£1,200 & a love of music...

[admin_exported]

### Hi . I'm 55yo & my ears know it !! I'm losing the frequencies at both ends of the audio spectrum & my aim is to get the joy & FUN of having music back in my head. I have a medium-sized CD collection mostly gathering dust because of the inconvenience of getting to the tracks I like... eg the bother of putting on a CD where I love 3 tracks & detest the rest

### Ripping in uncompressed, or lossless or 320 to say a Brennan JB7 would be ideal... but it only has seven play lists & also I want music in two rooms (but, not at the same time). Also I want music away from home. I don't want a network. I don't want my M$ XP-Pro laptop needing to be switched on all the time for streaming

### My BUDGET is £1,200 starting totally from scratch except for an M$ XP laptop. I'm interested in buying an iPod Classic (or similar with maybe 320Gb disk if possible) + Denon D-M38DAB + non-Denon standmount speakers + subwoofer for the 2.5m x 4m living room

Q1. What speakers & subwoofer would you recommend ?

Q2. If I load iTunes s/ware onto my laptop will it rip & playlist all my CD's as I choose or will there be DRM problems I need to be aware of ?

Q3. Is iPod/iTunes the way to go ? For example what about Foobar2000 s/ware & a non-Apple digital player (I note also that Foobar2000 has an iPod plugin)

Q4. For my study I require a desktop device purely to play the iPod while I work - I think £200 of the £1,200 is about right for this - don't need DAB etc, but I do want a dynamic sound

Thank you ~ Nightjar

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[jaxwired]

Welcome to the forum Nightjar. I'm not an expert on this subject by any stretch, but I can share what I'm doing. I've been using only CDs for years and I'm now in the process of switching to a music server. I'm going to use the new Apple TV. The new version is very cheap. It will stream music to your hifi from iTunes. I will be using iTunes exclusively. I don't know if iTunes is the best way to manage and stream music, but I can tell you that its an easy way and has a terrific user interface. Also, Apple is the biggest player in the world so they aren't going anywhere and you will get constant free updates to iTunes so you will stay current with technology. Also Apple lossless allows you to use a relatively small amount of hard drive space while maintaining max sound quality.

The Apple TV is also great because you can see all your music on your tv and navigate to the recording you want from across the room in your chair. You will need either a cheap DAC or an amp with HDMI inputs.

The iPod route is another good choice, but you lose the ability to navigate your music from across the room. Also, only the iPod classic will hold a lot of lossless music. The iPod touch won't be big enough for most people to house their full collection.

I wouldn't worry about DRM problems with iTunes. Since you own the CDs, you will probably have zero problems burning all of them into iTunes lossless. I just ripped almost 300 CDs and only had 1 that wouldn't let me rip it to iTunes.

Good luck!

 

[idc]

Q1 - can you audition where you are?

Q2 - Itunes will import your CDs and there is no DRM on its downloads. The most likely problem is faulty CDs not importing.

Q3 - I would have a play with Foobar and Media Monkey to see which interface you like the most. If you search online for music managers there are loads. I actually like good old Windows Media Player.

Q4 - The Bose Sounddock does dynamic sound. Or active speakers such as from Yamaha, Aktimate or Samson are worth looking at.

 

[Anonymous]

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@jaxwired ~ Thanks for the welcome

I dug up this about AppleTV:
>>> http://ipod.about.com/od/decidingwhichipodtobuy/a/appletv_chart.htm

** I think you're saying I could use the 160GB version as a music server & not need an internet connection nor my laptop switched on ?
** I can just have the AppleTV connected to my HiFi (or amp or DAC) & display my playlists on my TV ?
** In other words in synchronization mode, AppleTV works in a similar way to the iPod
** Here is an Apple quote I found: "It is paired with an iTunes library on a single computer and can synchronize with that library, copying all or selected content to its own hard drive. After syncing, AppleTV need not remain connected to the network"

QUESTION 1: I realise that you're describing what works for you & your needs. Since I don't plan to stream over the internet & I'm only interested in audio from a local source am I better going for an iPod classic except for the ability to see playlists on my TV ?
QUESTION 2: Can you point me to a link so that I can study how I HDMI connect TV, Amp (or DAC) & AppleTV
QUESTION 3: How do I get a secondary output in my study ~ network ?
QUESTION 4: Can you link me to a review of AppleTV ?

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@idc ~ thank you
Q1. No, but I will before I buy
Q2 & Q3. Thanks - reassuring
Q4. Interesting I guess you're talking about the Bose SoundDock series II ? Have you used it ? Also can you point me to one link so I can see how I connect an iPod Classic to active speakers & then I can follow up the brands you've listed ?

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