Question How to play digital audio from HDD / USB stick through Stereo amp

[ssimlai]

I own a few pieces of old equipment, comprising Hamaha R-S202 amp, Advance acoustic CD player, TEAC dual tape machine W-790R and a turntable. I realised only much later that I should have bought an amp with USB port, which I didn’t.

I now have a stock of music in hundreds, which I’m itching to play through my Yamaha speakers but can’t, because there’s equipment I have that would allow me to play hard disk based or SSD / USB stick based digital audio.

The amp only has RCA analogue inputs.

Any tip on this direction will help me decide. However, I am not in favour of playing music from a computer. Music for me is for listening in a relaxed mood, and a computer makes me unstable.

 

[Gray]

Music for me is for listening in a relaxed mood, and a computer makes me unstable.

Me too.
Although I'm currently using one Raspberry Pi to play USB / SSD files through the hi-fi and another to play them through a separate headphone rig.
RPi is a computer, though it doesn't act like one, for me it's a streamer.

Some form of streaming interface is what you need.
How much would you like to spend?
Something like the Wiim Ultra would do what you want and more.

 

[ssimlai]

Thanks for your response. Yes I’m referring to a computer. But what I don’t want to do is to use the sound card outputs to play music. I would like to transfer all that HDD based music to “another device” which can work as a standalone digital audio player connected to my amplifier through RCA L-R jacks. No computer in the audio chain.

I believe there could be something called media player or a digital audio player that can allow storage and playback of music. Of course when I want to edit song parameters or add or delete songs or create playlists, I will certainly have to use a computer which would be less than once a year may be.

 

[ssimlai]

Me too.
Although I'm currently using one Raspberry Pi to play USB / SSD files through the hi-fi and another to play them through a separate headphone rig.
RPi is a computer, though it doesn't act like one, for me it's a streamer.

Some form of streaming interface is what you need.
How much would you like to spend?
Something like the Wiim Ultra would do what you want and more.

Thanks and I’ll surely look into your suggestion. As for budget, I do not have an idea but may be between £100 - £200 as a wild guess.

 

[Gray]

I believe there could be something called media player or a digital audio player that can allow storage and playback of music.

Yes, a media player is what the RPi is for me.
Media players stream your music from the USB stick to your hi-fi - they don't actually store the music themselves.
You can get streamers with internal storage (effectively just an SSD built in) - but unfortunately not within your £200 budget.

The DAP you mention will store your files and play them through your existing hi-fi, but you'll find (unless someone knows otherwise) they're usually a fair bit more than £200

 

[Cork]

You could install Plex or Jellyfin on your PC/laptop; then use an old phone with a headphone jack to connect to your receiver. Then stream from your Plex server. (Wouldn't need a wired connection).

Or, just use the old phone with a headphone jack and a microSD card and load everything on there. This is probably the cheapest, especially if you have an old phone laying around.

But what you really want to do is play from an HDD. So I'd go with a single drive NAS that can output through a USB ( using USB to RCA adapter). Using a NAS lets you modify the drive contents from your laptop but play via NAS s/w.

 

[Fandango Andy]

I own a few pieces of old equipment, comprising Hamaha R-S202 amp, Advance acoustic CD player, TEAC dual tape machine W-790R and a turntable. I realised only much later that I should have bought an amp with USB port, which I didn’t.

I now have a stock of music in hundreds, which I’m itching to play through my Yamaha speakers but can’t, because there’s equipment I have that would allow me to play hard disk based or SSD / USB stick based digital audio.

The amp only has RCA analogue inputs.

Any tip on this direction will help me decide. However, I am not in favour of playing music from a computer. Music for me is for listening in a relaxed mood, and a computer makes me unstable.

Ultimately you need some kind of interface. As much as you don't want to use it, a laptop is the easiest way to do it.

Some streamers have a USB input, so you could start there.

The only other way I can think of, is your amp anywhere near a smart TV? Plug you USB by in to the TV, connect a DAC to the TV (unless it has analogue outputs) and the DAC to your amp. Use your TV remote to select tracks via your TV.

 

[Gray]

Ultimately you need some kind of interface. As much as you don't want to use it, a laptop is the easiest way to do it.

Yep, that's your media player with built-in storage.

 

[jjbomber]

Fiio K11? Plug the HDD into the rear. Connect the line output to the Hifi.

FiiO K11 (Black)

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