Best source for my requirments-Traditional method or Modern streamers?

[schwarzennegger]

Good evening Audiophiles,

I like to listen to Flac & 320 kbps mp3 files, at the moment all these music's are in my laptop, instead of leaving the laptop all the time on for listening to music i would like find alternative source.

*Burn the music in to cd's and get a decent cd player, amp and stereo speakers?

*Get a decent streamers ,having USB port(store the music in USB hard drive),in built dac and amp, then pair with decent speakers?

* I don't stream my music from my mobile, or hear music from online (spotify, youtube etc)

* Or get a home cinema system which sounds good with music too??

Budget under £1000 pounds.

*My current setup:

Gaming laptop, Musical fidelity DAC and Power supply,Pioneer LX-01 home cinema system( I can store the music in this DVD player which has in built hard drive but it doesn't support FLAC files, or MKV files decoding)

Suggest me pls..

 

[jjbomber]

Good evening Audiophiles,

I like to listen to Flac & 320 kbps mp3 files, at the moment all these music's are in my laptop, instead of leaving the laptop all the time on for listening to music i would like find alternative source.

Budget under £1000 pounds.

Buy another laptop just to use as a front end for your music. Cost £300. If you are happy with the sound from your current system, then there isn't any need to box swap.

 

[newlash09]

Iam totally dumb at computers. After reading reviews of western digitals hard drives with built in Nas functionality . I went for a 4tb version and just took me 5 mins to setup as promised by WD.

I now stream music from the same Nas to both my HT setup as well as my 2 channel setup.

I have a marantz SR 6011 as my avr. However found it dropping Nas connection several times. So I bought a Roku 4 player. And from Roku store, I installed the ' my music app'. Works a charm. This app shows my entire music library on the Nas as it is arranged. And then I play it into the marantz via HDMI. Sounds really good to me . But obviously I have to keep the TV on, to see my tracks list.

In my stereo setup, the Yamaha wxc-50 streamer plays music from the same Nas. Iam very happy with the Yamaha. Though there are several options below the 500 pound mark. You have bluesound node 2, which also has an excellent app.

 

[jjbomber]

Iam totally dumb at computers. After reading reviews of western digitals hard drives with built in Nas functionality . I went for a 4tb version and just took me 5 mins to setup as promised by WD.

I use the WDMyCloud, which is so simple. Plug and play in under 5 minutes.

 

[Romulus]

Judging by the responses of this thread my method is all old fashioned. I burn Cds on my Coctail AudioX10 connected to two speakers (Monitor Audio BX1) all for a lot less than £1000. I have 2TB storage in the Coctail Audio and use all the different formats for burning eg Wav, Flac etc (I just stick to WAV). Not a cumbersome laptop insight, but if you like you can use the laptop via the web interface to have total control over your music. I use the remote and my play lists is slowly expanding. The sound is at least very decent for the size of the 'system' and at my finger tips I can go from Rock, to Classical, to anything else which I have stored on the hard disk. Also I can play internet radio from all over the world. Unlike streaming all my music is mine to keep and no direct debits to worry about. Last but not least a lot of Cds are now cheaper then a few years ago. But I think others will say this is too old fashioned.

 

[MajorFubar]

I burn Cds on my Coctail AudioX10

No, you rip your CDs with the Coctail Audio X10. Which is the polar opposite of burning. Not trying to be pedantic but I am trying not to confuse OP. To be fair I wouldn't say your solution is old fashioned, it's just a bit restrictive and presumably there isn't the option in the Cocktail to make backups of your rips easily (thought I could be wrong). If you can't, then when its hard drive crashes (and it is 'when', not 'if'...they are finite in their lifespan), you're screwed. it is definitely another option for OP to consider though.

 

[Romulus]

I burn Cds on my Coctail AudioX10

No, you rip your CDs with the Coctail Audio X10. Which is the polar opposite of burning. Not trying to be pedantic but I am trying not to confuse OP. To be fair I wouldn't say your solution is old fashioned, it's just a bit restrictive and presumably there isn't the option in the Cocktail to make backups of your rips easily (thought I could be wrong). If you can't, then when its hard drive crashes (and it is 'when', not 'if'...they are finite in their lifespan), you're screwed. it is definitely another option for OP to consider though.

I stand corrected yes I rip my Cds and apologies to OP for any confusion caused to him. As to whether there is an option to make back ups, I think I read something like that in the instruction manual but it looked far too complicated and scary for me to attempt it. If you tell me its a simple painless procedure then maybe I will attempt it. I am an old dinausaur when it comes to modern technology and anything knew I need to be lead holding hands by the expert. Too date I have had the Cocktail Audio X10 for many years and so far no problems with hard disk. Is there an average time of life span for hard disks?

 

[Pedro2]

I burn Cds on my Coctail AudioX10

No, you rip your CDs with the Coctail Audio X10. Which is the polar opposite of burning. Not trying to be pedantic but I am trying not to confuse OP. To be fair I wouldn't say your solution is old fashioned, it's just a bit restrictive and presumably there isn't the option in the Cocktail to make backups of your rips easily (thought I could be wrong). If you can't, then when its hard drive crashes (and it is 'when', not 'if'...they are finite in their lifespan), you're screwed. it is definitely another option for OP to consider though.

I stand corrected yes I rip my Cds and apologies to OP for any confusion caused to him. As to whether there is an option to make back ups, I think I read something like that in the instruction manual but it looked far too complicated and scary for me to attempt it. If you tell me its a simple painless procedure then maybe I will attempt it. I am an old dinausaur when it comes to modern technology and anything knew I need to be lead holding hands by the expert. Too date I have had the Cocktail Audio X10 for many years and so far no problems with hard disk. Is there an average time of life span for hard disks?

I believe that the life of hard drives varies but one thing is guaranteed; it will definitely fail at some point, so it’s a WHEN rather than an IF. Unless you fancy ripping your entire collection all over again, I would strongly advise backup!

 

[MajorFubar]

Is there an average time of life span for hard disks?

They say around 7 years. But I've had a couple die sooner, while on the other hand a PC at work is nearly 20 years old and is still clunking away merrily with its original 4GB IDE drive. Other than mechanical failure, the oxide on the platters wears out, like tape. Also like tape, this is accelerated by writing to the same area over and over again. The purpose you're using it for minimizes the re-writes at least, because you're presumably not deleting and re-saving data constantly. Unlike say an enterprise server, where the HDD lifespan can be just months, which is why a server uses racks of drives in RAID arrays.

 

[schwarzennegger]

Thank you guys for your advises*mail1*

How about this..as i mentioned my Pioneer LX-01 can't play FLAC and MKV files, if i get a streamer which can flay these files (assuming decoding will take place in the

streamer then fed in to the LX-01(which has built in amplification ) will it work?

https://www.whathifi.com/pioneer/lx01/review

Another option is ..

https://www.avforums.com/review/lg-bh9540-bh9540tw-9-1-channel-all-in-one-system-review.10456

Not sure why whathifi not having much All inone systems review !!