Music Server advice wanted

[admin_exported]

Hi everybody, I have been trying to find a new piece of kit to replace my Nad 515BEE CD player. I have a Nad 326BEE amp and Monitor Audio Bronze BX2 speakers.

I am looking for a music server with features similar to the Olive 03HD, but not at that sort of price. By features, I mean hard disk music storage to store my MP3 and FLAC music, and also with a CD player in the same unit.

I would consider a unit that would connect to an external drive or memory stick.

I have seen the Brennan JB7 and some older music servers such as the Cambridge Audio Azur 640H but there doesn't seem to be much choice around.

I intend to keep by amp and speakers so I would like something of a similar proce/performance.

Any ideas ?

Thanks

 

[plastic penguin]

This may be the answer. http://www.richersounds.com/product/tuners/marantz/na7004/mara-na7004-blk I've heard it and pound-for-pound is better sounding than the Olive.

 

[amcluesent]

Cocktail Audio X10. It's one of the very few music players with internal hard disk. That said, I'd still recommend a Squeezebox Touch and NAS.

AFAIK all the devices with in-built CD use them just for ripping, it's not a CD player as such.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice, I had already considered the Marantz, but I want a unit with a CD drive. The COCKTAIL AUDIO X10 looks promising. Just checked the specs and it has built in amplification, would it sound better using my Nad amp ?

Thanks

 

[Overdose]

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/apple-mac-mini-mc270b-a-refurbished-desktop-pc-white-08909098-pdt.html?srcid=867&cmpid=comp~Google~~08909098&istCompanyId=9a35962d-802d-4e67-9721-0a3328ca1f02&istItemId=xpxpappt&istBid=t

Add something like a Berhinger UCA202 to get you started DAC wise and off you jolly well go.

 

[jonomd]

Hi, I have a Yamaha cdr-hd1500. It will do what you want and usually about £250 on the bay . It is about 250GB of uncompressed music. There are smaller ones at cheaper prices. This was one of best performers at the time.

The main problem with playing music on the cd player is the noise of the hard drive from time to time. When playing of the hard drive no noise from drive at all hence I still have a separate cd player.

Also on the yamaha and older machines there is a lot of work in ripping cds and typing in titles so in a way the likes of cocktail audio will make life a lot easier.(have looked at this myself but yamaha still does the job)

In saying that once done the Yamaha is a very good performer.

I found when i got the yamaha and ripped the cds the cd player was rarely used afterwards.

Only thing to be aware of is on some machines yamaha included if hard drive dies there is no way of backing up so you have to start again. hence big advantage of nas drive option