Basic, non streaming music player

[djantani]

Hi

I have a NAD amplified and good speakers. I am NOT interested in streaming as I have my own music, both in MP3 and FLAC (or I have CDs). I would like to purchase a digital music player (NON portable) that I can connect to my amp to listen to my music.

Believe it or not I cannot find anything.

PLease help!

Thanks

 

[Al ears]

Hi

I have a NAD amplified and good speakers. I am NOT interested in streaming as I have my own music, both in MP3 and FLAC (or I have CDs). I would like to purchase a digital music player (NON portable) that I can connect to my amp to listen to my music.

Believe it or not I cannot find anything.

PLease help!

Thanks

If it's purely for storage and playback why do you exclude portable players? It's what I use.

What type of budget are we talking here?

 

[djantani]

Because the quality of the sound is not as good and the signal is weaker compared to what comes out of, say, a CD player...or that's at least what I thought...

 

[muljao]

Have you a laptop?

 

[Al ears]

Because the quality of the sound is not as good and the signal is weaker compared to what comes out of, say, a CD player...or that's at least what I thought...

Not so on either counts. The DACs used inside some portable players are of a better quality than those required by a CD player that is required only to work with a 16/44.1 kHz signal. They are normally required to work with hi-def files up to DSD.

The 'signal' from the likes of the Chord Mojo is higher than a normal CD player (+/- 2v)

 

[muljao]

Have you a laptop?

That is an option to a degree.

I was going to suggest a usb dac if a laptop is a viable option for the OP

 

[Al ears]

Have you a laptop?

That is an option to a degree. I don't, and I travel a lot for work, so a portable digital player is my preferred device as it can, and does, serve two purposes.

Suggest OP looks at something like the FiiO X3, Although storage can be somewhat limited it is surprising how many flac / mp3 tracks you can store on a 64Gb card.

 

[Al ears]

Have you a laptop?

That is an option to a degree.

I was going to suggest a usb dac if a laptop is a viable option for the OP

Assuming he doesn't have to go out and buy a laptop that's an option. ;-)

 

[muljao]

Yes of course if the OP already has one. Plenty of free software that will rip and play flac so cd quality is possible, just pick up a good dac

 

[tino]

How about an Auralic Aries Mini with internal solid state disc.

Or make one youself ... a Raspberry Pi + HiFi Berry DAC + WD PiDrive hard disk.

 

[Al ears]

How about an Auralic Aries Mini with internal solid state disc.

Or make one youself ... a Raspberry Pi + HiFi Berry DAC + WD PiDrive hard disk.

Surely that's a streamer.

Plus it would be an expensive option.

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

X box 360 and playstation 3 can both rip cd's and in the 360's case can communicate with your pc (in another room)and access music and image files to be played,although you do need your TV to navigate through it.but it's an option if you have said devices lying around the house.

 

[djantani]

guys

thanks for your comments and suggestions.

I do have a laptop but don't want to use it to play music. i basically want to contnue to do what i was doing before, ie i go to my hifh and play some music without the need of a laptop, a play station or whatever. I just need a PLAYER. I have a 3 Tb storage drive for mucis and fils and woould like to get whatever i need out of it, stick it onto a memorystick or something and then inthe back of my player which will be connnected to my amp. So I don't want to pay for storage on a portable again, plus i want the payer to stay there, on top of the amp.

In terms of the signal i cannot believe that a 3.5mm stereo jack is as good a connection as a traditional signal cable - the one I have got costs quite a lot of money and you can tell the difference when I plaay my CDs.

Budgetwise I think up to £200 for the right thing assuming I can tell a big differenc compared to connecting my iphone to it, which is what i do now.

thanks

 

[ID.]

guys

thanks for your comments and suggestions.

I do have a laptop but don't want to use it to play music. i basically want to contnue to do what i was doing before, ie i go to my hifh and play some music without the need of a laptop, a play station or whatever. I just need a PLAYER. I have a 3 Tb storage drive for mucis and fils and woould like to get whatever i need out of it, stick it onto a memorystick or something and then inthe back of my player which will be connnected to my amp. So I don't want to pay for storage on a portable again, plus i want the payer to stay there, on top of the amp.

In terms of the signal i cannot believe that a 3.5mm stereo jack is as good a connection as a traditional signal cable - the one I have got costs quite a lot of money and you can tell the difference when I plaay my CDs.

Budgetwise I think up to £200 for the right thing assuming I can tell a big differenc compared to connecting my iphone to it, which is what i do now.

thanks

To be honest, there aren't many products of that nature.

You'd be surprised how many people come on the forums asking for a product to fit their highly specific requirements and are shocked that there's nothing out there. To that person it seems obvious that many others would have exactly the same needs and it's an obvious product segment.

