Advice on system, newbie, lossless storage on hard drive - played through hifi amp

[admin_exported]

Hi,

I would like to add my growing CD collection to some sort of hard drive, then be able to play it through my current system

(Mission CDP, Cyrus 6, Tannoy M20 gold) (Panasonic 42 Plasma, Pana Bluray, Sky+)

Having briefly looked online and within these forums, I am somewhat confused.

Keeping the cost low (ish)
Able to be remotely controlled
Must be lossless but also have the option of adding music files to a portable player (iPod???)

What are my options?

Many thanks in advance

 

[Anonymous]

OK, maybe a badly written question.......

what about this then....... can I add lossless files to an iPod?

Thanks

 

[John Duncan]

Yes you can, but you'll run out of space pretty quickly unless you have one of the traditional ones with 80gig upwards.

But to answer your original question, yes - the cheapest/easiest way is to add an airport express, which can stream from iTunes on your PC or Mac for £65. Keyspan do a simple remote that plugs into the AE's USB socket, but the cool way of doing it is an iPod Touch or iPhone with the free 'Remote' app added. And that would meet your other requirement as well, but storage is limited - 32gig is the biggest one, I think, which might give you 50/60-odd albums storage in lossless.

You can also add a DAC to the Airport Express at a later date, which'll give you a top-notch source.

EDIT - note that on iTunes you can have a separate library of lower-bitrate files (I use 320k on mine) for iPod use...

 

[Anonymous]

wow, excellent news many thanks

I already have a few 320k files (downloads) on my external HDD which I use on my daughters ipod, the seperate library is a great idea.

Would AE stream from my external HDD? (Buffalo) without the need of a laptop/PC?

Pardon my ignorance.....DAC?

 

[John Duncan]

jakeblues68:Would AE stream from my external HDD? (Buffalo) without the need of a laptop/PC?

The simple answer to this is no, not really. Firstly, your NAS probably doesn't have an iTunes server installed, and I wouldn't fancy trying to install one, and secondly, I'm yet to be convinced that that would work in the same way that Squeezeserver will (which is the server software for the various varieties of Squeezebox, which is an alternative, though more expensive, way of doing what you want). I haven't got the kind of NAS that I could try that with, sadly, but then my Mac's on 24/7 so it's a moot point for me. In breaking news though, I've bought an Apple TV today to experiment with a setup that'll serve the same purpose.

jakeblues68:Pardon my ignorance.....DAC?

Digital to Analogue Converter. There's one in practically every digital device, but in computers (and to be fair, Airport Express) they're generally of mediocre qualty. You can buy aftermarket external ones which can take a digital signal from computer or Airport Express (it has an optical digital out) and make the very best of it. They range from a few pounds to a few thousand, though there are very good value ones in the £100-£250 range. Search these forums for Fubar, Beresford and DACMagic for lengthy discussions.

 

[Anonymous]

Many Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

OK, moving on from this then......

I have decided on a Buffalo NAS, mainly as I have been using exactly the same drives for a while now but without the Network ability.

I am however still unsure as to which server to opt for, Apple TV or Squeezebox duo.
I must admit the Duo handset is very tempting.......but there again the aTV has a hard drive........decisions...decisions.....

I will be using iTunes with Apple lossles files although this goes against my grain.

Can anyone who has experience of the two units give some advice here?

VMT