Hey guys, I have had my 990 for almost two months now and I absolutely love it. I was wondering if anyone is using the USB port connected to a PC?
My wife wants an IPOD but I want a laptop and wonder if there is an advantage with the USB port and using a laptop for all my music?

What do you guys think?
Thanks.
Dan

The USB port works adequately for playing back stereo music from a PC in a relatively high quality fashion.

Advantage of the laptop? More general-purpose, you can get a larger capacity (should you want more than 60GB), you aren't restricted to particular formats (i.e. use any lossless format you want, ogg, mp3, etc.), you can listen to streaming radio over the internet, etc. The audio quality will also be higher, as you can get a digital output to your preamp relatively cheaply (either USB, or a $25 soundcard). User interfaces vary, but it's probably easier to navigate/catalog/search huge collections on a PC (heck, you need a PC to use the ipod to begin with). You can also use an infrared remote control to run your PC (e.g. http://www.streamzap.com/ - requisite disclaimer: I am involved with that company. There are many choices in that area nowadays, so you have a lot of devices to choose from).

Downsides? It's big, it's bulky, it might be in use for other purposes when you want to listen to music.

Advantage of the ipod? It's portable, so you can use it in places you definitely can't use a laptop - in the car, biking, walking, running, mowing the lawn, etc. It's also sexy, has a very well done user interface, etc.

Downsides? It's expensive, single-purpose, and easy to drop/break/lose if you're prone to such things. Audio quality is also sub-par under critical listening circumstances, but adequate for most situations.


Personally, I do both (and more, really). I have my HTPC connected to the 990 via optical as well as USB. I have other computers that connect to my whole house audio system. And I have an ipod that I use mostly in my car, but occasionally mowing my lawn and stuff like that.

If I wanted to consolidate, but still do most of the same things, the ipod could be pressed into service for most of them, whereas it wouldn't be practical to take a PC with me for anything portable.

Sweet. Thanks!! I spent some time thinking about it last night and the PC seems to fit my needs more than an IPOD and I would prefer having higher quality music anyway. The streamzap really helped to make up my mind also. I should be able to use it to setup my HTM Orion 850 and control the laptop from anywhere in the room.

One more question. What would be better? The USB connection or an Optical cable? I am not that knowledgeable on computers and I am looking at getting a mid level Dell notebook so what kind of sound card would I need to be able to use the optical cable?
Thanks

I have a related question that I hope someone can help me with. I can't directly connect my PC to my 990 (I have a tower PC located in another part of my of my family room that has my HT). Is there a way that I can transmit a signal from my PC to some sort of receiver that would be connect to the 990 via its USB port? In theory this is smilar to the wireless internet for my kids computers but I only want to transmit a music signal that the 990 will understand.

Thanks for the advice.

It doesn't use the USB port but the Apple Airport Express may be a solution to your computer location problem. In theory it requires the use of iTunes but I believe there are some hacks around to make it work with other music players. It has Toslink out as well as an analog minijack so you can use one of your optical in ports. The Airport also avoids the problem of USB audio resampling everything to 48Khz. I've been using one for over a year and it has worked flawlessly, sounds good too.

mike

I have not tried this, but you should be able to get a USB to LAN (CAT5)adaptor for computer side. Connect a long CAT5 cable to it. On the 990 side, get a LAN (CAT5) to USB and connect the CAT5 to it and plug the USB to 990. CAT5 can be used for long runs. I think it can go as long as 1000 ft (someone familiar with this can correct me if I am wrong). If you are going to try this buy CAT5e or CAT 6 cable, they can handle more bandwidth.

I suggest also looking into a squeezebox2 at www.slimdevices.com... Everyone I know that has one raves about it. I use an Airport Express personally, but that is only because I am using only mp3 and AAC. Should I want to burn everything to FLAC (open lossless protocol), then I would pick up the squeezebox2 (ooh, it's on sale, too)

--paul

Thanks for the input everyone. I have a feeling I'm making this more complicated than necessary, but I'm still a little fuzzy on how the signal is transmitted to a receiver (e.g. airport express) that is connected to the 990. I have a linksys wireless g broadband router that provides broadband service to two additional computers in my house. Does the airport express software use the wireless router to transmit the mp3 signal to the airport express?

Logitech also makes a wireless system, however it only has analog connections at the pre/pro and I'd like to use a digital connection. I'll check out the squeezebox2 as well.

Thanks again.

The Airport Express uses a wireless network (802.11b or 802.11g) to connect to a computer (PC or Mac) running iTunes - whatever is playing in iTunes goes to the Airport Express and out through a stereo analog output.

The SlimDevices Squeezebox2 uses some software installed on a PC to provide a database of files, and the SB2 communicates with that software to find out what files are available and to retrieve the files. Unlike the Airport Express, the SB2 offers an interface so you can control what is playing and see what the current song is. The SB2 has optical and digital coaxial outputs as well as stereo analog output (analog's the only way out for the Airport Express).

gonk, Actually the Airport Express output is a dual-purpose analog or Toslink digital jack. You need a Toslink cable with a minijack style plug or an adapter at the AE end but it's definitely digital. From Apple's specs page for the AE:

"* 3.5mm mini-Audio jack for analog or optical digital sound"