music server

[admin_exported]

Having collected a few hundred cd"s (not sure how many,can"t be bothered to count) over the years i now feel that i would like to put them to a music server. (if thats the right phrase) You see i don"t have the time to listen to music the way i used to, i.e. sitting down and listening to music through my stereo.I listen to my music mainly through my ipod or in my car.When i bought cd"s i usually put them on my ipod if so desired then put them away with the rest of them and never really dug them out again. Now i just download what i want from itunes.Whats the point of having them twice. What i"d like to do now is put them on something like the yamaha cdr 1500 with it"s 250 gb hardrive and get rid of my cd collection (ouch, thats going to hurt).Does anyone have any views or experience with this unit,what can i expect from it as for as the quality is concerned.Any info on this would be appreciated especially from the whathifi team. thanks. mick

 

[Thaiman]

I am using Yamaha MusicCast 2000 160 GB model which I have plan to upgrade it to 300 Gigs.

Personally I think it is fantastic. I am using digital out through Sugden Masterclass DAC and it sound Highend enough to please the fussy sod like me.

 

[Anonymous]

I use a Macbook Pro, an iMac with a 700 gig hard drive as well as a 500 gig La Cie on the network (at home and work) and an Apple TV and it's the most fun I've ever had from hi fi, so please go to an Apple shop before you do anything or look on the web at www.apple.com/store (UK is found bottom right of page).

They all have an optical digital out so sound quality is entirely down to the quality of DAC you choose, an Edirol UA25 from the Pro sector is hard to beat and it's got high quality A to Ds' so you can digitise anything analogue and bung it in iTunes as well. Audio companion is a fantastic program. It's about £150.

Best of luck!

Ash

 

[Clare Newsome]

drbeeker: Having collected a few hundred cd"s (not sure how many,can"t be bothered to count) over the years i now feel that i would like to put them to a music server. (if thats the right phrase) You see i don"t have the time to listen to music the way i used to, i.e. sitting down and listening to music through my stereo.I listen to my music mainly through my ipod or in my car.When i bought cd"s i usually put them on my ipod if so desired then put them away with the rest of them and never really dug them out again. Now i just download what i want from itunes.Whats the point of having them twice. What i"d like to do now is put them on something like the yamaha cdr 1500 with it"s 250 gb hardrive and get rid of my cd collection (ouch, thats going to hurt).Does anyone have any views or experience with this unit,what can i expect from it as for as the quality is concerned.Any info on this would be appreciated especially from the whathifi team. thanks. mick

Hi Mick,

Do you just want to enjoy this new digital collection of yours in one room, or all over the house?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Clare - probably just in one room would be fine. Thanks

 

[Clare Newsome]

In which case - as you've already got a computer, and what sounds like a thriving iTunes collection - Ashley's suggestion of an Apple TV makes sense. It's Mac or PC compatible, by the way, so you don't have to change your computer (though you'll probably want to either upgrade or add storage to cope with all those CDs you're going to rip - a back-up drive isn't a bad idea so you don't lose all those tunes, either).

 

[John Duncan]

Not keen on this "rip and get rid of" idea though, unless it's to the loft..........

 

[Clare Newsome]

Not all of us live in cavernous houses with the luxury of a loft, JD

 

[Xanderzdad]

I am no legal expert but out of interest wouldn't "ripping" them and then getting rid of the cd's, by which I assume you mean selling them, be a breach of copyright as you have retained a copy of something that you would no longer own?

 

[Ajani]

Xanderzdad:I am no legal expert but out of interest wouldn't "ripping" them and then getting rid of the cd's, by which I assume you mean selling them, be a breach of copyright as you have retained a copy of something that you would no longer own?

Yep... definitely illegal... what I did to save space was rip all my CDs to a HD and then throw away the CD cases but keep the CDs and booklets in some case logic folders.... also it means I have all my original CDs as backup copies in case my HD fails...

