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Old timer needs to sort out his music collection - advice needed!


Lincolnbaggie

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Right chaps; I'm old school - turntable/amp/CD for music and 7.1 HD system for movies already acquired at great expense over the last 20 years all of which I'm keeping, but......

 

I've got 1000s of CDs all clogging up my space which I want to put into storage and now that HD music downloads are available I'm thinking of entering the 21st century in the way of digital music. I can rip all my CDs (it will take a while but it's possible), but I'm getting confused with what else I need. Sound quality is the most important thing for me.

 

I want to listen through my existing two channel amp/stereo speaker set-up (as it cost a small fortune and so I can continue with the turntable) and only in one room and only one thing at a time, so no need for a Sonos sytem etc. Also, I only have wireless internet at the moment (no ethernet ports as I'm on a dongle in Portugal) so a NAS is probably out as is streaming from the computer as that is only used for work and switched off at 6pm every day. I'm guessing I need a dedicated stand-alone music server (rather than a streamer) with a decent amount of hard disk space and a decent DAC to sit between that and the amp?

 

Anyone with any expertise in this area can give me any pointers? I've no idea what does what these days on the digital side of things or what equipment there is out there. :wheelchair:

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Have you thought about maybe ripping your cd collection on to a pc then transferring the files on to an iPod/MP3 player which you could then plug into your amp

 

Not sure you can get mp3 players with the kind of storage space I'd need; plus I want to use the highest quality files (HD downloads) I can and I'm not sure the DACs in most mp3 players are any good? I want my CDs to sound as good as they currently do through my Creek CD player, and any downloads I make to be even better......

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Right chaps; I'm old school - turntable/amp/CD for music and 7.1 HD system for movies already acquired at great expense over the last 20 years all of which I'm keeping, but......

 

I've got 1000s of CDs all clogging up my space which I want to put into storage and now that HD music downloads are available I'm thinking of entering the 21st century in the way of digital music. I can rip all my CDs (it will take a while but it's possible), but I'm getting confused with what else I need. Sound quality is the most important thing for me.

 

I want to listen through my existing two channel amp/stereo speaker set-up (as it cost a small fortune and so I can continue with the turntable) and only in one room and only one thing at a time, so no need for a Sonos sytem etc. Also, I only have wireless internet at the moment (no ethernet ports as I'm on a dongle in Portugal) so a NAS is probably out as is streaming from the computer as that is only used for work and switched off at 6pm every day. I'm guessing I need a dedicated stand-alone music server (rather than a streamer) with a decent amount of hard disk space and a decent DAC to sit between that and the amp?

 

Anyone with any expertise in this area can give me any pointers? I've no idea what does what these days on the digital side of things or what equipment there is out there. :wheelchair:

Neil, PM SMD, he's really into HD etc, he'll give you all the advice and help you need :)
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I am presuming that the two channel amp you want to use has no network connection capability? the trouble is when you start to rip you CD collection depending on the format it can take a lot of space...so big hard drives are needed for large connections, ideally you need something that can have a HD plugged in via USB or LAN,

Most modern AV receivers are capable of this, and some use wifi as well, but not all are so good at music.

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I'm guessing I need a dedicated stand-alone music server (rather than a streamer) with a decent amount of hard disk space and a decent DAC to sit between that and the amp?

Looks like this is exactly what you need. You can build a small PC for around £250, that will meet your needs. You can get a mini-itx case that will accommodate a dedicated sound card and HDD's. Something like this

http://www.ebuyer.com/392377-coolermaster-elite-120-advanced-mini-itx-case-rc-120a-kkn1

with this motherboard

http://www.ebuyer.com/630832-gigabyte-ga-j1800n-d2h-intel-celeron-j1800-2-41ghz-vga-hdmi-hd-audio-mini-itx-motherboard-ga-j1800n-d2h

+PSU, RAM, HDD's and sound card.

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I am presuming that the two channel amp you want to use has no network connection capability? the trouble is when you start to rip you CD collection depending on the format it can take a lot of space...so big hard drives are needed for large connections, ideally you need something that can have a HD plugged in via USB or LAN,

Most modern AV receivers are capable of this, and some use wifi as well, but not all are so good at music.

 

Yep, current amp has no network connection (or digital inputs). I have a separate AV amp, but it's not good enough for stereo music. Storage wise I'm looking at at least 2 Terabytes at the bitrate I want...

 

I'm guessing I need a dedicated stand-alone music server (rather than a streamer) with a decent amount of hard disk space and a decent DAC to sit between that and the amp?

Looks like this is exactly what you need. You can build a small PC for around £250, that will meet your needs. You can get a mini-itx case that will accommodate a dedicated sound card and HDD's. Something like this

http://www.ebuyer.co...se-rc-120a-kkn1

with this motherboard

http://www.ebuyer.co...d-ga-j1800n-d2h

+PSU, RAM, HDD's and sound card.

 

Not sure about a separate PC; it would need to boot up in milliseconds and I'd have no display to see any of the library?

 

 

Exactly the kind of thing I'm looking at, but that is a streamer and I need storage, plus that has it's own amp built in and I want to use my existing amplification. The Olive 6 looks like the kind of thing I need http://www.digitaltr...ve-06hd-review/ but it is rather expensive.....

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I am presuming that the two channel amp you want to use has no network connection capability? the trouble is when you start to rip you CD collection depending on the format it can take a lot of space...so big hard drives are needed for large connections, ideally you need something that can have a HD plugged in via USB or LAN,

Most modern AV receivers are capable of this, and some use wifi as well, but not all are so good at music.

 

Yep, current amp has no network connection (or digital inputs). I have a separate AV amp, but it's not good enough for stereo music. Storage wise I'm looking at at least 2 Terabytes at the bitrate I want...

 

I'm guessing I need a dedicated stand-alone music server (rather than a streamer) with a decent amount of hard disk space and a decent DAC to sit between that and the amp?

Looks like this is exactly what you need. You can build a small PC for around £250, that will meet your needs. You can get a mini-itx case that will accommodate a dedicated sound card and HDD's. Something like this

http://www.ebuyer.co...se-rc-120a-kkn1

with this motherboard

http://www.ebuyer.co...d-ga-j1800n-d2h

+PSU, RAM, HDD's and sound card.

 

Not sure about a separate PC; it would need to boot up in milliseconds and I'd have no display to see any of the library?

 

 

Exactly the kind of thing I'm looking at, but that is a streamer and I need storage, plus that has it's own amp built in and I want to use my existing amplification. The Olive 6 looks like the kind of thing I need http://www.digitaltr...ve-06hd-review/ but it is rather expensive.....

 

Scroll down the page a bit, the naim media servers are very good, they also have on-board CD drive to help with the ripping and 2tb of storage, but they are a big investment.

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