What do I need?

[nopiano]

Certainly the Marantz route is very appealing, and I like the Marantz sound, which helps.

But does it have gapless playback? And if not, wouldn't that drive you nuts? (It would me)

Great thread, by the way, pp. I've been toying on and off with the Olive, Cambridge, Marantz, even maybe the Naims - which I'm hoping to see again at tomorrow's road show. Must say I'm inclined to conclude that many products in the ripping/streaming/network arena seem very flaky, or expensive, or likely to be outdated very soon - or all of the above. I'm sure it is very fascinating, but it seems a long way from advancing the state of sound reproduction. And that makes me wonder what the point is.

Maybe one day we will be able to stream very high quality sound from the Cloud, rather than buying, storing, and playing media, erecting aerials, and tweaking turntables. But I doubt it will really replace people's collections of discs, tapes or whatever, for a generation or two.

 

[Anonymous]

:? Maybe I am Missing something here, but what do these Streamers from Naim, Cyrus, , Yamaha NAD et all do that my, Samsung Net book plus storage plus good quality DAC doesn't do. In some cases these products are 3 to 4 times more expensive

I can play any type of file, store a huge amount of music, run all sorts of different Music Programs such as ITunes, Spotify, Tune in Radio, Monkey Media, Napster, BBC Iplayer, you tube, Unlimited Internet radio stations.

I can run most of these programs at the same time, I have a keyboard to type quickly, I can control it with an IPad app. I have a 10inch screen rather than a tiny display, to display art work or whatever, I can link the Netbook to any display I want. It's quiet, has relatively low power consumption. I can use it wired or wireless!

 

[plastic penguin]

:? Maybe I am Missing something here, but what do these Streamers from Naim, Cyrus, , Yamaha NAD et all do that my, Samsung Net book plus storage plus good quality DAC doesn't do. In some cases these products are 3 to 4 times more expensive I can play any type of file, store a huge amount of music, run all sorts of different Music Programs such as ITunes, Spotify, Tune in Radio, Monkey Media, Napster, BBC Iplayer, you tube, Unlimited Internet radio stations. I can run most of these programs at the same time, I have a keyboard to type quickly, I can control it with an IPad app. I have a 10inch screen rather than a tiny display, to display art work or whatever, I can link the Netbook to any display I want. It's quiet, has relatively low power consumption. I can use it wired or wireless!

Tell me more, Limey - I'm all ears...:dance:

 

[Anonymous]

:? Maybe I am Missing something here, but what do these Streamers from Naim, Cyrus, , Yamaha NAD et all do that my, Samsung Net book plus storage plus good quality DAC doesn't do. In some cases these products are 3 to 4 times more expensive I can play any type of file, store a huge amount of music, run all sorts of different Music Programs such as ITunes, Spotify, Tune in Radio, Monkey Media, Napster, BBC Iplayer, you tube, Unlimited Internet radio stations. I can run most of these programs at the same time, I have a keyboard to type quickly, I can control it with an IPad app. I have a 10inch screen rather than a tiny display, to display art work or whatever, I can link the Netbook to any display I want. It's quiet, has relatively low power consumption. I can use it wired or wireless!

Tell me more, Limey - I'm all ears...:dance:

Hi PP, I have kind of been scratching my head about this for a while. I looked at the Streamers and all in one units and I really couldn't see how they are any more versatile than my set up. Sure if people want to stick to a brand or really hate computers then maybe. I found my system so easy to set up, and the sound quality I can get from it is superb.

I run an NC10 Samsung Netbook which I think cost me Just under £300. It runs on windows XP. I have recently bought a 2tb storage hard drive which is attached to it for £70 and this links to my DAC which cost £229. So all in £600

So that still sounds reasonably expensive until, like in my previous post you start listing what it can actually do.

my Netbook is a dedicated music PC, it has pretty much nothing else on it so it runs nice a smooth .

I started by ripping all my CD's into ITunes, I used iTunes lossless. All these Lossless files are stored on the 2tb storage device. I can run them all through ITunes if I so desire. Next I installed Spotify. I am a premium subscriber so I get a high bit rate and access to 10 million tracks with art work. With Spotify you can now play all iTunes files through it's interface as well, brilliant.

I next installed Tune in radio, giving me access to loads and loads of Internet radio station. In my Previous post I mentioned some of the other programs I use as well.

I have more than enough music that I would ever need! All at the touch of a button with a nice sized screen to look at it on!

