Keith G said:

OK, now that Arny seems to have learned that best approach in a UK
newsgroup
is *not* to try and batter retired MDs in their 50's around the head
with a
'figurative baseball bat', I would be the first to say he's probably the
best person here to advise on PC Audio matters (bar none) and will, no
doubt, set you straight.

As the Kroobeast is prone to say, that's an opinion you get to have.

Regardless of which newsgroups a thread might inhabit, Krooger is a
compulsive liar. As soon as somebody offers the slightest disagreement
with anything he has posted, you can forget about the thread offering
further useful information. It will degenerate quickly into one of
Krooger's infamous "never admit error" last stands against logic.
There are a multitude of examples of this scenario littering the
Usenet archive.

So if you, or anybody, thinks Krooger has offered useful information,
my advice is to retain what you believe is useful, and not to correct
his omissions, misstatements, or deceptions. It's not worth it.

And your reply offered what valueable assistance to the OP?

I don't know the personalities here that well, but Arny's response seemed
logical and reasoned - he may not be right by your standards, but his
opinion - which was invited - was valid. I'd've respected a well-reasoned
counter-point, but an OT slagging just makes you look like a cock.

My, non-scientific, experience with PC hifi has been positive. These days I
spend more time listening to music at my desk then in front of my hifi and
so I have set up some rather OTT amplification and speakers (Alchemist
Kraken Pre Amp and 2 x bridged Kraken Power Amps under the desk).

The speakers are, in my opinion, a compromise in that they had to be
magnetically shielded, fit on the desk and blend in with the environment. I
tried LOADS of designs out specifically for this use and settled on a pair
of B&W VM1s. I don't know if I could've done better within the restaints
outlined, although I might change these to a pair of LS3/5as or Linn Katans
or Wharfedale Evo 10s (preferable choices if magnetic shielding and size
tolerances were increased as might be possible when I move my office
around - on the whole I work from home). I would like improved low-frequency
performance.

Most of the music is MP3-based and it is here that I note the biggest loss
(compared with listening to less-compressed CD through the PC's CD ROM
drive). It is certainly worth compressing at higher rates than the typically
accepted 128kb/s. 320 is essential IMO and, given that HD storage costs
about 40p/GB, this is a non-issue. Otherwise I'd say the weak-link is the
speakers, not the front-end.

Contrarily, on my "proper" hifi setup, I use an Audiolab 8000CD as my main
digital front end, which I bought having heard many options up to the £1k
mark. I listened to the common options at the time costing half the amount
(Marantz CD63KI Sig, Arcam Alpha 6 etc) and was very happy to spend the
extra, based solely on my own feelings of sound quality. If the bulbs didn't
keep failing in the LCD, it would be the perfect CD player (for me).