HRT Music Streamer II thoughts

For several months, I've read and posted trying to make an informed decision to digitize my cd collection. As I sit in my den, surrounded by over a thousand cds and dozens of box sets, it's frustrating to see the music that I DON'T listen to. In my old age, I've gotten too lazy to walk over to the shelf, open a box set, then put it in the player. I'd always resisted digitizing my music until my kids each got Ipod Touches. A few years ago, they got my one as well. I immediately loaded it with ~8,500 songs(that filled it), and I use it everyday. At work, in the yard, etc. I know the quality is reduced from my cd listening, but for earbuds and portable speakers, it's great.

Now that I've used this for a few years, I realize that if I could easily access my music and play it on my home stereo, I'd listen much more frequently. I had a few days off last winter, so I downloaded a trial version of dBpoweramp and ripped a handful of cds to FLAC format.

I saw the JRiver software, and thought that would be nice if I had all of my cds accessible through something like that. My issue is, I'm using a Yamaha RX-V995 receiver as a pre-amp along with an Adcom GFA-555 amp. I looked at several options to get my music from a computer to the stereo. I flirted with buying a used Oppo BDP-103 and streaming through it since I had FLAC files. I was unable to find one in the price range I wanted to pay, so I briefly considered trying an Audioquest Dragonfly Red. It was during this search that I found several articles on the HRT Music Streamer II DAC. I was able to find one on here, so I bit the bullet.

Just received it yesterday, and hooked it up to see if I could get it to play with no issues. Everything immediately worked with no issues, so I'm pretty excited. In the coming weeks, I'm going to buy(download) dBpoweramp, as well as the JRiver software.

I only played a few songs with the DAC, but it seemed very close to the cd. To verify this, I played the cd and the flac file at the same time, and switched back and forth. The only cd I compared was NEGOTIATIONS AND LOVE SONGS by Paul Simon. I feel that there was a slight difference in the bass response. My Adcom GCD-575 seemed to have slightly more "umph". Over several songs, this seemed to be consistent.

Here are some more details/questions, feel free to comment if you think there could be an issue:

1-I'm using a 16-ft usb cable from the laptop to the DAC, then a 1.5' rca cable from the DAC to the Yamaha.

2-The files are currently on a Dell laptop. My plan is to put these on a portable drive, and play from there
through the computer. What is a good drive? I'd like to use a drive without an ac power supply.

3-Are there any setting in my computer that I need to change for the best audio, or will I do all of this in the
JRiver software?

I'm sure I'll have more questions as I begin this journey. Thanks for the input.

 

how does it sound?
j river has a sox resampler that made everything sound better then ever.i have no need for any vinyl.and there are other options that help with sound also.one thing is get a powered hub for the streamer it will def sound better then using the computers power.All my tunes are ripped from my cds lossless and you can stream jriver to anywhere you want.

 

I am sure a lot of folks hear will share their experiences with you and offer some suggestions. In the past i have used iPods to service my music. Sound was ok for my purposes at that time. Three years ago i bought a FiiO DAP that was on sale and decided to take a chance. Primarily the process is to rip titles from my cd collection onto a micro SD card...using a software program that converts the content to whichever file format you select. In my case i convert to FLAC.
Micro SD cards are quite affordable...you can get a 64gb card for less than $20?..which will hold a lot of content. My FiiO device is portable...(some models resemble the iPod classic with the scroll wheel)...and throughout the house i have installed decent sounding self powered speakers...so it’s a simple “plug and play”.
I currently have 4 different FiiO models..(can’t resist a sale)...ranging in price of $100 to $400...and so far no problems or issues.
BTW you can use cards that exceed 64gb...on one device that has two card slots i have two 128gb cards...for a total of 256gb!...lots of music!
The devices include A/C power blocks and you can even buy dedicated docks for charging and headphones.

 

asio is the best output to use also.

 

This is the crucial sentence in your post, it seems to me.

To pursue the ease and convenience of playing files via a DAC by embarking on the marathon task of laboriously re-ripping your CDs to FLAC seems a bit crazy to me.

The true lazy man’s solution is to briefly get off one’s lazy ass, walk over to the shelf, pick a CD, and put it in the player. Think of it as ripping the CD direct-to-audio.

 

As far as JRiver: "Internal volume" is best unless you are using volume control in good hardware, in that case, "Disabled Volume." As @Scott Sheagren said, use ASIO for output and the SOX resampler. Those are the main ones I can think of.

@Stone Turntable is on point that ripping can be a very big job. I'd add, it depends on genre. Pop (in the broad sense) and similar are easier, because the default tagging (at least using dBpoweramp paid version) is fine. But when ripping classical music, effort often is needed to get the tagging correct, so you can find things later.

The ultimate lazy solution, of course, is to subscribe to Tidal or Qobuz.

 

The MSII puts out some bottom end. That’s why I keep mine. At one point I installed some damn audiophile player for the Mac and damn if the thing didn’t sound much better. But I haven’t kept up with pc players. You’ll have to experiment. But, yep, whatever you’re playing it back with can mKe a difference. I also bought an MSII+ not worth the difference.