Then it's just a case of connecting the Netbook (via bog standard USB) in my case to the DAC, which recognizes it instantly and then a normal pair of phono leads into the amplifier.

it would take me ( minus the ripping of CDs ) literally hours to set up,

questions

 

[Anonymous]

:? Maybe I am Missing something here, but what do these Streamers from Naim, Cyrus, , Yamaha NAD et all do that my, Samsung Net book plus storage plus good quality DAC doesn't do?

IMHO...Nothing. It's all branding. Although I personally use a NAS connected to my modem/router in the hall and do everything wirelessly and control it on my Android phone...Either way, again, IMO, those expensive systems are all fluff and branding.

 

[noogle]

+1 to The Limey. My HTPC has a 42" screen, not a 10" screen though. 🙂

 

[plastic penguin]

:? Maybe I am Missing something here, but what do these Streamers from Naim, Cyrus, , Yamaha NAD et all do that my, Samsung Net book plus storage plus good quality DAC doesn't do. In some cases these products are 3 to 4 times more expensive I can play any type of file, store a huge amount of music, run all sorts of different Music Programs such as ITunes, Spotify, Tune in Radio, Monkey Media, Napster, BBC Iplayer, you tube, Unlimited Internet radio stations. I can run most of these programs at the same time, I have a keyboard to type quickly, I can control it with an IPad app. I have a 10inch screen rather than a tiny display, to display art work or whatever, I can link the Netbook to any display I want. It's quiet, has relatively low power consumption. I can use it wired or wireless!

Tell me more, Limey - I'm all ears...:dance:

Hi PP, I have kind of been scratching my head about this for a while. I looked at the Streamers and all in one units and I really couldn't see how they are any more versatile than my set up. Sure if people want to stick to a brand or really hate computers then maybe. I found my system so easy to set up, and the sound quality I can get from it is superb. I run an NC10 Samsung Netbook which I think cost me Just under £300. It runs on windows XP. I have recently bought a 2tb storage hard drive which is attached to it for £70 and this links to my DAC which cost £229. So all in £600 So that still sounds reasonably expensive until, like in my previous post you start listing what it can actually do. my Netbook is a dedicated music PC, it has pretty much nothing else on it so it runs nice a smooth . I started by ripping all my CD's into ITunes, I used iTunes lossless. All these Lossless files are stored on the 2tb storage device. I can run them all through ITunes if I so desire. Next I installed Spotify. I am a premium subscriber so I get a high bit rate and access to 10 million tracks with art work. With Spotify you can now play all iTunes files through it's interface as well, brilliant. I next installed Tune in radio, giving me access to loads and loads of Internet radio station. In my Previous post I mentioned some of the other programs I use as well. I have more than enough music that I would ever need! All at the touch of a button with a nice sized screen to look at it on! Then it's just a case of connecting the Netbook (via bog standard USB) in my case to the DAC, which recognizes it instantly and then a normal pair of phono leads into the amplifier. it would take me ( minus the ripping of CDs ) literally hours to set up, questions

I don't know of any questions yet. Let me go away for a moment and I'll re-read your post. On first glance it seems very interesting

(Short list +1)

 

[Anonymous]

The Limey wrote:

Maybe I am Missing something here, but what do these Streamers from Naim, Cyrus, , Yamaha NAD et all do that my, Samsung Net book plus storage plus good quality DAC doesn't do?

I could not agree more. As per earlier post I had an Olive one box solution and personally it was a bad experience, nicely presented but didn't do what it should do awfully well and there lies the problem. These one box kits are all about presentation and branding. Take the Meridian Sooloos control 15 which if you unpack it is an LCD touch screen, 500GB hard drive, CD ripper and some fancy software. How on earth they can justify £4750 for that is beyond me. 500GB is a puny disc for starters.

My system was put togather for around £1700 and that includes amp and speakers and multi room. Of course need a laptop but a hard wired NAS into the Sonos works a treat and cd ripping is done via DBPoweramp. Takes some learning etc but much cheaper and in the end I have a 100% digital signal path from start to finish (speaker cables of course excepted)

 

[plastic penguin]

The Limey wrote:

Maybe I am Missing something here, but what do these Streamers from Naim, Cyrus, , Yamaha NAD et all do that my, Samsung Net book plus storage plus good quality DAC doesn't do?

I could not agree more. As per earlier post I had an Olive one box solution and personally it was a bad experience, nicely presented but didn't do what it should do awfully well and there lies the problem. These one box kits are all about presentation and branding. Take the Meridian Sooloos control 15 which if you unpack it is an LCD touch screen, 500GB hard drive, CD ripper and some fancy software. How on earth they can justify £4750 for that is beyond me. 500GB is a puny disc for starters.

