Hi-Fi Music Server

Hello Steven

I'll give you what may be a slightly different take from some others -- though on the larger question, I am along with everyone else here overwhelmingly in favor of one's switching to a server-type system as opposed to a disc player.

1. Yes, you have many different options. In addition to all of the devices mentioned above, most or all of which will stream files from a hard drive to your receiver, either with a wired or wireless connection, you can also simply get any old computer and connect that to your receiver via a USB DAC, or, if you have a special soundcard, via S/PDIF. One reason I'd encourage you to consider this approach -- and it can be done with an old piece of junk or a $200 used, refurbed machine -- is that it allows you to choose which type of software will organize and display your library and provide you with access to it. IMO this is one of the most important factors, as not all software is the same. I had a Squeezebox and sold it, because I did not like how the software organized and displayed the library. Note that this is more of an issue if you have a classical collection. If your collection is pop, rock, jazz, blues, etc., there's really not much of a difference. If you have a classical collection, take a close look at MediaMonkey 4. There is a free download. With just a little bit of work it is a phenomenal library manager, heads and tails above all others I've seen with classical.

2. It's the ripping that's important -- once you've ripped the files, it's just drag and drop onto the hard drive. I strongly recommend you look into dBpoweramp for ripping your files. It will confirm that your rips are accurate and it will rip the files with much more, or more accurate, "metadata," information about the tracks (artist, song title, etc.) which is what you will be reading as you browse through your files on the server.

3. Nothing special. The devices I've seen will convert to analog and then you can connect it to your receiver using ordinary red & white pin plugs. Or you may be able to use an S/PDIF connection.

Good luck, and you will enjoy the work -- you will get reacquainted with your records.

 

Again, thanks for the replies.

SBurke - my collection covers all genres including Classical; in fact it's been a while since I last bought a Classical CD, and I've been meaning to expand the collection.

I have several SACDs and a couple of DVD-A discs, so I presume that they can be handled by the server too (although my current computer can't read SACDs at the moment).

Cheers,

Steven

 

Your DVD-A discs will not be an issue. However, as I understand it, SACD (DSD stream) can not be ripped and played back via a music server/DAC.

 

I forgot to mention that I also use the Olive 2, which is essentially a wireless streamer to Olive server devices. I use the Olive 2 to access all of the music from the Olive 4HD for my Home Theater, and to the patio through the receiver's "B" speakers. The whole setup works great using iPhone/Touch app wirelessly from wherever I am. I have a wired network connection to the Olive 2 so there is only 1 wireless stream between the Olive 4HD and the router. They did an excellent job with the mobile app. This configuration makes the Olive 2 streamer very nimble and responsive.

 

This is still my favorite method at this point and very simple to implement. If you already own a laptop, the only thing needed is the DAC of your choice and a USB cable and Viola! a music server. There are lots of choices for music playing software in the Windows based domain, and iTunes is OK if you are an Apple guy. I also recently tried and returned a Squeezebox touch, and all the other Media players seem way overly expensive for what they do. Someday someone will create a box that does exactly what I want, but until then the computer>to DAC>to Amp thing works great.

 

I am also interested in going with a computer to DAC (or receiver used as a DAC). I'm curious as to how the DAC handles different file types.

For instance, if you send files from iTunes via optical or S/PDIF output on the computer, does iTunes convert the signal from FLAC or MP3 to audio (WAV?) file so that it can be read by the DAC just as a CD would be?

How about if you had a hard drive or flash drive plugged in via USB to a DAC? What format do these need to be? Can FLAC be read?

 

CES 2012 is in January

Wait and see what happens there.

 

The base model is $2,000. They have to be joking. If you're just going to use an outboard DAC, a PC with a decent sound card that has the digital outputs you need would be more customizable, upgradeable, and much cheaper.

 

I use a Squeezebox Duet Music Server with my iPhone as the remote and stream lossless FLAC to my stereo wirelessly and it's great. I have about 2TB of music I can access. I use it during the day to have background music while I work and then at night for serious listening out comes the vinyl. Hardly ever do I pull out a physical digital disc CD/SACD/DVD-A disc to listen anymore.

 

It really depends on the choice of DAC, but if you’re going out via SPDIF to a receiver, then typically the media player on the computer is decoding the files to PCM data, which the receiver should be able to handle. Additionally, the bit rate and resolution are set by the soundcard capabilities, with the better soundcards using ASIO drivers to bypass Windows drivers on PC's.

