Digital Audio Without Computer

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A simple question with what I think is a not so simple answer...(is it ever).......Is it possible to play digital audio without having to use a computer?

I am not including iPods in this, what I need to know is can I use a HDD / NAS drive of some sort. My initial investigations say no but maybe someone out there could advise differently.

 

[Anonymous]

raym87:

A simple question with what I think is a not so simple answer...(is it ever).......Is it possible to play digital audio without having to use a computer?

I am not including iPods in this, what I need to know is can I use a HDD / NAS drive of some sort. My initial investigations say no but maybe someone out there could advise differently.

A simple HDD/NAS won't be enough. At the minimum you would need a media player that you can connect to your TV and amp. You still need a display in order to control what is being played, so either a computer or TV screen, etc. I stand to be corrected though, but the way I understand it it's not possible.

 

[Anonymous]

You could try an Apple TV, which is not very computer like, more like a games console, it is driven by a remote, not a keyboard.

http://www.apple.com/uk/appletv/

You can play the lossless audio it encodes out of the optical and into a DAC etc

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry I'm wrong this doesn't encode, you can buy all the music you like from Apple, but you would need a computer to rip CDs

 

[John Duncan]

Plenty - you could look here first. Does depend on whether you want to never have a computer involved ever though - if using the PC to rip would be ok, you can add squeezebox and Sneaky and all sorts of other clients plus NAS to the mix.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm going to assume you have a wireless network already since you've mentioned you have an Airport Express attached to the DacMagic. Taking that into account, I think you're really asking (I hope) if you can save the music on to your NAS drive and play it digitally through you're Airport Express/DAC/AMP without using you're computer to play the music - if that is the question then yes, you can do that. You need a computer clearly in order to rip all your music and save it to your NAS drive, but once it's on there you can buy the Apple TV and plug it into your int amp/receiver and also your tv. It comes with its own remote and the Apple TV will pull the music off the NAS drive, so your computer need not be on to use it and listen to your music.

So a computer is needed to begin with obviously as you need a way to get the music ripped and onto your NAS drive, but once that's done, you can use a product like the Apple TV to play your media without any computer involved. There are other products available too, but I'm partial to the excellent interface of iTunes to save all my music and playlists, TV shows and hundreds of movies I have stored on my NAS drive(s) and if you're using iTunes then the Apple TV is the obvious extension to play your music the way you want to. I'm guessing you know this bit but just in case - it will remain digital from the NAS to the Apple TV and then if you use the optical out on the Apple TV and plug it into your DacMagic you can use the DacMagic as your DAC to get better sound quality.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies so far....Apple TV needs investigating further. I had a good look at it on the Apple site but I couldnt find anywhere that said that it could be used without the computer. Thanks for clearing up that point....it should do whats required

 

[John Duncan]

raym87:Thanks for the replies so far....Apple TV needs investigating further. I had a good look at it on the Apple site but I couldnt find anywhere that said that it could be used without the computer. Thanks for clearing up that point....it should do whats required

As long as you know you need the computer first, then sync it. You're limited to 160 gig local storage, but it can stream other stuff if the computer's on.

 

[Anonymous]

Yamaha used to do a CD/HDD combo where you could rip music to it without the need of a PC. There might some on EBay. If you go to ripcaster.co.uk they might have something meets your needs.

 

[John Duncan]

The HDR-1000...

EDIT - correction, CDRHD-1500 (so practically none of the letters or numbers were right)

 

[Anonymous]

The computer does not need to be on to stream stuff to the Apple TV if you are using a NAS drive to store the music/movie files.

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572

 

[Anonymous]

Hey...that WD TV looks a cracker....I will look some more. Thanks

 

[Alec]

raym87:Hey...that WD TV looks a cracker....I will look some more. Thanks

It does look interesting. Seagate do a similar thing too. Ive only had a quick look at both so, let us know what you find...?

EDIT - doesnt exactly seem versatile. Only seems to have HDMI, Composite A/V and USB 2.0 connections.

EDIT - This looks better from a connections POV, but not as good for lossless formats.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm also interested in same thing, playing digital music from NAS to a HI-FI (without PC).

There are number of media players that do exactly that and most of them requires additional software installed on NAS device (twonky server for example, my NAS WD MyWorld that I bought recently has Twonky server installed). I was looking for a device that don't need to be connected to a TV, that has it's own display on unit or on a remote control and I found Philips has a Streamium series of media players (in this case models NP 1100 or NP 2500 would do a job), Sonos also has a nice player, Roku Soundbridge etc. They all has affordable price, but there are also more expensive (and more seriuos with high quality DACs) devices such a TaelektroakustikÿMP 1250 R that costs about 4000 EUR.

I don't have big choice here in Serbia, none of those devices could be found here