My system was put togather for around £1700 and that includes amp and speakers and multi room. Of course need a laptop but a hard wired NAS into the Sonos works a treat and cd ripping is done via DBPoweramp. Takes some learning etc but much cheaper and in the end I have a 100% digital signal path from start to finish (speaker cables of course excepted)

I agree that most of us choose a particular product because of name/reputation. This is exactly why I started this thread: To collate as many different combos and for me to decide which will suit my system, intelligence and budget the best.

Currently still toying for a definitive answer, given the recommendations by most contributors.

 

[iceman16]

🙂

Naim Uniti.

Don't be silly...

If I had different speakers then it would be a serious contender.

If you can let go your rs6 and get some proac's or spendors with the uniti you cant go wrong imo.

 

[plastic penguin]

🙂

Naim Uniti.

Don't be silly...

If I had different speakers then it would be a serious contender.

If you can let go your rs6 and get some proac's or spendors with the uniti you cant go wrong imo.

I can let go of the RS6s, but looking at it sensibly, I don't have the money for wholesale changes - not really practical at the mo.

Rather more attached to the Leema.

Anyway, my issue isn't about SQ, but room (or lack of room is more accurate) to store additional cds.

 

[chebby]

Anyway, my issue isn't about SQ, but room (or lack of room is more accurate) to store additional cds.

Well that's easy. Go through them all and (honestly) ask yourself if you will ever want to play each one again.

If you haven't played one in a few years then don't even ask. Sling it. (Or sell it.)

(Legally, you still need to keep the CDs you rip anyway. I don't think that's changed.)

We have to do the same with books (and DVDs) periodically. Any family, who all love books and music and movies and live in a normal sized home, have to do this sometimes.

As for minimising the hifi, well I've already done that myself this year. Partly for aesthetic reasons, partly for the extra room (and less clutter/cables etc.) and partly because my system was too good* and too big for my needs.

After fees I got almost £2000 selling it off and ended up (with a company bonus added) being able to fund a more appropriate new hifi, a nice new telly, some new furniture, a nice holiday, a new carpet, a new upstairs computer and a few other nick nicks. It's the best decision I made this year.

*It had a CD player I ended up barely using, it had an FM only tuner that (despite being great) was going to have nothing to play in a few years time (and therefore no resale value eventually). The amp started sounding better and better just beyond the point on the volume control which represented the loudest daytime volume I was comfortable with (even with less efficient speakers) so I was rarely hearing it's best. Also, there is always the temptation, especially with Naim, to get on the upgrade 'treadmill' and (despite resisting for two years) it could have ended up being a 'money pit'.

 

[plastic penguin]

Anyway, my issue isn't about SQ, but room (or lack of room is more accurate) to store additional cds.

Well that's easy. Go through them all and (honestly) ask yourself if you will ever want to play each one again.

If you haven't played one in a few years then don't even ask. Sling it. (Or sell it.)

(Legally, you still need to keep the CDs you rip anyway. I don't think that's changed.)

We have to do the same with books (and DVDs) periodically. Any family, who all love books and music and movies and live in a normal sized home, have to do this sometimes.

As for minimising the hifi, well I've already done that myself this year. Partly for aesthetic reasons, partly for the extra room (and less clutter/cables etc.) and partly because my system was too good* and too big for my needs.

After fees I got almost £2000 selling it off and ended up (with a company bonus added) being able to fund a more appropriate new hifi, a nice new telly, some new furniture, a nice holiday, a new carpet, a new upstairs computer and a few other nick nicks. It's the best decision I made this year.

*It had a CD player I ended up barely using, it had an FM only tuner that (despite being great) was going to have nothing to play in a few years time (and therefore no resale value eventually). The amp started sounding better and better just beyond the point on the volume control which represented the loudest daytime volume I was comfortable with (even with less efficient speakers) so I was rarely hearing it's best. Also, there is always the temptation, especially with Naim, to get on the upgrade 'treadmill' and (despite resisting for two years) it could have ended up being a 'money pit'.

Course that's the sensible (and arguably the most logical) solution. Then I would think about selling all my record collection - that hardly gets played, comparatively speaking. Sell the turntable because there's no records; do I need an amp with two phono stages without the TT? Sell the Leema and the antiquated tuner...

Like upgrading can spiral out of control, so can downgrading, almost to the point where everything you've purchased (and built up) from the age of 14 is consigned to the memory bank.

 

[chebby]

... almost to the point where everything you've purchased (and built up) from the age of 14 is consigned to the memory bank.

Are you housing a museum or a music collection?

 

[plastic penguin]

... almost to the point where everything you've purchased (and built up) from the age of 14 is consigned to the memory bank.

