Optimal Laptop Features For Surround Music

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skherbeck

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I'm interested in purchasing a laptop computer with optimal features for working with surround sound music files (flac, etc.) and would appreciate any suggestions for what features/brands to look for. The core of my surround sound system is an OPPO 103. I'd like to be able to rip/edit/play flac from all my various disc formats (SACD excluded for obvious reasons) through my OPPO or Reciever (Yamaha) and would love to take advantage of making SpecWeb mixes that I can edit/listen to in real time through my surround system. Any suggestions for minimum and/or optimum requirements would be welcome! (I've already got external DVD drive, external Blu-ray drive, and several external hard drives).

My wife and kids are getting this for me as a Father's Day present, so I'd like to keep the cost between $1000-1500 (since I'm the one actually paying for it!)
 
i asked, because from my own experience found laptop to be impractical for purpose to work with audio. at moment i have three and none i uses for this purpose.
more sense to invest into receiver/speakers or just powered monitors and hook them up to PC than try to adapt/customize laptop for such purpose.

but if you insist on laptop, then you need only powerful enough to handle heavy load and has good HDMI out, which not downsamples audio specs.
 
Laptops are fine for surround playback. I've done all my quad restoration/editing (Nuendo) and surround playback (foobar/jriver/etc.) on my laptop for the last 2 or 3 years without issue. It's a circa 2011 HP Pavilion dv6 model with an i7 processor and 6 gigs of RAM. I would expect that any reasonable spec circa-2016 laptop that has an HDMI output would suit your task - even playback of multi-channel DSD from a SACD ISO output as PCM (which I think is probably the most processor-intensive audio playback thing you can do) only uses about 35-40% of my CPU.
 
Raspberry Pi 3's are also great for surround playback. I recommend the OSMC Linux/Kodi distribution. It's also great for video. I recommend the Flirc case and Samsung Evo+ SD card. The whole system will set you back < $85. I store my music on a Synology NAS, but you could use a USB disk (such as WD My Passport Ultra) if you don't already have storage and want the whole system to be cheap. Coupled with a decent home theater receiver and speakers, the results are fantastic. My son and I set this system up at his apartment and are thrilled with the results.
 
There's no place to put a desktop in our family room, which is where my surround system is set up. Currently I use a desktop in my office, which is at the other end of the house from my surround sound system.

The laptop I was considering is here


Hmmm Snood not mister PC, but notice a couple things The hard Drive is 5400 RPM instead of 7200 RPM - might be a lil slower. Also no optical drive no cd rom/dvd or bluray player (altho you may not need that)

The operating system should be on the SDD and your music files will be on the HDD hard drive
 
So, that looks like it will generally be solid. What you need is a PC that can output surround in high-res PCM over HDMI. I believe that Intel chipsets generally have no problem with that, but some laptops nerf the HDMI port to only carry 2-channel audio. Worth confirming. I believe ATI chips only did 2-channel over HDMI a while ago, no clue if that's still true.

Playing high-res PCM can be a serious memory hog, but 16gb should make that less of a problem.
 
Hmmm Snood not mister PC, but notice a couple things The hard Drive is 5400 RPM instead of 7200 RPM - might be a lil slower. Also no optical drive no cd rom/dvd or bluray player (altho you may not need that)

The operating system should be on the SDD and your music files will be on the HDD hard drive

Does the operating system usually come on the SDD already, or do you have to switch it over (I don't have any computers with SDDs currently). Thanks for the heads up on the RPMs... I'll keep looking!
 
Laptops are fine for surround playback. I've done all my quad restoration/editing (Nuendo) and surround playback (foobar/jriver/etc.) on my laptop for the last 2 or 3 years without issue. It's a circa 2011 HP Pavilion dv6 model with an i7 processor and 6 gigs of RAM. I would expect that any reasonable spec circa-2016 laptop that has an HDMI output would suit your task - even playback of multi-channel DSD from a SACD ISO output as PCM (which I think is probably the most processor-intensive audio playback thing you can do) only uses about 35-40% of my CPU.
this Dell, skherbeck considering, seems pretty enough to play music, but when you do mixing work and has opened in session bunch of tracks at same time,
that's really bad. at least if you don't have external decent size monitor to hook up to.
another issue with laptops, cheap shitty audio typically in them. this one in consideration has nvidia. HDMI most likely with max output 48/16
 
Does the operating system usually come on the SDD already, or do you have to switch it over (I don't have any computers with SDDs currently). Thanks for the heads up on the RPMs... I'll keep looking!

Yeah most if not all boutique or major pc companies do put the operating system on the SSD.........when ordering you can always double check to make sure..........but that is the usual standard. :banana:
 
Does the operating system usually come on the SDD already, or do you have to switch it over (I don't have any computers with SDDs currently). Thanks for the heads up on the RPMs... I'll keep looking!

(This may be true for other SSD manufacturers too). Samsung SSDs come with software to clone your existing Windows drive (c:) to the SSD. Once cloned you then swap the old drive out and replace with the SSD.

You will need a USB to SATA adapter so talk to you local PC store about it or buy one on the Internet.

Your old PC works as before except faster.
 
