server be?

If it will be in the living room, get an ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon video card. amazing video quality on your TV. add a DVD-ROM and you have a Ghetto DVD player as well.
 
Dont stop there get the LCD progector and the dolby digital stuff.Ive done a theatre room and it kicks ass.
 
How muvh money are you willing to spend?

That will let you/us know which direction you can go (in terms of setting up the proper system for you).
 
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