Best way to approach great quality digital music set up

[Julian_b]

Anyone have any advice as to how to best set up a very good (lossless) digital music library?

I currently rip to iTunes using their standard software through a Mac Pro. I have recently purchased a Yamaha Rx v3067 AV Amp which has an App that conveniently let's me wirelessly play my iTunes music from my iPad but it's a significant drop from playing cd through my Oppo 83 player. The AV Amp is wired to my network as is the Mac.

So I was thinking it was fine time to get the best out of digital music - any advice on the best way to go forward?

Thanks in advance.....

 

[professorhat]

I currently rip to iTunes using their standard software through a Mac Pro.

What format are you ripping your music to? The first thing to check is that you're using one of the lossless formats e.g. Apple Lossles, AIFF or WAV, rather than a lossy format like AAC or MP3.

 

[AnotherJoe]

Airplay is susceptible to interferance/packlet loss due to the underlying protocol used (RTSP). You may get better performance using a wired connection. If you cant run an ethernet lead, the powerline av plugs would be the next best bet. Make sure you get the new av500 spec to futureproof.

Alternatively you could just use the network DLNA streaming feature in your amp - though the music would need to be in FLAC format rather than ALAC.

 

[Julian_b]

Currently ripping to mp3 as have for many years. Presume will have to rip all from scratch if I now chose the lossless option alac? If that's the case wondering what's the best to do e.g. Also set up for streaming video and get a Mac tv? Or rip into a dedicated piece of kit like the xiva music8 for high quality files? Sure a few people face these confusing decisions with the constantly changing tech options open to us.....

.....just read that the apple tv is not going to be great option as doesn't support dnla....why do these companies make standardization so difficult - it's all about control and big bucks I suppose...

 

[bigboss]

I've been searching the exact thing last night to organise my music collection better.

It depends on your preferences:

1) It will take more time to rip CDs onto your computer & then transfer it to a NAS drive as compared to ripping directly into a dedicated piece of kit.

The cheapest I've found is this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fanless-Server-Automatic-Ripping-VortexBox/dp/B006AADOMK/ref=pd_ybh_4

There are reviews of this product on Amazon US site:

http://www.amazon.com/VortexBox-1TB-Automatic-ripping-NAS/product-reviews/B001VSY66O/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

2) A NAS drive will be cheaper, & you can create automatic backup into the 2nd hard drive (if you buy one with 2 Bays) (RAID). So it offers more flexibility.

 

[arjaytee]

My suggestion is to look at a website called Computer audiophile, it has a recommended equipment list, i use J River media srever on my windows 7 PC - all music ripped to FLAC plus a few HD downloads - and stream wirelseely to my Logitech squeezebox and via that into my hi fi system Denon 1804 receiver - Bose main/ stereo and Definitive surround speakers. You can get a free android app to control Jriver called Gizmo and its excellent. Jriver is light years ahead of I tunes although it costs about 50 bucks - probably about 30 pds in UK.

 

[mykspence]

1) It will take more time to rip CDs onto your computer & then transfer it to a NAS drive as compared to ripping directly into a dedicated piece of kit.

iTunes will copy to PC and NAS simultaneously.

"To complete this form, please complete the word verification below." grrrrr pathetic forum!

 

[Shanka]

Hi,

I am currently heading down the same road, does anyone have expereince with vortex box, I have looked at RipNAS and Zoneripper which are a lot more expensive, vortex looks a good/easier ripping option than NAS linked to my laptop.

However there seems a bit more flexibility and safety with the NAS raid route, I am about to start looking at NAS as I think I have nearly sorted my streamimg options now.

Cheers

 

[Julian_b]

Thanks Bigboss - very helpful link and pretty good positive reviews too. Also noted it will rip DVD's too which provides another solution to a problem I have which is making more space for my Bluray collection and shift the DVD's to storage - both digitally and physically too.

So i've ordered the VortexBox - thank you again.

Next challenge will be the set up and how it links up with my Yamaha RX V3067 AV and whether I'll need a Streamer of some kind to get it all working?

 

[Julian_b]

Hi Shanka

Just decided to go for the Vortex Box based on the reviews through Bigboss's links above.

What streaming options are you looking at?

 

[bigboss]

Glad you're sorted. Do post a review of the product on the forum.

 

[Anonymous]

Any update on this as i'm currently looking at doing the same

 

[AnotherJoe]

As soon as you put the words 'Airplay' and 'wireless' together the goal of 'great quality' went straight out the window.

As has been said many times before with Airplay you will lose quality over wireless because of the underlying protocol.

Used wired or homeplugs to get around it if you must use Apple.

 

[Julian_b]

I'm still waiting for the Vortexbox appliance to arrive in Singapore (via UK) so new news to add yet.
Hoping the Boxee box I have purchased works better than with my MacBook Pro.
Will have to see - hoping to stream movies/video from the Vortexbox appliance via the Boxee box and stream audio directly to my Yamaha RX V3067 and use it's DAC to produce great music. Will keep you informed.

 

[Julian_b]

Vortexbox 2 TB Appliance arrived and is now up and running :bounce:

Have partnered it with a Boxee Box in addition to my Yamaha RX V3067. This now covers MKV movies via the Boxee Box as well flac audio files directly from the Vortexbox to the amp using DNLA wired network connection.

On the audio flac file side the Vortexbox sounds really great through the Yamaha amps dac's. A really good expansive full sound with tight bass and open controlled treble. I can still control the music through the amp using the Yamaha AV controller App on my ipad too. So now rather than streaming wirelessly MP3 music from my ipad to the amp it is managing the streaming of flac files through wired connection through my network to the amp (also hard wired).

Using the Boxee Box it is incredibly easy to view the ripped movies (MKV files) and the surround sound was excellent (though I had to use higher amp volume than normal - will have to spend some time to understand if there is volume level that i can tweak rather than having the amp work harder).The 1080 picture is also great.

I tried playing the flac files through the Boxee Box then to the amp via hdmi but the sound was not anywhere near as good as direct from the Vortexbox stated above. So interesting that the movie MKV files are played really well quality - wise and not flac.

The was a fair bit of fiddling around that I had to do to get things working as intended and the instructions that arrived with the unit were very limited. You definitely need to access the Vortexbox player via the web to see it's GUI where you need to update the software (e.g. the installed MKV software was the old version and you need to purchase a registration key and enter that before you can rip a DVD). Similarly, if using DNLA you need to tell it to look for flac (where MP3 for music is the default - took me a while to understand why I couldn't find any music files which were all stored as flac)

So I'm looking forward to getting my CD collection and DVD collection ripped to the 2TB hard drive so I can store them away and access great quality sound and vision on demand.

Thanks again Big Boss for the tip on the Vortevbox appliance and thankyou to Vortexbox forum for the tip on how well the Boxee Box work together for movies :clap:

 

[byakuya83]

Airplay is susceptible to interferance/packlet loss due to the underlying protocol used (RTSP). You may get better performance using a wired connection. If you cant run an ethernet lead, the powerline av plugs would be the next best bet. Make sure you get the new av500 spec to futureproof.

Alternatively you could just use the network DLNA streaming feature in your amp - though the music would need to be in FLAC format rather than ALAC.

Is this factual regarding airplay? I understand interference or poor signal can cause dropouts but I was under the impression that whilst it's working the data being sent/received is digital and, therefore, no different to a wired connection.