CD Player vs NAS + DAC

[ReValveiT]

Get yourself over to ebay and grab yourself a mint Squeezebox Touch for around £200.

connect to an Amp and Speakers of your choice and you're done. Forget DAC's and various bits of HiFi hocus-pocus; the Touch will give any DAC a run for its money.

Then sit back and control it all from your phone/tablet of choice. I recommend iPeng for IOS devices.

 

[stevebrock]

Get yourself over to ebay and grab yourself a mint Squeezebox Touch for around £200.

connect to an Amp and Speakers of your choice and you're done. Forget DAC's and various bits of HiFi hocus-pocus; the Touch will give any DAC a run for its money.

Then sit back and control it all from your phone/tablet of choice. I recommend iPeng for IOS devices.

FFS god know why Logitech binned them off!

Agree the DAC in the SBT is pretty good! I use one upstairs with Actives

 

[bonzo75]

Thanks guys. So all this is fine to run stored music files. If, while playing music, I want to play Youtube music, how do I do it easily in this set up?

Assume I am connected from a NAS to a USB S/PDIF -> DAC -> Amp -> Speakers. And I am using a remote. What's the smart way to switch from stored music to online (youtube)

 

[cheeseboy]

Thanks guys. So all this is fine to run stored music files. If, while playing music, I want to play Youtube music, how do I do it easily in this set up?

Assume I am connected from a NAS to a USB S/PDIF -> DAC -> Amp -> Speakers. And I am using a remote. What's the smart way to switch from stored music to online (youtube)

Don't think you can include youtube in that device chain as there's nothing to run youtube on.

Some nas's like the synology and stuff have the music players built in, hence you can plug a dac in to them, but in order to play youtube you'd either need a pc or similar in there somewhere, or a device that would take an airplay source, like a pc or apple tv type of thing.

 

[bonzo75]

So can I connect the NAS drive to a PC, and the USB S/PDIF through the PC to the DAC? So I will be controlling using the PC, and then maybe switching over to Youtube.

However, given that I am working on the PC/Mac, will the rest of work cause noise that could affect the sound?

 

[cheeseboy]

So can I connect the NAS drive to a PC, and the USB S/PDIF through the PC to the DAC? So I will be controlling using the PC, and then maybe switching over to Youtube.

However, given that I am working on the PC/Mac, will the rest of work cause noise that could affect the sound?

the nas drive would connect to the network, not directly to the pc, as that's what they are for.

From there you can access the files on the nas from you mac/pc/tablet etc..

don't do any digital conversion if you have to, so if you want to use usb, make sure you have a dac with a usb input, otherwise make sure you have a pc/soundcard that has spdif out to the dac.

As for doing other things on the pc/mac, should make any difference, unless those things have sound coming out of them. So for example, if you were playing music through a music player on the pc, and then loaded up a youtube video, you would get the sound from both of them coming out at the same time if that makes sense?

Hopefully that makes sense, I've been staring at screens all day so brain is fried

 

[BigH]

I think you can connect 2 inputs on your dac so why not plug in the NAS and computer seperately? You will need internet connection for youtube. Yes computer can cause some interference.

 

[bonzo75]

Ok makes sense guys. Maybe I can use a USB Spdif from PC to Dac for Youtube, and can connect NAS directly to DAC.

Also heard that Liv Zen Vortex box has an interface that lets me play music from the PC, but then switch over to youtube on that interface so that youtube still flows through the NAS - usb - Dac connection

I will be demoing Dacs vs CD this weekend, and then will be comparing Rega, Naim and Arcam Dacs as well. Will hear Bel Canto Dac separately in another environment. Will keep you posted

 

[BigH]

Can't you use toslink from your computer or NAS?

 

[stevebrock]

My NAS is connected via ethernet to my Wireless router so I see the NAS on my network

Then NAS is connected via USB to S/PDIF converter which plugs inrto the COAXIAL on my DAC

But it can also connect via USB into the USB on my DAC

All my music all is controlled by my iOS app, which needs to see the NAS on the network

Simples!!

 

[stevebrock]

Can't you use toslink from your computer or NAS?

most PCS/NAS's do not have optical or coaxial outputs - just USB

That is why MacMini's connected to a DAC directly via optical are good at being muisc servers - Superb transport imho

 

[BigH]

Can't you use toslink from your computer or NAS?

most PCS/NAS's do not have optical or coaxial outputs - just USB

That is why MacMini's connected to a DAC directly via optical are good at being muisc servers - Superb transport imho

OK, my PC has both, thought many did have that now.

 

[stevebrock]

Guess it depends on the quality of the soundcard, NAS's usually don't - grrrr its a bit annoying sometimes but there is ways round it if you want have hi-res music as hi res isnt support through USB on the cheaper DACS

It's a bloody minefield if you ask me! Now Vinyl is my main source another SBT would of done the job very well instead of the Rega DAC

 

[bonzo75]

Hi Steve, so you are saying a SBT is better than a Rega DAC?

 

[stevebrock]

Hi Steve, so you are saying a SBT is better than a Rega DAC?

No it isnt better imo, but I hardly ever use it - so a SBT would suffice

If CD was my main source then would deffo prefer the Rega DAC

 

[MakkaPakka]

Bear in mind that with an SBT you need to Logitech software running. Not every NAS is capable of running it - you generally need the more expensive ones.

You should be able to pick up an SBT for about £160-ish. They're good but I found it too buggy for my intended use (with a USB drive).

I've done an A/B between my laptop via optical and CD player via coaxial and couldn't detect any difference. This did not surprise me as I'd expect both to be pretty much perfect at moving the data. It comes down to whether or not you want to use physical media.

 

[bonzo75]

Auditioned the Rega, Naim, Bryston, and Musical Fidelity Dacs with Martin Logan EM ESL, using a Bryston amp, and laptop as source, flac lossless. All dacs sounded good, not much to choose from, though obviously there are differences in sound. The MF dac had a very bright sound, that made the acoustic guitar a bit aggressive, but was good for drums relative to the others. That was the only sound that would not be to everyone's taste. I also tried combining the dacs with a bel canto ulink, but didn't make a difference. I enjoyed them all. Bryston was a bit weak on the drums but rich on the acoustic guitar and vocals. Finally played a Bryston CD player, which used to cost 3k pounds to compare, and again could not make out the difference. In a separate setting tried the devialet amp and it's dac with a Wilson benesch expensive speaker, a speaker which I really don't like. The CD player was an expensive audio research CD9 which costs 12k pounds. Taking the CD player out did make a change to the sound but the devialet dac did very well. When we added the bel canto 3.5 dac there was a noticeable drop in quality, but note we are comparing it to a CD player almost 6 times the cost. The devialet did well though. Next weekend I hope to compare the devialet on Martin Logans with AR on an amp basis and naim on a dac basis, and with a CD player

 

[matt49]

In a separate setting tried the devialet amp and it's dac with a Wilson benesch expensive speaker, a speaker which I really don't like. The CD player was an expensive audio research CD9 which costs 12k pounds. Taking the CD player out did make a change to the sound but the devialet dac did very well. When we added the bel canto 3.5 dac there was a noticeable drop in quality, but note we are comparing it to a CD player almost 6 times the cost. The devialet did well though. Next weekend I hope to compare the devialet on Martin Logans with AR on an amp basis and naim on a dac basis, and with a CD player

Glad to hear you liked the Devialet. Which model did you hear?

 

[bonzo75]

Devialet 170