 

What if I use a Blu-Ray player with wifi to pull files off of my home computer? Then the player should be capable of converting a 24-bit file in full 24-bit resolution, correct?

 

It is totally dependent on which player you are using. Some have good streaming support and some are poor. None are great and most really suffer with a large library.

 

Hi Steven,

If you're on a budget similar to the Brennan JB7 which you mention in your post, I'd simply point you towards the Onkyo TX8050. It's a network stereo receiver, has a USB connection on the front which takes the datafeed but uses its own DAC to process the signal. Works with iPod, FLAC (and many other) filestypes.

Also offers internet radio, has a good phono stage, 100wpc, high current design. It'll take four digital inputs (two coaxial and two optical) on top of the USB and it offers DLNA compatibility too. It'll handle, via the USB, an external HDD and is yours for about £300 in the UK just now (through either Richer Sounds or Superfi). I bought mine last week via mail order and it's utterly brilliant.

Yep, I know it seems like hype, but I'd been reading up on this bit of kit for months before I pulled the trigger. I use it with Tannoy Revolution DC4s and it's superb. I've no idea how Onkyo did it, but they have. God knows why the magazines haven't snagged a review example or why Onkyo aren't pushing it, but if you scour the web, you won't find anything but praise for this receiver.

Link to Onkyo's site below:-

http://www.uk.onkyo.com/en/products/tx-8050-43158.html

 

No computer can read SACD's, unfortunately. DVD-A copy protection also can pose a problem for loading hi-res content from DVD-A's onto your computer. There are ways to get around this--some people use Playstation 3's to somehow transfer SACD's, while other people use certain universal players hooked up to HDMI-to-S/PDIF adapters.

Probably the easiest (though not really the optimal) way to get SACD and DVD-A content onto your hard drive is to play the discs in a universal player and take the analog output from the player and input it into your computer and convert it to digital (preferably at 24/96 or 24/192) and store on your hard drive. This introduces a D/A and A/D conversion into the recording chain, not optimal, but the results can sound excellent.

 

DVD-A’s can easily be ripped, bit perfect, on a PC with DVD Audio Extractor (not freeware).

However, ripping SACD’s can not be done on a computer. Ripping SACD’s requires early production PS3’s with older firmware and very specific knowledge/software that is available on the web.

 

Right, there is software that can do this for DVD-A's, no question. I was primarily speaking to transferring SACD's, and if the OP chose to go that D/A-to-A/D route, he could do that for copy protected DVD-A's as well.

Yep, but there is another easy to do this that I alluded to above, using certain universal players and a HDMI-to-S/PDIF converter.

 

Wow, another great thread that I absorbed about 10% of.
Reading this thread and magazine reviews leaves me confused as most of it is over my head.
I am not interested in a system based on the home computer, nor a whole house system and I don't want a smart phone.

I have never done music streaming nor computer music downloads so that is all a mystery. I don't want to learn 100 acronyms, eg ALAC, DSD, DLN, AIFF, FLAC, WAV, DRM, gigs, TBs, lossless ad infinitum. I don't want to go to grad school on digital music. Remember when you could just buy a music player, plug it in and listen.

When I first read about the Soolos Server I assumed that was the future, all in one servers w/ screeen. A music server that plays without a separate computer, ie the computer is built into the server.
It was interesting, but priced way out of reach. Now it is the Meridian Digital Media System: $7000–$10,500 depending on options. Still out of sight for me.
Other recommended servers I read about in Stereophile, TAS and online include:

Astell & Kern AK500N Music Server;

Nait Super Uniti $6000,

Naim UnitiQute2;

T+A Music Player Balanced: $4500,

Marantz NA-11S1 media server $3500, Hapz1es $2000,

Bryston BDP1 usb digital player.

NAD Masters Series M50 Digital Music Player & M52 Digital Music Vault $2500 with no internal storage.

Aurelic Aries $1600 plus a dac $300-400? a router, an iPad $500 plus "network storage", whatever that means. It requires a high speed internet connection which I don't have.

