Stand Alone Media Server

[amarocknrollstar]

Hi, looking for a stand alone media server. Non-Pc based. Want hi-fi sound. Running it with AMC CD6, Rotel RC/RB870 Pre/Power and Lake Audio 5.2's. Thought I had bought one for £152 on ebay - imerge 1000 but it was a scam - clocked it though before releasing any funds. Don't want to spend much more than that so it's obviously second hand market for me. Any suggestions please. No PC related answers please. Only want PC involvement to transfer files.

Many thanks

Stevie

 

[amarocknrollstar]

Oh, yeah. Meant to say - have no interest in the Cambridge Azur as per reviews.

 

[John Duncan]

Tricky for that sort of money. The audiophile option is the Yamaha cdr-hd1500, though the least it's gone for on eBay is 300 quid. Another cheaper option which may surprise you with its quality is a 160gb classic iPod with a proper dock and lossless files.

Why no PC, out of interest?

 

[amarocknrollstar]

Hey John, thanks for the input.

I'll have a scout for the yamaha. Got an i-pod already which I've found operates inumerably better without a dock. I am of the opinion that i-pod docks should only be used to charge the i-pod battery. No interest in PC option as I believe everything performs it's own function. I wouldn't wash dishes in washing machine for example!

 

[John Duncan]

Agreed, I am pretty much anti-convergence as well, but a PC is actually an ideal hifi source, provided it's set up right. Number of people here can advise.

Sure about the dock? Don't mean a cheap one, but a 60-quid-and-up one, likes of the Onkyo, Denon, Arcam. Video out and remote control. My onkyo sounded v good, though have changed my setup around since.

Course, you can always get the Krell one.............

 

[amarocknrollstar]

Lol, yeah, maybe next week.

Problem is, I use my laptop a lot and don't want to have it sitting in my stereo rack. Also, been down the wireless route and was not impressed. Curious though - have you tried plugging your i-pod into your amp minus the dock? If not, try it.

P.S - How do you change a long link name into a word or two like "Krell one"?

Cheers

 

[John Duncan]

Yes, using a cheapo belkin lead, and it was fine, not much difference, but as a permanent solution, I think the charging dock is just quite elegant, particularly if you do the s-video out to a tv so you can navigate the music with the remote.

For the link, use standard html syntax - <a href=""web" address here">display text here</a>

ie in this example <a href=""http://www.krellonline.com/krell_component.php?id=108&page=KID>Krell" one</a>

cheers

 

[amarocknrollstar]

Think it's just us two in here. Reminds me of my excite chat days! Lol.

Cheers

Stevie

 

[Lugs]

No your not all alone!

I've been procastinating over the media server thing for quite a while and as yet have been consistantly disapointed with all of it. However there is a machine made by Escient (marantz) that an american i know is madly in love with. Think he got it for £400 of e-bay. Which seems quite reasonable in a lower spec system. There is also the hifelio thing which I've seen discounted lots of places.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="amarocknrollstar"]
Hi, looking for a stand alone media server. Non-Pc based. Want hi-fi sound. Running it with AMC CD6, Rotel RC/RB870 Pre/Power and Lake Audio 5.2's. Thought I had bought one for £152 on ebay - imerge 1000 but it was a scam - clocked it though before releasing any funds. Don't want to spend much more than that so it's obviously second hand market for me. Any suggestions please. No PC related answers please. Only want PC involvement to transfer files.

Many thanks

Stevie
[/quote]

A "stand alone media server" offering "hi-fi sound" for £150ish. Well, looking at rest of your system I was hoping you might think it would be okay to spend a grand on a "media server with hi-fi sound". It surprises me, how people are willing to spend thousands on conventional CD players but when comes to a media server they want everything for the price of the storage media + £100.

 

[Anton90125]

I use a Maxtor MSS+ NAS running Firefly

see: http://wiki.fireflymediaserver.org/MSS_Installation

This works a treat, and like you I am not keen on having the PC on every time I want to play some music through the hifi

I use a ethernet network to pipe the streamed .wav files to my Roku M2000 which then feeds my Cyrus DacX

I store all my music files as FLAC on the Nas.

I got the MSS+ and Roku from ebay, the MSS 2.6.2 OpenMSS1-rc2 linux operating system and Firefly are free downloads. There are good forums associated with these bits of software with very helpful/knowledgeable people

 

[amarocknrollstar]

[quote user="ranjeetrain"][quote user="amarocknrollstar"]
Hi, looking for a stand alone media server. Non-Pc based. Want hi-fi sound. Running it with AMC CD6, Rotel RC/RB870 Pre/Power and Lake Audio 5.2's. Thought I had bought one for £152 on ebay - imerge 1000 but it was a scam - clocked it though before releasing any funds. Don't want to spend much more than that so it's obviously second hand market for me. Any suggestions please. No PC related answers please. Only want PC involvement to transfer files.

Many thanks

Stevie

[/quote] A "stand alone media server" offering "hi-fi sound" for £150ish. Well, looking at rest of your system I was hoping you might think it would be okay to spend a grand on a "media server with hi-fi sound". It surprises me, how people are willing to spend thousands on conventional CD players but when comes to a media server they want everything for the price of the storage media + £100.[/quote]

I'd also like to spend a grand mate but a budget IS a budget. Reason I have chosen that figure is because I know that I can get an Imerge 1000 for that price. If I can get a product as good as that for £160, then why pay more?

