Media Receiver?

[clichy219]

Hello!

I’d like to ask the What HiFi community a question concerning digital music playing options. This is my first post, so I apologize in advance if I’m in the wrong place or using the wrong terminology!

My situation is as follows: I’m looking for a music receiver in order to play my digital music library (virtually all of it is FLAC/ALAC). Thus far I have been using either an iPod or my computer to play the music files, but really what I’d like is a audiophile-grade device that can both store and play my music. My music library is currently only about 100 GB in size.

Is there anything like this that exists out there? I suppose if I had to give a budget it would be between $250-$350, though I could go up to $400 if the extra money really made a noticeable difference in audio quality.

My set up is a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 10.5 tower speakers with a Marantz PM6005 Hi-Fi amp.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[cheeseboy]

you mention and ipod and ALAC, which i'm guessing means you have your music in Itunes? That is a considering factor as you'd need something to serve those files.

If you are ok with leaving your computer on and it's near the stereo then maybe look at a dac to connect up to that, otherwise you might want to look at something like a synology nas which can serve itunes, then you can actually connect a dac up to that directly.

Can you let us know how you want to use it, if that makes any sense? Apologies if not.

 

[clichy219]

First off, thanks for the quick reply. Very cool.

Yes, I currently play my music through iTunes but am not terribly fond of it, so if there is a better option I’m in no way against it.

Maybe it is worth mentioning that my amplifier already has an integrated DAC. Technically I don’t know what the ramifications are if I were to use two DACs. Does it make a difference? Add distortion to the audio?

As for how I intend to use it, (I hope my answer responds to your question) I imagine simply transferring all my music to the device, then using a tablet or smartphone to view the files available, and once I select the song/album, the device (and I suppose per your recommendation this would be the Synology NAS..?) would play the file. Ultimately it wouldn’t be WiFi playback, as the audio files would be housed in the device. I would only use the WiFi network to sort/sift through them.

Does that make sense? Again, thanks for your help, and I apologize in advance for sounding like such an amateur at this.

 

[cheeseboy]

in theory, you should be able to buy a synology nas which would serve both your itunes and non itunes files, then plug that directly in to your amp. The synology has a music player app, which can be controlled from your phone/tablet so you'd be good to go.

The only issue with ITunes is you'd probably have to convert all the ALAC into FLAC in order to get maximum compatibility, but that's kind of a faffing around once you have everything set up step. At this moment, I don't know off the top off my head if it's possible to play any of the itunes library directly from the synology, but you should be able to look that up on their website.

Might be a good place to start, and then if you feel the need to upgrade, the NAS would still be used to house all the music to send to whatever device you choose. There are people on here who run the synology directly up to a dac with very good results, so maybe have a quick search for Synology on the forums (although the forums are a bit flaky at the moment, so not sure what it would turn up).

If you don't go down the NAS route, you'll need to leave your pc on to serve the music, and if you are doing that, you may as well just plug the pc directly in to the amp and then run jriver/foobar or something that can be controlled via a tablet/phone.

Hope this helps.

 

[clichy219]

This most certainly does help, will look into it. Just one last question though, is the native audio player from Synology audiophile grade? Or should I look to play my audio files through another app (I don't even know if that is possible on the Synology NAS...)

Thanks a million.

 

[cheeseboy]

This most certainly does help, will look into it. Just one last question though, is the native audio player from Synology audiophile grade? Or should I look to play my audio files through another app (I don't even know if that is possible on the Synology NAS...)

Thanks a million.

in computer terms, providing the output is what they call bitperfect, that's the best you can get. What that means is that the computer literally passed the information from one part to the next without doing anything to the singal (when I use the term computer, this would include the nas) AFAIK, the synology does output bitperfectly. I tend not to use the term audiophile as I find it wooly to say the least and in a lot of cases, doesn't really apply in the computer field.

 

[davedotco]

Hi clichy.

Firstly, what you are asking for is actually a little bit more complex than you might think. If I understand you correctly, you are looking for a single device that serves two, maybe three separate functions.

