[summersdance]

As the title suggests i am looking to buy a touchscreen, all-in-one desktop pc and really i want to know what i need to set it up - i am a bit of a novice when it comes to this sort of thing. I want separate speakers, and i'm assuming i would need a separate amp? I don't care too much for digital radio, but would want to upload all my cd's and internet downloads. I want it to work a bit like a digital pub jukebox with lots of different playlists (with a queing system also), and maybe wireless speakers so i can listen in different rooms. Does anybody know if this is at all possible? Will the sound quality be very good? If anyone can help i would be very grateful.

[spyder viewer]

As you have mentioned a desktop pc, I'll move you there.

Welcome to AVForums!

[Bryn1]

Hi,

This is the jukebox software that I use AlbumPlayer - Jukebox for Music Collector and Audiophile very slick and simple to use and works especially well with touchscreens, you can download a fully functional demo to try it out and in my humble opinion is definately worth the 29.50 euro for the registration (updates are free for life) takes a little bit of playing with to set up initially but once you have it up and running it's very easy to use, I use it for for house parties and all my guests love it as it behaves just like a pub jukebox.

The best bit is it runs easily on a very low spec machine (I run mine on an old barebone Pentium4 based pc) using a usb DAC outputting to my amp and speakers.

Definately worth a look
Cheers
Bryn.

[EndlessWaves]

What sort of volume are you talking about?

The integrated sound will probably be reasonable and it's worth trying first but if you're after 'very good' then a digital output to an amplifier is probably what you'll end up with. HDMI, S/PDIF or USB are all potentially options depending on the machine.

[MarkE19]

Welcome to the forum summersdance

Will this only be used for playing music, or will it be used as a PC as well?
If just for music replay then have you seen the Squeezebox Touch? This will do all you want and more and is very good value at around £175.
Just connect to your home network and run the server software on your PC, or simply plug a USB HDD into the Touch with all your music on and it works without any PC required. Connect a set of powered speakers to it or to your HiFi and that is all you need for great sounding music. There is even a free iOS & Android app to control it from your phone/tablet.

This wont be any good if you want to surf the web or write a letter, for that you would need to get a PC. But it is very good at doing what it is designed for - playing your music.

Mark.

[maddogb]

hehe its all possible mate, just depends on your patience and budget

[summersdance]

Originally Posted by MarkE19

Welcome to the forum summersdance

Will this only be used for playing music, or will it be used as a PC as well?
If just for music replay then have you seen the Squeezebox Touch? This will do all you want and more and is very good value at around £175.
Just connect to your home network and run the server software on your PC, or simply plug a USB HDD into the Touch with all your music on and it works without any PC required. Connect a set of powered speakers to it or to your HiFi and that is all you need for great sounding music. There is even a free iOS & Android app to control it from your phone/tablet.

This wont be any good if you want to surf the web or write a letter, for that you would need to get a PC. But it is very good at doing what it is designed for - playing your music.

Mark.

It will just be used as a jukebox mate, would really like sound quality to be as near to CD quality as possible.

[summersdance]

I actually WANT a touchscreen pc though, so that all my mates when they come around can choose there fave track, i have heard of squeezetouch, but it's not really what i want.

[summersdance]

Originally Posted by Bryn1

Hi,

This is the jukebox software that I use AlbumPlayer - Jukebox for Music Collector and Audiophile very slick and simple to use and works especially well with touchscreens, you can download a fully functional demo to try it out and in my humble opinion is definately worth the 29.50 euro for the registration (updates are free for life) takes a little bit of playing with to set up initially but once you have it up and running it's very easy to use, I use it for for house parties and all my guests love it as it behaves just like a pub jukebox.

The best bit is it runs easily on a very low spec machine (I run mine on an old barebone Pentium4 based pc) using a usb DAC outputting to my amp and speakers.

Definately worth a look
Cheers
Bryn.

Thanks Bryn, downloaded the sample version of this a while back and certainly looks good, and will probably buy the full version when i get all the necessary equipment.

[MarkE19]

Originally Posted by summersdance

It will just be used as a jukebox mate, would really like sound quality to be as near to CD quality as possible.

IMO the Squeezebox will give excellent sound quality - depending on the quality of your CD rips it can sound as good as a quality CD player.

Originally Posted by summersdance

I actually WANT a touchscreen pc though, so that all my mates when they come around can choose there fave track,

The SB Touch does have a touch screen, so this can be done from the unit itself or even an iOS/Android tablet/phone.
but as you say.....

Originally Posted by summersdance

i have heard of squeezetouch, but it's not really what i want.

so fair enough.

Mark.