 

[amarocknrollstar]

[quote user="Anton90125"]
I use a Maxtor MSS+ NAS running Firefly

see: http://wiki.fireflymediaserver.org/MSS_Installation

This works a treat, and like you I am not keen on having the PC on every time I want to play some music through the hifi

I use a ethernet network to pipe the streamed .wav files to my Roku M2000 which then feeds my Cyrus DacX

I store all my music files as FLAC on the Nas.

I got the MSS+ and Roku from ebay, the MSS 2.6.2 OpenMSS1-rc2 linux operating system and Firefly are free downloads. There are good forums associated with these bits of software with very helpful/knowledgeable people

[/quote]

Thanks buddy, I'll look into it.

 

[amarocknrollstar]

[quote user="Lugs"]
No your not all alone!

I've been procastinating over the media server thing for quite a while and as yet have been consistantly disapointed with all of it. However there is a machine made by Escient (marantz) that an american i know is madly in love with. Think he got it for £400 of e-bay. Which seems quite reasonable in a lower spec system. There is also the hifelio thing which I've seen discounted lots of places.

[/quote]

Thanks buddy, I've heard a few favourable reports on this - will look into it.

Stevie

 

[up the music]

I too am financially challenged at present and my PC is a noisy (fans and drives) beast, besides I blew up my sound card last week
I've settled on the following solution for the time being. USB2 media hard drive from Maplin with digital coax and scart outs (branded as Inoi or ATMT). This plays WAV and MP3 (not FLAC, AAC or APE), and 500gig is approx £110. It doesn't support playlists and needs a TV to see what you're playing, which may be a problem. Play must be stopped before you can browse for files too. It does have the advantage of playing MPG2 video and DVD files though.The supplied remote is rubbish but I have a learning remote anyway. The drive isn't as silent as I'd like but even playing quiet music is mostly unobtrusive.
This feeds an Arcam Black Box 50 DAC which is long discontinued now, but was a £30 bargain from Cash Converters.You could EBay something similar.
The sound? Playing through an Exposure XIX pre amp,pair of Super XVIII power amps and bi amped Acoustic Energy AE1 mk2 speakers, it's not a million miles from my Cambridge 640C CD player analogue outs and better than my Panasonic DVD player.
Cost £140 without cables, remote and TV.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="up the music"]
I too am financially challenged at present and my PC is a noisy (fans and drives) beast, besides I blew up my sound card last week
I've settled on the following solution for the time being. USB2 media hard drive from Maplin with digital coax and scart outs (branded as Inoi or ATMT). This plays WAV and MP3 (not FLAC, AAC or APE), and 500gig is approx £110. It doesn't support playlists and needs a TV to see what you're playing, which may be a problem. Play must be stopped before you can browse for files too. It does have the advantage of playing MPG2 video and DVD files though.The supplied remote is rubbish but I have a learning remote anyway. The drive isn't as silent as I'd like but even playing quiet music is mostly unobtrusive.
This feeds an Arcam Black Box 50 DAC which is long discontinued now, but was a £30 bargain from Cash Converters.You could EBay something similar.
The sound? Playing through an Exposure XIX pre amp,pair of Super XVIII power amps and bi amped Acoustic Energy AE1 mk2 speakers, it's not a million miles from my Cambridge 640C CD player analogue outs and better than my Panasonic DVD player.
Cost £140 without cables, remote and TV.

[/quote]

Though not the best that's there to achieve, but quite impressive, I must say. Where there is a will, there is a way

 

[amarocknrollstar]

Well, you may curse and swear but picked up a very cheap Sony (yes SONY, I know!) Hard1000 player.Heard some mixed reviews but the majority are on the favourable side. I reckon with a good DAC it'll be a winner - trial and error with this one I suppose. But at the price...

 

[Alec]

That Escient Fireball MP3 Music Server seems just the kinda thing im after - id have to use flac which ive never used before but im sure i can get over that. Does anyone know (im sorry, i know these are thick questions) whether itd connect to a crt and work ok? And would it be as simple as putting a cd in, telling it to rip in flac, and thats that?

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="al7478"]Does anyone know (im sorry, i know these are thick questions) whether itd connect to a crt and work ok? And would it be as simple as putting a cd in, telling it to rip in flac, and thats that?[/quote]

May be a little more than that. But hey, the sound of music. Think!

 

[Alec]

ive just read the manual and it seems to say itll just do it. select FLAC and tell it to rip. Bobs yer uncle. only thing there was no referece to is switching from having it on screen to switching to watching telly (without interrupting music playback), which id really love to do.

 

[Andrew Everard]

It just connects to one of your TV's video inputs - when you want to watch TV you just switch from that input to the TV's tuner and that's it.

 

[Alec]

And the music would keep playing? Could i do it with a crt? Sorry, connections are something im spectacularly bad with - and thats probably an understatement!

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="al7478"]And the music would keep playing? Could i do it with a crt? [/quote]

Yes and yes! Music will keep playing. And yes, crt tvs are not so bad. They come with multiple input as well. When you hook up your Escient it will go to one of INPUT1, INPUT2 or INPUT3.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="fr0g"]Popcorn hour looks interesting...popcorn hour[/quote]

Absolutely! thanks for the link.

 

[Alec]

ranjeetrain - thankyouvermuch! now i just have to decide whether to get it for 300 on ebay soon or wait a while, and maybe end up having to pay more. its usually bout 700 i think. thanks for the link fr0g.