{"id":173,"date":"2026-09-04T21:56:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/offlabelhardware.com\/?p=173"},"modified":"2026-09-04T22:06:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:06:51","slug":"building-a-hi-fi-that-never-existed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/offlabelhardware.com\/?p=173","title":{"rendered":"Building a Hi-Fi That Never Existed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Part 2 \u2014 Building the System<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

In Part 1, the idea was relatively simple: build a small computer around a Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Pro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But once the first enclosure started taking shape, another idea emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What if this wasn’t one computer?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What if the X-Fi machine became one component of a complete audio system?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That question led to a rather unusual direction: a stack of small, dedicated computers, each built around a particular piece of hardware and each occupying its own place in a system inspired by the modular hi-fi equipment of the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It looks less like a collection of PCs and more like a hi-fi system that might have existed around the turn of the millennium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except it never did.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From PC to Hi-Fi System<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The inspiration for the design isn’t really the traditional PC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the component hi-fi system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 1990s, manufacturers such as Sony, Denon, Pioneer and Technics produced systems made from individual components that shared the same width, proportions and visual language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A CD player could sit on top of an amplifier. A tuner could be added below it. A cassette deck could become another component.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each box had a specific job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea here is to follow the same philosophy, except the components contain computers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Four Components<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The current concept consists of four components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the top is the Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Pro external unit<\/strong>. Its distinctive front panel is the visual centerpiece of the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immediately below it is the computer built around the X-Fi PCI card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The computer uses the same compact GIGABYTE GA-J1800N-D2PH Mini-ITX platform described in Part 1. The X-Fi card is installed horizontally using a 90-degree PCI riser, allowing the entire computer to remain shallow enough to match the external Platinum unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below that comes another computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, the same basic hardware platform houses an E-MU 0404 PCI<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea is deliberately symmetrical: two small computers based on essentially the same hardware, but with completely different personalities because of the audio interfaces they contain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The X-Fi machine represents the consumer PC audio world of its era\u2014surround sound, gaming, Dolby Digital and DTS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The E-MU machine represents another side of PC audio: recording, professional audio and high-quality stereo reproduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, at the bottom of the stack is another small computer whose main purpose is to house a CD drive<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is perhaps the most excessive component of the whole system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that is precisely why I like it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Computer Just for a CD Drive<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is obviously no technical requirement for a CD drive to have its own computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A single modern PC could handle the CD drive, both sound cards and everything else in the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that would miss the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CD machine is intended to behave like the CD transport in an old component system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It gets its own enclosure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It gets its own place in the stack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It gets its own purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is a computer system designed according to the logic of a hi-fi system rather than the logic of a modern PC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Same Platform, Different Jobs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the things I particularly like about this approach is that the underlying computers don’t need to be exotic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GA-J1800N-D2PH is a low-power Mini-ITX platform. It doesn’t need to be powerful because none of these machines is intended to be a general-purpose computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are appliances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The motherboard, SSD and power system can remain largely identical between the machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The expansion hardware determines what each computer becomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That reverses the usual way of designing a PC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normally, the computer is the main product and the expansion card is an accessory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, the expansion card is the reason for building the computer in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The computer is built around the hardware.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Designing the Stack<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The enclosures are being built from aluminum, using a combination of bent sheet and aluminum profiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The width is shared between the components so that they can stack together as a coherent system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black acrylic is used for the front panels, creating a common visual element between the aluminum chassis and the original X-Fi Platinum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal isn’t to make four identical boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is to make four components that look as though they belong to the same product family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The X-Fi unit naturally has the most elaborate front panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two audio computers can be much simpler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CD component can have little more than the optical drive and a power control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the front, however, all four should read as parts of the same system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Speakers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The system also needs loudspeakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For that role, I’m considering Creative GigaWorks T20 speakers installed into custom MDF cabinets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original T20 electronics and drivers provide the functional core, while the new cabinets allow the speakers to become part of the visual system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wood or wood veneer introduces a material that would have been completely at home in a 1990s hi-fi system, while black fronts and aluminum trim can visually connect the speakers to the central stack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A removable grille would complete the look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intention isn’t to make the T20s look modern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is to make them look as though they belong to the same fictional product line as the electronics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Product That Never Existed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is where the project has become particularly interesting to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine that, sometime around the late 1990s or early 2000s, a company had decided to build a modular computer audio system according to the principles of Japanese hi-fi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of putting everything into one tower, it could have offered separate components:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital Surround Processor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audio Computer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professional Audio Computer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CD Transport<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

with matching loudspeakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technology would not have been particularly futuristic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The packaging would have been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That product never existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So now I’m building it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Build It?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is no practical reason to use several small computers where one modern machine could perform all of these functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But practical efficiency isn’t really the objective here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The objective is to give interesting old hardware a new context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The X-Fi isn’t merely an old PCI sound card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The E-MU 0404 isn’t merely an old professional audio interface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CD drive isn’t merely an obsolete storage device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They become components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when those components are given matching enclosures, placed into a stack and surrounded by matching speakers, something unexpected happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collection starts to look like a product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A product from an alternate history of personal audio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is the kind of project I want Off-Label Hardware to document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not simply keeping old technology alive, but asking:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What else could it have been?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2190 Part 1 \u2014 Building Around the X-Fi<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What began as a small computer built around a Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Pro is growing into something much stranger: a complete modular audio system inspired by the hi-fi component stacks of the 1990s. With dedicated computers for the X-Fi, E-MU 0404 and CD drive, plus custom speakers, old PC hardware takes on an entirely new identity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"project","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/offlabelhardware.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/offlabelhardware.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/offlabelhardware.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offlabelhardware.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offlabelhardware.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/offlabelhardware.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"https:\/\/offlabelhardware.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/offlabelhardware.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offlabelhardware.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offlabelhardware.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}