Modern audio sources - hi fi

Pigeon

Pigeon

Pigeon

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
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Hi long story short is that my CDs have to go away and I need to figure out how to replace them! My hi fi it self is only on loan to me and dates from when CDs were fairly new although it looks, feels great sounds good to me but it might be nice not to have to walk over to adjust the volume or change to and from the radio, cd or very iffy TV input. The big issue is I haven’t had it on much since moving due to where my CDs are stored (I am keeping them) and general convenience. I am thinking it is time to replace pretty much everything :( I am lucky I have never had to before.

My current thought is a digital source with flacs- DAC? - all in one amp - keep existing speakers (for now).

The amp I have in mind is a Quad Vena 2 play as then if I am elsewhere in the house with streaming I could take the music with me as well as use online sources other music that I do not have on CD. The speakers I have date from the 70’s so how well they will connect up and work will have to be seen!

I am confused about sources though, I have seen portable players like the FiiO M11 but some seem to have very limited storage, I have seen a desktop one but not from a familiar brand. Then it seems to be sources from computers which I would not be able to do, could hard drive just be plugged in on the USB? I have it in my head that I need a device to select the music to play through the amp, but it could all be built in to the amps features to pull it from a drive?

Any suggestions or examples of what sources people are using would be most welcome.
 
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I'm assuming that you already have a PC.
As a starting point, cutting all of your CDs using an application like DPpowerAmp is a good start. If you assume that 3 CDs will use up roughly 1GB of space will give you an idea of whether or not you'll need a bigger hard drive.

Once cut, in theory any digital device could store the music, even a phone, though they're not the easiest source to tie to a stereo system.
If you want 24*7 availability, then either an old PC/laptop that you might have kicking around or a small NUC would be a good starting point. There's plenty of free music replay software to at least prove the concept, e.g. Foobar2000.

The Vena supports digital sources, so at the simplest level, you could use a USB cable from say a NUC directly into the Vena and you should be pretty much good to go.
I've not heard a Vena, but use a Quad power amp myself and think it's great. All the same, see if you can get a dem of the Vena against some similarly priced competition to see which you prefer the sound of.
 
Maybe compare against something like the Bluesound Powermode Edge, just add speakers, looks a very interesting product, could just add a USB storage device with your ripped flacs/files for playback :cool:
https://www.com/watch?v=QJA8Ss1SMAQ
You could combine as Mr_Sukebe sugests or other options :)
I use an Volumio software with an Allo DigiOne Signature Player transport -> Dac -> Amp -> speakers
 
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Thank you for the replies.
I think I understand a bit better now. Digital audio is just data and as long as it can send it in the right format and cable into the Digital to Analogue Converter then it doesn’t matter if it is on a hard drive, SD card, cloud etc. CDs are just a different digital format and currently the CD player does the DAC bit and sends it to the amp on a normal audio cable.

I have delved a bit more into the amp and it supports the Digital Living Network Alliance standard so in theory at least I could store the audio on a supported NAS drive then use the play-fi app that is supported by the amp to search for the music and to tell the amp what to play.

I will have a look at alternatives to the Quad, it fell in place as it matches the Quad I have on long term loan. Reading the reviews it suggests the sound is very clear and true to the music. I think that my speakers add some warmth in my current setup. I know I should think about getting a demo but we do not have a dealer really local and it would be hard to take my speakers on tour very far!

Someone in my household has balked a bit at the prices of things as well (NAS and amp for £1000 ish) so I may look at some sort of player and DAC that can hook into what I currently have. I did think my amp was still like the previous one I had but I do have the input for the CD player, I cannot remember off hand if it is has a weird DIN connector. The same person has been eyeing up the cabinet where the hi fi is for storage so there will have to be a compromise somewhere!
 
Hi,
unless you have gazilions of ripped CDs that you can`t hear anywhere else, I wouldn`t bother with a nas, just another device that has to be powered on to listen to your music, I have a nas that could do that but never bothered, just use a large usb stick plugged into the Raspberry Pi part of my Allo Digi sig.
However, 99% of the time I just stream my tunes and the equivalent of what I have ripped with Tidal HiFi tier, CD quality, can make my own playlists etc from the comfort of the sofa and web browser all for just £10 a month (I have a student account, so £5
;)
) via Schiit multibit Gungnir Dac into Rega Elex-R amp.
Companies like Allo also have combined transport and DAC players starting from £100 upwards, just connect to standard amp. I started off with a Raspberry pi, then added a Dac hat, Allo Boss player V1, still have it and will either sell it on or use as part of a multi room set up. Lots of options to choose from lol.
The Bluesound Powermode Edge is very small, not listened to one though.
 