[summersdance]

Thanks Mark. I guess what i really want to know is, what connection to use to connect to an amplifier for the best possible sound quality? Haven't actually bought the 'all-in-one' pc yet, any recommendations? With all my music i think 1TB of memory is a must! I also want a jukebox programme that has a fade-in/out option, also one that allows me to put lots of playlists on it.

[MarkE19]

What inputs does your amp have?

If it is a HiFi amp then the chances are that your only option is to use an analogue stereo phono input.
But if you have an AV system then you could use optical or digital coax, or the analogue stereo phono input. The best of these will depend on the quality of the amps DACs compared to those in the jukebox system you are connecting to it. In this case the only way to know which is best is to try each and compare them to see which you prefer.

I don't know anything about all-in-one PC's as I always build my own. I like the upgrade options a self build gives rather than the very restricted upgrades available for the AIO PC's.

Mark.

[summersdance]

Just been experimenting with my laptop and EAC, before my touchscreen desktop arrives (should be tomorrow). I've bought a DAC and connected my laptop to it, and the DAC to my amplifier. I've tried to convert my CD's into flac files, but for some reason they come out as wave files (sounds great, but need them to be compressed for more hd space). Any ideas? Also does anybody know of some decent touchscreen jukebox software?

[MarkE19]

Originally Posted by summersdance

I've tried to convert my CD's into flac files, but for some reason they come out as wave files (sounds great, but need them to be compressed for more hd space). Any ideas?

I'm sure that EAC does not come with a FLAC compressor, so have you installed it?
If not then have a read of this: EAC and FLAC - Hydrogenaudio Knowledgebase

Mark.

[Bryn1]

As MarkE19 says,
Make sure you have installed flac, you can get it from here After you have installed flac start EAC and press F11, this will open the compression options window,
select the external compression tab,
check the box marked "use external program for compression"
select User Defined Encoder for the parameter passing scheme,
browse to the path where you installed flac and select the flac.exe file
I also check the box marked "delete WAV after compression" just to keep things tidy

click ok and you should be good to go

Bryn.

[summersdance]

Thanks guys - it worked a treat! Got so many more questions!! Is there a website where you can buy CD quality downloads? Also what can i do with downloads i have already purchased (mainly through mp3 million)? Anybody got any decent jukebox software recommendations?

[Bryn1]

Originally Posted by summersdance

Anybody got any decent jukebox software recommendations?

See my earlier post (#3) I can't recommend this software enough I spent a fair bit of time trawling the net looking for a decent jukebox software that was best for touchscreen use and that one just ticked all the boxes for what I needed it to do.

Cheers
Bryn.

[summersdance]

Thanks Bryn, have actually got the demo mode set up on my laptop to play about with before my touchscreen gets here (looks like it will be next week now :-().

[summersdance]

My touchscreen pc came today, which is great. However it's a 64 bit pc and i can't open EAC, i keep getting getting an 'unhandled exception' error. Any ideas guys?

[MarkE19]

I'm running a 64bit version of Windows and EAC works fine for me.
I suggest you do a full uninstall of EAC, reboot and then try to reinstall - it might be worth getting all Windows updates before trying to install anything though.

Mark.

[MarkE19]

A bit of Googling has shown that this is not an uncommon error
There are some tips on getting around it here: Exact Audio copy and Windows 7 64 bit issues - Stone Pony London
The most common success looks to be by installing into C:/EAC and don't put lame.exe into the install directory

What version are you trying to use? I'm running v1.0 beta 3 and as I say it seems to be working fine (famous last words ) with a standard install and LAME in the directory

Mark.

[summersdance]

Thanks Mark, i clicked the link but unfortunately it went right over my head lol. I've managed to download an earlier version of EAC and have now stumbled across another problem. Although i've checked the 'use AccurateRip with this drive' box - it won't 'detect read sample offset correction'. I'm worried this won't give me an accurate rip of my cd's. Anybody know if this would affect the quality?

[MarkE19]

Originally Posted by summersdance

Although i've checked the 'use AccurateRip with this drive' box - it won't 'detect read sample offset correction'. I'm worried this won't give me an accurate rip of my cd's. Anybody know if this would affect the quality?

From what I remember when I did my first few rips with EAC it would try to check the rip against a known copy of the CD to check the accuracy of the drive being used, and then adjust the drive settings based on the results. I think it took a few different CD's before it found a 'known CD' to check against - but it then said it could use this disc and did I want it to. So just try a few different CD's and as soon as EAC finds a disc it knows it will tell you and ask if you want to use this disc to make the drive adjustments for the most accurate rips.

Or you can manually set the offset from this list of drive: Digital Audio Extraction
More info on EAC offsets here: Offset Questions » Exact Audio Copy

Mark.