this Pioneer I have here can play Flac from a disc so I could make some pretty decent cds myself.

Could you elaborate on that a little more?

A cd player that supports FLAC

You don't see those too often.

>only have experience building media PCs
>did not know flac-compatibility was an issue

Well you're damn lucky if you can find a cd player that'll play anything else that wav/waw

It would only be able to support one disk at most, but you could build a pretty swaggy media pc with this case; include a nice soundcard, run Element OS with it and never have to worry about incompatible formats.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811204039&name=HTPC-Media- Center-Cases

Too bad it looks fucking horrible

I'd like something more conventional.

http://www.antec.com/productPSU.php?id=704873&pid=5

Would look good in a rack you know, is your wood shacklet even in standard size?

that "wooden shacklet" easily has the capability of being an end-all / be-all media streaming server htpc cloud storage device. "Standard size" won't matter if it could literally be the only device that does device that does everything short playing vinyls.

That antec case is drastically limited by its 2x 3.5" internal bays. Plus, I've never really been impressed with antec's build-quality.
So much so, I'd rather have a case made of wood than the flimsy design of an antec chassis.

If you want a more "conventional" htpc case, silverstone makes plenty really good modern-looking chassis perfect for the job that are built to a high degree of quality.
The won't collapse like an accordion the instant you stack a bunch of other components on top.

You can't seriously say that a HTPC would ever replace a cd player, blue ray player maybe, but you'd still need an amplifier if you want to connect something else than active speakers or monitors, the latter being highly unlikely.

That's what a good soundcard and/or external dac is for.
Higher-end dacs/soundcards will have really stable magnetically shielded amps integrated into them specifically for driving both active and non-active speakers or high-impedance headphones.
My brother runs 2 KRK RP-8s and a single KRK 10S off an external dac.

The additional advantage is that building a media PC can allow you achieve superior sound quality versus even "good" CD players. A lot of "good" CD players I see on the web only spit out about 100Db SNR; you can buy dacs or soundcards that can push all the way up to 120Db+SNR.
That doesn't sound like a huge difference, but SNR uses a logarithmic scale; a dac with a 120SNR will have many many times greater sound quality than one with 100SNR.

As much as I adore media PCs, they're far from perfect. They won't be as stable as a dedicated CD player since you have to manage the OS manually.
Another issue is the a media pc can only play as many CDs as how many drives you can install.
You can find CD players capable of housing hundreds of CDs, but you can only build an htpc capable of housing a handful at the most.

do they already have your money?

Nope, if they could be arsed they'd send a bill with the merchandise.

Got a pioneer from work for testing, not as great but I'll call them today and if I end up breaking the deal I'll take the pioneer and get a dj style preamp from a music store.

Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by "dj-style?"

More like "dj grade", it's a bit same of a deal than in headphones, they have more features and are ugly as fuck.

Not "hi-fi"

I'm not sure I understood that sentence. . .

English is not my native language.

DJ käyttöön tarkoitetut etuasteet ovat monikäyttöisempiä mutta hieman kirveellä veisetyn näköisiä.

You english has been perfect all the way up to "it's a bit same of the deal than"

To be honest, I'm having a brainfart so hard that my brain doesn't allow to correct it or I just don't know how to.

Your english is very, very good, even if it's not your native language.
But since it's not you native language, grammatical mistakes are easily forgiven.

I'm having trouble distinguishing the difference between "DJ grade" and "hi-fi."
DJ equipment can't be hi-fi?

Dj stuff is made to endure, to be portable, not to look good, sound dubiously good to ear and to have lots'a features.

Hi-fi is purely for listening, looks great in your shelf, not too many buttons to confuse the user. The combination of great looks, materials and of course, sound, usually makes it expensive.

I dunno, I've seen some decent hi-fi dacs that were pretty ugly (although the essence one is pretty sexy).
Aesthetics and simplicity should always come after performance. Sometimes some companies spend too much budget on performance and have no room for nice looks or user friendliness. Not sure if the same rules apply to preamps as to dacs.
Anyone spending that much money on that kind of equipment should at least take five minutes to research it.
One reason why I've been reading up about opamps lately.

I don't really know if I care about the sexiness of the preamp though, it's gonna be behind the shelf, though the pro-ject one would've prolly been better in compatibility with my pro-ject turntable.

Right, nice equipment should be about function not form.
If you don't like the way it looks, hide it behind the ficus.

I take it pro-ject doesn't daddle with digital equipment?

Not quite sure what you mean.

Pro-ject products are very simple but very high quality in build and sound.

This is the turntable I have
http://project-audio.com/main.php?prod=debutcarbon&cat=turntables&lang=en

This was what I was supposed to order.
http://project-audio.com/main.php?prod=phonobox&cat=boxes&lang=en

Dat simplicity

Ikr? I love it.

If you wanna go from 33 to 45 you have to lift the fucking heavy platter and move the belt manually, usually in consumer grade turntables you can't detach anything.

I thought rpm was adjusted with a switch nowadays. . .
Is manual adjustment more stable?

Yeah, my Archos 5 needs a separate purchasable plugin to play m4a's and <1% of my music collection is m4a, so purchasing the plugin would be pointless.
It's the fact that they have the audacity to pull that crap.

Wut.

By the way, this Pioneer I have here can play Flac from a disc so I could make some pretty decent cds myself.

It wouldn't be hard to integrate a pot into a turntable that could safely and easily adjust rpm. By the sound of it, that's exactly what that speedbox is, but the company is going to sell it as an independent component in order to get more money out of you.

Not saying the equipment is bad, but that kind of nickel-and-diming bugs me. Reminds me of archos.

But the deal is, you don't need the speedbox, and in the more expensive models it's integrated.

I'm pretty sure I don't need it because two of my 17 vinyls are 45 and the rest are 33 so I barely have to move it.

I don't see why they couldn't have integrated a simple pot into the driving circuit of the motor.