As far as my understanding goes, the type of products you are thinking of often tend to have ripping capabilities as well and are very pricey. In terms of what you want to be able to do, really a streamer would be the way to go, if only because the streaming protocols make the management/control/searching of large numbers of files much easier than when you stick a USB drive into something. I really don't think there's anything exactly like what you want. I understand your frustration. I've often thought I'd like something like an iPad to act as the player, but I'd want at least 500 gig of storage (ideally 1tb or more), but the more I think about it, streaming is the better option as it would allow me to uncouple the iDevice from my amp or DAC or whatever and use it as a remote control, so I don't have to get up from my chair.

I've thought about using my FiiO X5 as the player because of the significant memory that can be installed and the fact that I can take a digital output for an offboard DAC if I wanted. If I were starting from zero I'd look at something like a Synology NAS with a USB DAC as my player and my iPhone as the remote control. As it is, I stream Apple Music from my Mac because I needed to get a computer for my home office, so this killed 2 birds with one stone.

 

[Petherick]

Media player?

 

[tino]

Squeezebox Touch (second hand as you can't buy new anymore)

To the OP ... you need to be a bit more specific about how you want to select and control your music. From a phone, an inbuilt display screen, an external screen, telepathy?

For example, there are cheap CDDVD players, media players, set top boxes with USB slots (my old Philips DVD player has this) that can play music from a plugged in USB drive. But you need a TV to be able to see what you are doing.My Squeezebox touch can stream or play from an SD card or USB drive and has an inbuilt screen or can be controlled by a phone app. etc. etc.

 

[muljao]

Are you totally against using a laptop or just "your" laptop due you need to use it etc.

For 200 pounds you'd get a small notebook with ssd hard drive and a usb dac. These could sit permanent above your amp and would allow you to plug in USB and hard drives to your hearts content, while also allowing you to play music from spotify, or YouTube through your hifi (if it ever took your fancy) with rather great results

 

[luckylion100]

Use this as a pre to your amp, connect your usb hard drive or stick and away you go. Another box admittedly...

http://www.inta-audio.com/pa-live-sound-c88/pulse-sra-160-usb-hi-fi-stereo-amplifier-160w-p6338/s6344?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=pulse-sra-160-usb-hi-fi-stereo-amplifier-160w-av19938-ds&utm_campaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&gclid=COz0po6sgtACFdXGGwodOpcNwA

 

[Gray]

guys

thanks for your comments and suggestions.

I do have a laptop but don't want to use it to play music. i basically want to contnue to do what i was doing before, ie i go to my hifh and play some music without the need of a laptop, a play station or whatever. I just need a PLAYER. I have a 3 Tb storage drive for mucis and fils and woould like to get whatever i need out of it, stick it onto a memorystick or something and then inthe back of my player which will be connnected to my amp. So I don't want to pay for storage on a portable again, plus i want the payer to stay there, on top of the amp.

In terms of the signal i cannot believe that a 3.5mm stereo jack is as good a connection as a traditional signal cable - the one I have got costs quite a lot of money and you can tell the difference when I plaay my CDs.

Budgetwise I think up to £200 for the right thing assuming I can tell a big differenc compared to connecting my iphone to it, which is what i do now.

thanks

[/quote

I was in in a very similar position to you djantani. I was playing music out from a laptop via a good little £100 USB DAC but just wanted something that could be hidden away to play the files off a HDD. No interest in streaming services (due to an allergy to monthly subscriptions)

As I've told others, a forumite suggested the Raspberry Pi with RuneAudio. I thought it might be too much of a faff. But I'm more than glad I bothered.

Do a bit of research then what you need is:

1) The RPi3 (with its onboard wi-fi)

2) A DAC board for the Pi or decent external USB DAC

3) An SD card for the Pi - then choose an operating system (such as the RuneAudio)

4) Tablet, phone (or even that laptop without wires) to remote control.

5) Not much money

Bob's yer Uncle.

 

[Al ears]

Media player?

Exactly.

I think the OP is going to find it hard to aquire a device to do specifically what he wants for his small budget. I have suggested a portable DMP but he does not seem to like this idea. My other idea, and one I use, if he wants to connect a USB stick or even large capacity USB hard drive is going to cost a lot more money i.e. an Oppo 105 universal disc player.

 

[Petherick]

Yes! I was proposing something low cost like one of the Sumvision units (as my headline said) but I guess you'd need a screen to be able to control such.

 

[Al ears]

Yes! I was proposing something low cost like one of the Sumvision units (as my headline said) but I guess you'd need a screen to be able to control such.

Oh I see, that sort of media player. Yes he would need a screen of some sort. Physically wiring in a DMP would not but you'd need a long cable and the DMP in your hand, maybe not ideal either. The OP seems pretty sure what he wants but not how he's going to control it if he actually finds one. Usual problem with this sort of digital device in that they invariably need yet another third-party device to be included in the package for control.

 

[Samd]

If both amp and 3TB storage are on LAN just use Android etc app such as BubbleUPnP?

 

[tino]

To the OP ... Please check out this post ... Might help
... http://www.whathifi.com/comment/1004823#comment-1004823