Computer Music Storage  Many people now store music on their computers.  CDs or LPs can be transferred to files on your computer.  Music can be down loaded from many sites to your computer.  Some of these sites offer even higher resolution than CDs.

Getting Music Into Your Computer
When you download music to your computer, always use the highest data rate available.  Do not use MP3 compressed formats.  Compressed files take less space on your hard drive but just don’t sound very good even with a mid-level system.  Important Music detail is lost.  The music tends to sound flat and lifeless.  Hard disc storage is relatively inexpensive and can easily be expanded with external drives so space is not generally a limiting factor.  If you must, files can be converted to MP-3 or the Apple equivalent for download to your iPod or other portable playback device but it is not necessary.  If you use i-tunes, Apple lossless is a good way to go.

Getting Music out of your computer
Not so easy!  The sound card in your computer is usually not very good.  The way to best sound is to use an outboard Digital to Analog Converter (DAC).  There are many available with several ways of connecting them to your computer.  These DACs start at under $500. You can use the USB connection but there are many issues to getting the best result.  If you use a USB connection the length of the cable is limited and the DAC must either send it’s clock to the computer (a type of asynchronous connection) or the data must be supplied stored and reclocked, otherwise the jitter is very high and the sound will not be musically satisfying.  The other possible connections are standard SPDIF or AES/EBU.  You can also use Firewire.  Weiss Engineering of Switzerland, a mainly professional product company prefers Firewire.  The main thing is to implement the connection protocol that fits your individual situation and budget.  We will work with you carefully to see that your individual requirements are well met.