 

You're not wrong, but not completely correct either. Walking over and getting a cd off the shelf isn't too bad. However, when you have a shelf full of Bear Family box sets, you aren't going to get these out every time that you want to listen.

Here's a good example- I really like Bob Wills. I have both of the Bear Family sets, which have a total of 24 cds. I also have the non-Bear Family Tiffany Transcription set which is 10 cds. Real Gone Music later released an additional 2 cds of Tiffany Transcription cds. That's a total of 36 discs, which is ~1,000 tracks. If I want to play different versions of Faded Love, it would involve opening 3 box sets, and looking at track listing for 34 cds to find all versions of Faded Love.

OR I could spend some time and effort up front, and have the songs available at the click of a mouse. In the past 2 weeks, I've ripped 2 of my 3 Stax-Volt box sets, and I've listened to them more in the past 2 weeks than I have since I bought them.

I'm about 175 cds into my ripping project, and it is time-consuming. However, I can already see that it will be well worth the effort. When I had a collection of 100-200 cds, it wasn't as enticing. However, since my collection has grown exponentially, and the number of box sets had grown, I see this as a way to enjoy my collection again.

 

Here’s someone whose worked out the tough stuff.

 

I love liner notes/booklets too much to take that route.

 

You got it! That's surely one of the good reasons to rip everything. Another is that once ripped, the music is available for transfer to portable devices, including thumb drives for cars. And if you eventually set up a DLNA (or Roon) server, you can use the same library in any room in your house that can be networked.

 

I have about a 1000 cds I ripped to lossless wave and they never sounded better.jriver is simply amazing when your time and effort is put into it.asio output with the Sox resampler checked and check mark play from memory also.

 

i have no need for vinyl anymore with jriver and my tube amp which gives those digital files a analog sound

 

Anyone really interested in the HRT Music Streamer II? Even very curious?

 

The MS II is my converter and I've loved it for years. While I haven't compared it to many others, I thought it was a real improvement over the CD player I used previously. All my listening is through it using JRiver.

 

I'm curious what people are using and like -- though this unit (no matter how good or bad) is now yesterday's news. I'm interested in helping an audiophile get computer audio running right. And I'm interested in finding a good portable DAC/preamp to take with us if we escape the Portland winter next year.

 

I was not criticizing you or others on this thread. It is just that I found one of these in my closet yesterday and I have no use for it.

 

a big improvment over any cd player i ever had.my cds hands down sound analog and better then my vinyl.

 

Had several months to rip several hundred more cds, and just now starting to listen to them. Very disappointed to find that I have an issue with clicking or popping during playback. I've read hours worth of discussions on various forums, and still can't fix the issue.....I think.
I did read that the since the Music Streamer is asynchronous and USB powered, that it can be more apt to power issues causing clicks and pops. I'm using JRiver 25, and have messed with several of the settings such as buffering, and killed almost all of the items running on the pc. I'm using a 16' usb cable from the laptop to the DAC, and I have a concern about voltage drop causing my issues. I borrowed a USB powered hub, and it didn't help. One thing that I did try before I gave up for the night was to remove the 16' usb, and replace it with a very short cable(maybe 8 inches). This seems to help significantly. I hope to test this again in the next day or 2. In effect, I'm simply replacing the 16'usb with 16' of RCA cables, and moving the location of the DAC from near the stereo to across the room at the laptop.

Does this make sense that the long cable is causing the significant pop and click issue?

 

The maximum length for a USB 2.0 cable is speced at 16 feet total. Longer lengths cause lower signal quality and more likelihood of errors that could cause audio glitches. It's better to have long RCA cables than to have 16 foot or near 16 foot USB cable.

 

If you're having glitches with the short USB cable you should check your computer system for DPC latency issues. High DPC latency causes the computer to spend too much time processing a different process instead of getting around to processing the audio before the audio buffer runs out. When the audio buffer runs out you get a glitch.

There is a basic troubleshooting article about DPC latency here: Troubleshooting DPC latency
There is more in depth info here: Resplendence Software - LatencyMon: suitability checker for real-time audio and other tasks

The second link has a utility called LatencyMon that will measure DPC latency and let you know if your system has some high DPC latency. Run the LatencyMon utility and see what it says.

Highish DPC latency causes more problems with older USB DACs than more current USB DACs. The HRT Streamer is an older USB DAC.

 

I use an HRT iStreamer between my iPod Classic and my stereo, when I'm not spinning vinyl. The mp3's of my needle drops sound mighty close to the actual vinyl playback. It's that good.

 

Are you sure the issues aren't in the files? Did you use something like EAC for your rips?

My Jriver settings - occassionally I need to start the program twice, but I have a fairly long cable too, and once it works it's flawless.
WASAPI
Open device for exclusive access
Bitdepth automatic
Buffering 25 ms

 

I'm using dBpoweramp. I don't think the issue is in the files. I haven't tried it in a while, but tonight I'll plug my headphones into the laptop and listen for a few minutes.

 

If the files are okay, and the PC isn't woefully underpowered, then it's the settings - the ones I posted have worked for years for me with the MSII. My mid-level 2013 laptop doesn't have issues. My slightly older netbook can't do it.