Best digital setup

[admin_exported]

Hiya

I have only recently being downloading highly compressed music files via my computer to ipod. I need to find a cheap way to stream and convert to my hifi set up which is cyrus based with spendor a5 speakers. I do not have a DAC yet but was wondering if the best way would be to update pre-vs and power 6 to a new amplifier with DAC built in?

All advice is appreciated

Gareth M

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Gareth,

the squeezebox duet is a good option, they are cheaper than the sonos streaming device, and if you add a DAC such as the beresford, V-DAC or DAC Magic this would provide a good streaming set up. My only concern would be the highly compressed audio, generally speaking its best to use lossless audio or something around 320kbps to get the best out of the DAC. What sort of bit rates are your music files?

 

[Anonymous]

Brisk thanks for you reply

I am using lossless files from itunes and was thinking about Bowers and wilkins FLC files. Would a physical connection be better? i.e. from computer directly to dac and then cyrus prevs or would a upgrade to the new cyrus prevs q amp be a better option?

I have not streamed music before and have tended to use traditional cyrus equipment with CD. I do have a russ andrews ipod connector which does provide pretty good sound.

 

[professorhat]

If you're using iTunes, Airport Express is probably your best route for streaming.

 

[fatboyslimfast]

gareth_merriman:I am using lossless files from itunes and was thinking about Bowers and wilkins FLC files.

Bear in mind that to use FLAC files with iTunes, you will need to convert them to AIFF format first, as iTunes does not understand FLAC. There are plenty of programs out on t'interweb to do such.

But the Airport Express is a great way of streaming - it sounds great, esp with lossless files. It is limited to 16bit 48Khz streams though - any investment in 24/96 files would be wasted if this is your chosen streaming device.

 

[professorhat]

Fair point - was gonna say you could use Airfoil to stream FLAC files (from whatever program you used to play them) until you reminded me...

fatboyslimfast:It is limited to 16bit 48Khz streams though - any investment in 24/96 files would be wasted if this is your chosen streaming device.