Wyred 4 Sound, I don't see so many reviews. MS-1 music server ($1999), DAC-2 DSDse ($2499)

It would be nice to digitize cds and more importantly my vinyl collections and eventually be able to downloading music and play web music, ie web radio. I have thousands of LPs and thousands of CDs which I will keep to play on other set ups, since I have five hifi systems and 3 vehicles and a portable. The LPs I would eventually like to sell once I had the music copied.

 

Find a Logitech Squeezebox Touch.

 

Hmmm, I am a little hesitant to go for a discontinued product.
CNet said:
Reviewed: June 18, 2012
Updated: September 14, 2012
The Good The Logitech Squeezebox Touch is a fully featured music-streaming device with wide file compatibility -- better than Sonos -- and support for most popular music-streaming services. The Touch seamlessly blends multiple home and online sources, making building playlists a snap. The free tablet and smartphone apps are powerful and easy to use. Sound quality is surprisingly good from the analog outs, and will scale well with outboard digital converters.

The Bad The device can sometimes freeze up or suffer lag, especially with a wireless connection. It's more complicated to use than the plug-and-play Sonos. The app is a little ugly compared with those made by Spotify and Sonos. The touch screen is less useful in conjuction with a tablet. Most users will need to leave a PC on all the time, or own a NAS.

The Bottom Line The Logitech Squeezebox is an excellent digital-music device that offers good sound quality and a great variety of source options, but it's not for casual users.

 

Squeezeboxes can be quirky...I have 6 of them going back 10 years or so.

With that said, I haven't found anything even remotely close as far as features, sound quality, flexibility, and price go.

As for Squeezebox being "discontinued", there are still tweaks, new software/hardware, and apps being developed for them...even years after Logitech threw in the towel.

Check out the Squeezebox forums for more detailed information.

http://forums.slimdevices.com/

 

Agreed. I have two Touches, a Radio and a Duet. Somewhere on this forum I described the Squeezebox as product that punches above it's weight, in terms of sound and features. The price to be paid for that is a certain amount of fiddling I have to do.

 

It does seem that there would be a market for a music server type system in the $500-$1000 range. I am satisfied using a $500 dollar lap top, but a dedicated music box would definitely get my attention. I tried the Squeezebox several years ago but couldn't get it to work properly for me.

 

It depends on how much you want to spend, there are many options.

1. Unless you just want to download files, you will need to rip your cd's. There are many products that are easy to use and inexpensive for this.
Don't worry too much about formats, just remember the term 'Lossless'
2. You will need a place to store the files. This can be a NAS or PC with a good amount of disk storage.
3. You will need some server software such as Logitech Media Server or a UPnP compatible device that can find and stream your music.
4. You need to decide if you want wireless or a wired connection.

The least amount of work would be something like Sonos. It can get a bit pricey but if you want to hide the complexity, you have to pay.
You said that you're not interested in a computer based system, but you still have to rip your CD's and store them somewhere.

If you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty, this is what I have:

A 2 bay QNAP Turbo NAS with 2 2TB drives in a Raid 1. Basically this just writes the same data to both drives. If a drive goes down, just replace it and the information will be copied to the new drive from the good one.
You still need to do regular backups.
The NAS runs a linux version of Logitech Media Server (LMS). It's easy to install and is pretty bullet proof.

A good router. I have a Linksys EA3500 dual band. Easy setup and good Wifi strength.

A squeezebox compatible device. I have a Duet and a Raspberry PI running a squeezebox emulator called Squeezelite.
Setting up a Raspberry PI is a bit involved but there are plenty of tutorials to get this done. Plus it's cheap.
For $150 I got the PI, power supply, DAC (Schiit Modi) and an SD card plus 4 hours of my time for setup.
Both devices are hardwired.

The squeezebox devices can get a little wonky at time, but a restart generally clears things up.
LMS is pretty bullet proof requiring very little setup.

All of this is based on my personal experience so I can't speak to other solutions.
Do check out Audiostream.com, there is a lot of good info there.

Good Luck!

Dennis

 

Oppo 105 and and external USB drive seems like a simple solution at less cost than many of the dedicated servers.

Another option would be the BlueSound Vault. Load your CDs and it automatically rips them to its drive. Basically a Hi-Res Sonos competitor. It it supported Beats, I would be all over it.

 

Also check out the Antipodes music servers. Good gear, and note to complicated to use.

http://www.antipodesaudio.com/antipodes_music_servers.html

The DS may be about perfect for you.