Best laptop/ipad hi-fi system for £2000

[ontheline]

im following up from a post that went up on this site recently (21st August), where it was looking at the finest hi-fi systems based around a laptop. The components chosen were Apple MacBook Air (13in) Audiolab M-DAC to make the laptop music shine, and Grado SR325E headphones. I have both the audiolab m-dac and the grado headphones, i don't have the apple mac book air and at the moment i am currently using my old 2006 apple imac desktop using usb and ripped cd wav files into itunes. would anyone know if using a 2006 imac would negatively impact the sound compared with using the suggested 2015 Macbook Air? What i was thinking of doing was buying an Ipad(maybe wait for the Pro in nov) and use that with the dac and headphones instead of the macbook air. I am aware that ipad's do not have a usb in order to connect it to the m-dac but i was hoping it would work buying a lightning to usb camera adapter and connecting it by usb with that, any idea if this can be done, and would there be any differences or disadvantages with not using the mac book as suggested from the post. any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rainsoothe]

Hi. Changing your laptop won't improve performance, unless your current one is really really noisy. Also, I don't think the lightning-to-usb thingie would work.

And, should you want to add speakers to your system, Yamaha HS7 or Yamaha HS8 actives

 

[davedotco]

What are you streaming? Where from? Format etc?

 

[ontheline]

Hi. Changing your laptop won't improve performance, unless your current one is really really noisy. Also, I don't think the lightning-to-usb thingie would work.

And, should you want to add speakers to your system, Yamaha HS7 or Yamaha HS8 actives

i'll keep that in mind with those speakers, maybe at a later date, so what i would need to do or try to do is instead of usb going from the imac to the m-dac i would be have the lightning to usb connected to the ipad then have the usb from the dac inserted into that, can't see why it wouldn't work would the problem be using the ipad instead of a laptop or does the problem lie with the lightning to usb?

 

[ontheline]

the music from my itunes library in wav format. If this setup did work my ipad would remain as my main system as the new ipad pro with the magic keyboard would allow me to do everthing i need it for and therefore i would finally dispose of the old imac i have and just use my usb superdrive to rip my cd's.

 

[MajorFubar]

Also, I don't think the lightning-to-usb thingie would work.

They sort of do unless device you're adding is USB powered, then typically you need a powered hub, because the permitted power drain on iOS devices is something quite low like about 50mW (I haven't checked). I've successfully used my HRT II+ USB DAC on my iPad with a powered hub and the lightning camera connection kit. It's not exactly an elegant solution but it does work.

 

[MajorFubar]

...i would finally dispose of the old imac i have and just use my usb superdrive to rip my cd's.

Not with an iPad you won't.

 

[ontheline]

...i would finally dispose of the old imac i have and just use my usb superdrive to rip my cd's.

Not with an iPad you won't.

if using the lightning to usb with the ipad? maybe i should just forget that idea and save up for a laptop, then i don't need to worry about connecting any usb thingies.

 

[MajorFubar]

Certainly none that I know of. By all means plug a USB DAC into it via a powered hub and the lightning camera connection kit, but the iPad has no apps for ripping or burning CDs, as far as I'm aware. Happy to be corrected if someone knows of something, but I don't.

 

[SteveR750]

Buy the cheapest laptop you can find with enough memory to store all of your music (use FLAC it's smaller file sizes than wav), back it up regularly with a separate drive (I use a 1Tb seagate portable drive) and install a good media playerplayer, foobar and j river being the obvious two. The reason for storing your music locally is the added benefit of being able to take all of your music wherever you go, though an alternative is to use a NAS device, but since memory is cheap I prefer the in one box solution.

 

[bluedroog]

I saw that, thought it was a terrible suggestion. If you really want the best laptop system for £2k and sound was the primary concern I'd get the cheapest functional laptop I could for about £250, a cheap and competent DAC for under £100, a Graham Slee Solo Ultra Linear Diamond Edition headphone amplifier for £670 and then about a £1k on headphones of choice.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Not sure if you have speakers but id sell all your stuff except the headphones. Then buy a hegel h160 and a cheap laptop and then enjoy very good quality sq. Has a great headphone input and dac.
You can always get speakers at a later stage.

 

[SteveR750]

I saw that, thought it was a terrible suggestion. If you really want the best laptop system for £2k and sound was the primary concern I'd get the cheapest functional laptop I could for about £250, a cheap and competent DAC for under £100, a Graham Slee Solo Ultra Linear Diamond Edition headphone amplifier for £670 and then about a £1k on headphones of choice.

+1 I'd also recommend listening to the Cambridge audio dac xs which is perfectly capable of driving my beyer DT880s. That would save you another £670 which might not be as sonically good as the Graham Slee but it will be closer than you'd think!

 

[cheeseboy]

.. as the new ipad pro with the magic keyboard would allow me to do everthing i need it for and therefore i would finally dispose of the old imac i have and just use my usb superdrive to rip my cd's.

yep, just to back up what major says, you can't rip cd's on an ipad. An ipad pro is just a bigger ipad - so it's exactly the same os as the standard ipad, so if you can't do everything you need on your current ipad, you won't be able to on a pro either.

 

[Infiniteloop]

Consider using a Mac Laptop and Audirvana Plus/iTunes with your choice of DAC.