I'm going to dissent mildly from all the discussion of SSDs. They're nice - they give a faster loading time and startup and applications load faster. But the cost per GB is much higher, and a 5400 RPM HDD has the transfer rate to play 24/192 PCM audio - provided there's enough memory for a buffer and playback. In a laptop with only one hard drive, I'd get a 1TB (or more) physical disc so you don't need to plug in external drives constantly, and deal with the fast that startup takes 30-40 seconds longer.

Western Digital made an excellent hybrid drive called the Black2, which was a combination of a 120GB SSD and a 1TB HDD in one laptop-sized hard drive. I use one of them in my laptop and it runs like a dream - the best $100 I spent on an upgrade that I know of. However, they don't seem to be making that model anymore. Seagate makes a hybrid drive with 32gb of flash...it's not the same as a true SSD, but it will get you most of the way there: https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Gaming-2-5-Inch-Internal-ST1000LX001/

Of course, the ideal is to have a SSD with the programs and OS, and a HDD with all your music. One thing you might want to consider if (and this might be a big if) you're a little technically inclined is to do what I did and to build your own mini PC. It will cost far less and give you something far more versatile and powerful. It will mean using the tv as your monitor - and it will mean you won't need to unplug or move anything around.

The story of how I built my HTPC is here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2155549. It's 5 years old and it runs like a pro - it plays every surround audio format I throw at it over HDMI to my receiver, and with a 40GB SSD and a 2TB HDD it boots fast and stores all my music. And it's the size of a large shoebox.

Just as a checklist, these are the parts you'll need:

MiniITX motherboard - this is the core of the system, and I use one of these in mine. It's a tiny form factor, but it gives you everything you'll need. If you're willing to spend $140 or so on the motherboard you can get one with dual HDMI (not necessary, but a nice option), integrated wireless/bluetooth, 6-8 USB ports, and the latest chipset from Intel. It's fine to use the Intel integrated graphics - the key is that they support HDMI 1.3 or above (I believe all recent Intel integrated graphics system support HDMI 1.4). This means that they can stream lossless high-res audio over HDMI.

CPU - The Core I5-6400 would be a good choice - it gives you serious performance and lower power, meaning it will be easier to keep cool in a small case. Beware (for this part and others) that a lot of review online are focused on gaming performance, which requires much more power than high-res audio.

For a case, this would be a great choice (including a small power supply that should be fine for your purposes) for $50: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147131. After that you'd get whatever memory your motherboard/CPU calls for (probably DDR3/3L/4) - 16 GB ideally - an internal blu-ray drive, and the hard drive/ssd. All said and done it should cost you less than $700, even including a OEM copy of Windows 10. I recognize this is getting a little techie, but it's not really that complicated to do.

For a keyboard/mouse, you'd use this: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/wireless-touch-keyboard-k400r

As yet another option, has anyone tried one of these as a surround music PC? It has a HDMI port that's supposed to be HDMI 1.4a compliant: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102096
 
the author of the topic doesn't have an issue with playback as he has OPPO for this purpose. so far most complex work with audio
he is planning to do is use of SpecWeb to create his own surround from stereo titles. the rest, such as rip audio streams from physical
discs, converting PCM/MLP to flac, i.e. is a peace of cake and any relatively modern computer can handle it.
skherbeck, obviously its your call but to be honest, i don't see in your case necessity in spending additional money for what you plan to do.
your PC in office can perfectly handle it.
 
the author of the topic doesn't have an issue with playback as he has OPPO for this purpose. so far most complex work with audio
he is planning to do is use of SpecWeb to create his own surround from stereo titles. the rest, such as rip audio streams from physical
discs, converting PCM/MLP to flac, i.e. is a peace of cake and any relatively modern computer can handle it.
skherbeck, obviously its your call but to be honest, i don't see in your case necessity in spending additional money for what you plan to do.
your PC in office can perfectly handle it.

That's not quite true...if you want to be able to playback specweb surround mixes in realtime you'll need a PC connected to your system.

That said, if you're okay with creating and playing them back later, it is true that you probably don't need a new PC.

...I still want more people to build HTPCs for audio though :)
 
i do not argue on this. that's can be convenient. it's just that PC as it is,never has been prefered gear for audio listening.
too many shortcomings, which is understandable, given that audio listening environment never been main purpose for PC.
if your audio collection located on PC, you'll acheive better experience if for playback you use audio gear, which can function
as a rendering point, instead of hook up your PC direct to amplification.
 
Just to challenge some with the definition of a PC please take a look at my media PC, the small silver box in my equipment rack here near top:

image1.JPG

About 4" (100mm) square and 1" (25mm) high. Plays all my high resolution audio and video via HDMI to a AVR at bottom. Much smaller than my Oppo (below) or Cable Box (at right). Remote control via iPhone or iPad or my wireless keyboard (iPad below - creating a playlist while music is playing):

KMR1.jpg

Optional video to a 65" 4K TV or 110" 1080p projector (automatic fanart slideshow with cover and disc image):

screenshot007.jpg

I'm planning to start a new thread on how to do this in next day or two as there are low powered boxes around that will do this for around $100 now.
 
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