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A android box will work as a music player but they might not be bit perfect. Connect usb hd and you have a cheap audio/video player.

I use a Synology Nas and Logitech squeezebox, you don't need much the quad core Synology are more tham fast enough, and SB are cheap less than £100 each
 
hornetstinger said:
A android box will work as a music player but they might not be bit perfect. Connect usb hd and you have a cheap audio/video player.

I use a Synology Nas and Logitech squeezebox, you don't need much the quad core Synology are more tham fast enough, and SB are cheap less than £100 each
Click to expand...
The free HiBy music app is your friend for android, bit perfect I believe.
I use it on my phone (and tablet) with a Fiio KA3 dongle dac/amp
 
I think my revelation in looking at stuff tonight is that the CD sampling frequency is 44.1 KHz/16 bit. So my approx 300 CDs will fit comfortably on a 128GB card! Thanks to everyone who said NAS is not needed and 3 CDs to a 1GB.
 
Pigeon said:
I think my revelation in looking at stuff tonight is that the CD sampling frequency is 44.1 KHz/16 bit. So my approx 300 CDs will fit comfortably on a 128GB card! Thanks to everyone who said NAS is not needed and 3 CDs to a 1GB.
Click to expand...

A typical album in flac (lossless) is 350-500MB, so I'd say more like 140GB.

A NAS can store more than just music, videos etc. And it's a central point of storage. If you have say a mp3 player connected to your amp with local storage, how would you access and play to music to other rooms? With a NAS or computer as a music server/storage, any device on your LAN can access it.

Just trying out DTS flac/wave files on Android box, I deleted my old ones as with a regular DAC it sent high pitch digital noise to the speakers, you need DTS capable unit- so OK with a AVR not a regular stereo PCM DAC.
 
Well 12 days later and I have ripped 233 CDs to FLAC. I have about 17 left to go but I am now stuck. I couldn’t rip them in the free:ac app I was using. The DPpoweramp listed above got me 1 verified and 1 unversed disc closer but then wouldn’t rip the others. I even tried iTunes (I am on a Mac) but still the discs are spat out. It is a bit frustrating and some favourite records there like Muse - absolution and the Ramones anthology!
Does anyone have any suggestions for getting these ripped. I may have to pay a service to do them but then I would need another 33 discs!

Player wise for now so have bought a little digital audio player and a new cable for the back of my amp and I will see how that goes! It feels like I have cheaped out but if I want to try a different DAC / player in the future I can!
 
Pigeon said:
Well 12 days later and I have ripped 233 CDs to FLAC. I have about 17 left to go but I am now stuck. I couldn’t rip them in the free:ac app I was using. The DPpoweramp listed above got me 1 verified and 1 unversed disc closer but then wouldn’t rip the others. I even tried iTunes (I am on a Mac) but still the discs are spat out. It is a bit frustrating and some favourite records there like Muse - absolution and the Ramones anthology!
Does anyone have any suggestions for getting these ripped. I may have to pay a service to do them but then I would need another 33 discs!

Player wise for now so have bought a little digital audio player and a new cable for the back of my amp and I will see how that goes! It feels like I have cheaped out but if I want to try a different DAC / player in the future I can!
Click to expand...
Phew, you have done well !
My software of choice (free or otherwise) is Exact Audio Copy aka EAC, there might be a companion software that I have used with that but been a little while since I have bothered ripping any CDs.
It is pc only though, however they suggest Virtual PC Win 98 for MAC works if you have that.
https://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/resources/download/
worth taking the time to set up correctly.
 
I asked a similar Q here… might help:

iPhone -> amp -> speakers (lossless)

Hello - I’m thinking of the best way to get my “hi-def” lossless Apple Music tracks from my phone. I have an amplifier (Marantz 6005) and some basic wharfdale 220 speakers. The Marantz has an optical input and a build in DAC. I think the least amount of components needed would be: - iPhone...
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk

Working well for me!
 
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