I’m starting to build a modest, entry-level audio system with an eye toward leveraging the ease of using digital music. Rather than swapping CDs in and out of the player, a “music server” can play songs stored on your computer through your stereo. There are a few things I’ve learned that I’ll pass on to my blog readers:

Problem: Poor audio quality of MP3s “ripped” from your CDs
Solution: Get Exact Audio Copy, and use the LAME encoder to create a variable bit rate MP3. It will be slightly bigger than the standard, 128 bit MP3, but sound much better. Configuration can be a chore, and there’s plenty of older instructions out there that don’t work with the current versions of the programs. I went through a bit of frustration until I found an excellent WIKI article at HydrogenAudio.org. Use the links there to get the latest version of both programs and configure them. Well worth the effort.

Problem: High cost of audio and video cables at retailers.
Solution: Yikes! I found out that the narrow margins on audio equipment at retailers is more than offset by the high price of their cables. As an example, a 3′ optical audio cable (”toslink”) is $19.99 at Best Buy, but just $5.55 at monoprice.com. I found similar savings for all my cables, and for under $40 had the equivalent of $250 worth of cables delivered. Monoprice shipped the same day, and confirmed the order and shipment via email. Don’t fall for the premium cable hype; you honestly won’t tell the difference between inexpensive cables and the most expensive ones.

More to come as the project proceeds.