You want the device to hold your music, therefore it has to have a hard drive, pretty rare at the budget end of the market, then it needs a 'streamer' a device that can find, access and play your music by transfering it from where it is stored and delivering it either digitally or in analogue form to your dac/amplifier. Finally you want to be able to control all that remotely from a phone or tablet.

The only thing close to budget that will do most of this would be a Coctail Audio X10, currently £350 at Richer Sounds, though it is a device not held that in high regard. The Synologie Network drive will work though both the setup and the opperation is a bit 'techy'.

The 'normal' solution is a two box setup of streamer, ideally one with a good control app and a network drive for storage. Both deviced will need to be on your network. A reasonable interim solution is to get such a streamer and access your music from your computer or even by plugging in your iPod, add a network drive at a later date.

 

[Gazzip]

For my money the most important element of any network/streaming player solution is the user interface, usually an IOS or Android controller app. There are many, many available but beware that they can be very different from one another and the experience is a personal/subjective one. What one person considers intuitive another may find frustrating. If you get this bit wrong then you may as well just stick to CD's in my opinion.

 

[ifor]

You could consider a Raspberry Pi with a HiFiBerry Digi unit attached. Attach a hard disk by USB to the Pi and feed the DAC in your amp by optical or coaxial from the HiFiBerry Digi. Use Rune Audio software in the Pi. The user interface from any browser is really good.

 

[tino]

A one-box solution would be the Sony HAP-S1 ... This has a 500GB internal drive, LCD UI, integral 40W amp. It can be controlled by phone or tablet. it migt be slightly over budget but you can sell your existing amp.

 

[clichy219]

Thanks for all the input you guys, this has been a warm welcome to the What HiFi community! I'm going to look into the Synology option, will check back here in a few days once I have one more research.

 

[iMark]

Since you already own a Marantz PM6005 which has optical in and a DAC I suggest that you buy an Apple Airport Express. Your files are already in ALAC in iTunes. Just leave all the tracks on your computer in ALAC and simply stream them to the Airport Express. You could use an iPhone, iPad or MacBook as a remote control for the iTunes library.

We've been doing this for 5 years and find it incredibly convenient. To our ears ripped CDs as ALAC files sound better than the original CDs because of the errors already corrected in the ALAC files.

No need to look for 'audiophile' grade streamers. The Airport Express streams bit perfect ALAC through the Airplay protocol.

 

[davedotco]

Since you already own a Marantz PM6005 which has optical in and a DAC I suggest that you buy an Apple Airport Express. Your files are already in ALAC in iTunes. Just leave all the tracks on your computer in ALAC and simply stream them to the Airport Express. You could use an iPhone, iPad or MacBook as a remote control for the iTunes library.

We've been doing this for 5 years and find it incredibly convenient. To our ears ripped CDs as ALAC files sound better than the original CDs because of the errors already corrected in the ALAC files.

No need to look for 'audiophile' grade streamers. The Airport Express streams bit perfect ALAC through the Airplay protocol.

If your computing hardware is Apple based, this is an excellent and inexpensive solution.

This is particularly true when you see the outrageous prices charged by established hi-fi companies for dedicated streamers, if I was spending 'serious' money, I think I would go for a Sonos Connect, at least it has a decent interface.

 

[marou]

I use a Innuos Zen, which incorporates a Logitech player, through a Peachtree Nova using iPeng as a controller. Works very well and the Innuos customer support is outstanding.

 

[davedotco]

I use a Innuos Zen, which incorporates a Logitech player, through a Peachtree Nova using iPeng as a controller. Works very well and the Innuos customer support is outstanding.

I have had hands on a couple of Vortexbox based systems in the past and the setup is very robust. Simple enough to use for the tech savvy but maybe just a little too 'computer' for some hi-fi users.

A very decent one box solution by the looks of it, I have no experience of the Innuos software, so can not really comment on the interface and usability.

Cost remains an issue though, well over budget.

 

[cal]

Sounds like you could help me. My external hardrive has 24 bit flac on. I plug it into my Panasonic bdt130 blu-ray player's usb. So will the Blu-ray player send the 24 bit out the optical into my Onkyo a9050 integrated amplifiers onboard dac so I get hi-res audio out me diamond 220 speakers. Thanks