 

[Anonymous]

This is the suggestion my wife came up with up also,(using the computer or an apple mac ) and i"m getting the "told you so" from her at the moment.Think the original idea bode well for me because it still felt "real hifi" to me, if you see what i mean,will have to look further into this. many thanks for all suggestions.

 

[John Duncan]

Clare Newsome:Not all of us live in cavernous houses with the luxury of a loft, JD

Cavernous. Nice idea.

But whatever you use for storage, and irrespective of the illegality of ripping in the first place, it was the immorality of then getting rid of the CDs that I had an issue with.........

 

[John Duncan]

drbeeker:This is the suggestion my wife came up with up also,(using the computer or an apple mac ) and i"m getting the "told you so" from her at the moment.Think the original idea bode well for me because it still felt "real hifi" to me, if you see what i mean,will have to look further into this. many thanks for all suggestions.

Get your point about the advantage of the Yamaha et al (and the Yam is a bargain now), but a computer can be just as hifi as the servers you suggest, and is more flexible in terms of adding storage and feeding sound round the house........

 

[Alec]

ripping in the first place is illegal in this country as far as i know. thing is, its a civil offence for which you almost certainly wont be pursued (again AFAIK). So i dont really, in real-life legal terms, see the harm in adding one such offence to another (getting rid of the cds - which im not sure clare explicitly reccommended). Now, the morality of course is a quite different matter, which im not going to comment on. I would say on a practical level that you never know when having the CD may come in handy tho.

 

[madeinstein]

Clare Newsome:In which case - as you've already got a computer, and what sounds like a thriving iTunes collection - Ashley's suggestion of an Apple TV makes sense. It's Mac or PC compatible, by the way, so you don't have to change your computer (though you'll probably want to either upgrade or add storage to cope with all those CDs you're going to rip - a back-up drive isn't a bad idea so you don't lose all those tunes, either).

Clare so why would someone want to choose one of the music servers (Arcam, Naim) or one of the Linn DS boxes. They all cost 1k+ which sound a lot when you compare to apple TV or Squeezebox + DAC.

I've heard that squeezebox connected to the same DAC sounds better than Apple Airport both connected via digital out. Why would that be then. I had a discussion on this topic about digital out that it might loose some info (in theory) and the question is whether apple tv, squeezbox is good enough not to loose the frame?

Would DAC costing around 150£ be comparable with Linn DS?

 

[professorhat]

madeinstein:Clare so why would someone want to choose one of the music servers (Arcam, Naim) or one of the Linn DS boxes. They all cost 1k+ which sound a lot when you compare to apple TV or Squeezebox + DAC.
Probably because they are perceived as being simpler to setup / use and because they are made my classically known hi-fi brands. (NB- I wouldn't buy them, but I'm playing devil's advocate).

 

[Anonymous]

professorhat:madeinstein:Clare so why would someone want to choose one of the music servers (Arcam, Naim) or one of the Linn DS boxes. They all cost 1k+ which sound a lot when you compare to apple TV or Squeezebox + DAC. Probably because they are perceived as being simpler to setup / use and because they are made my classically known hi-fi brands. (NB- I wouldn't buy them, but I'm playing devil's advocate).

I agree prof.

The OP should look at computer mags for solutions as well as HiFi mags as you are in cross over terratory here. There are a lot of NAS based devices that will do the job and some dedicated media server boxes from the likes of Freecom etc that can do the job for under £200.

 

[madeinstein]

welshboy:The OP should look at computer mags for solutions as well as HiFi mags as you are in cross over terratory here. There are a lot of NAS based devices that will do the job and some dedicated media server boxes from the likes of Freecom etc that can do the job for under £200.

welshboy you're right.. when you go for IT solution rather than Hi-Fi one you can build really good single/multiroom system spending
only few hundred quid rather then thousands. And the user interface in Apple/Squeezbox is so much better than the big hifi brands.

I personally would probably go for NAS+WiFi solution rather than Apple TV mostly because of the storage size although AppleTV is cool

The only question then is which DAC is comparable with ~£1k CD player? (I've created new topic for this as I didn't want to hijack the original question on this one)