Are you housing a museum or a music collection?

Bit of both really.

The ideal solution to my (our) problem here, is to sell the lot and buy a very capable all-in-one solution with a pair of DB1is, or active speakers. And it doesn't matter if certain systems are twice as good as mine, if I'm there feeling very miserable or unhappy then I'll eventually lose interest in the joys of having a decent set-up.

Too many compromises in our household: The hi-fi is one thing that's mine (sad rubbish).

 

[Anonymous]

Note sure if this will help...but I collected hifi over the years so that now I have two complete systems since I just didn't see the point of selling great hifi for very little money. In trying to work out how its all going to fit into the lounge I found two solutions:

- The lounge houses the hifi that you really want to use on a more regular basis, the other components (turntable, FM tuner for example) are put into a separate room, may be a study, and out of the way.

- I was still stuck with very large hifi components to go in the lounge (you can see from my sig). The trick was finding an AV rack that would house the TV and these components in as a compact fashion as possible while looking aesthetically acceptable to the Mrs.

Like I said, not sure if that helps...boils down to what you really want to acheive and thinking laterally about solutions.

 

[chebby]

The trick was finding an AV rack that would house the TV and these components in as a compact fashion as possible while looking aesthetically acceptable to the Mrs.

Unusually (for this forum at least) I was the one who was - eventually - offended by lots of ugly black boxes and ugly black speaker stands and the number of cables used.

"the Mrs" wasn't bothered (at least she never said so or even hinted) but she agrees it all looks a lot better now and she finds the new kit a lot easier to use. She also used to use my old Arcam Solo-Mini with no problems, but the Naim stuff scared her.

 

[Anonymous]

... almost to the point where everything you've purchased (and built up) from the age of 14 is consigned to the memory bank.

Are you housing a museum or a music collection?

Bit of both really.

The ideal solution to my (our) problem here, is to sell the lot and buy a very capable all-in-one solution with a pair of DB1is, or active speakers. And it doesn't matter if certain systems are twice as good as mine, if I'm there feeling very miserable or unhappy then I'll eventually lose interest in the joys of having a decent set-up.

Too many compromises in our household: The hi-fi is one thing that's mine (sad rubbish).

It sounds like to me like you have already made your decision to down size. as always there are quite a few options when downsizing as well. Adam Artist Speakers which have USB input and RCA I think. Peach tree Audio Nova with built in DAC, Marantz MCR603, Arcam solo mini with some sensitive speakers, There is always AVI to lookat, but that usually opens cans of worms.

or find a storage solution for all your media.!

 

[BillDay66]

Hi PP

have you considered ripping all your cds to a NAS (£100 - £200) Adding a Sonos ZP90 (£280) instead of your CD player?

Stick all your cds in loft/shed - Then youre done for awhile. When upgraditis strikes again, add or at least demo an rDAC (you being an arcam fan).

 

[damonster]

PP you have heard the audiolab 8200cd and said you liked it .great cd player great dac, loads of inputs .then you can let me know what speakers go well then.ha ha .

 

[plastic penguin]

PP you have heard the audiolab 8200cd and said you liked it .great cd player great dac, loads of inputs .then you can let me know what speakers go well then.ha ha .

Yup, sure did. I heard PMC DB1is and Totem Arro and both were superb sounding. If you like DB1s character but prefer floorstanders then GB1is are DB1s in a larger cabinet.

I absolutely loved the Totems: don't buy them if like to analyse your music, but if you want fun from the music, allied to rhythm and pace they are fabulous.

Edit - although I heard the Audiolab it was fairly brief with a cd only dem - I didn't hear any streamed music.

 

[plastic penguin]

Hi PP

have you considered ripping all your cds to a NAS (£100 - £200) Adding a Sonos ZP90 (£280) instead of your CD player?

Stick all your cds in loft/shed - Then youre done for awhile. When upgraditis strikes again, add or at least demo an rDAC (you being an arcam fan).

Thanks. Would help if I knew what a NAS was and the benefits?

 

[damonster]

Sorry PP I didn't put my point across very well I meant have you considered the audiolab for yourself .you can use programmes to upload your cd collections and convert to flac .I found streaming via usb sounds just as good as the cds .

 

[BillDay66]

Network Attached Storage - A hard drive attached to your router making its contents available to your network. Rip your cds onto it with software of your choice (db poweramp is good).

Rip using a lossless format like FLAC or ALAC onto the NAS

Then plug a sonos ZP90 into your Leema. The Sonos also needs to be attached to your router by an ethernet cable, or if not practical you can add a Zonebridge to your router which will create a wireless network for the sonos.

You control all this via an Iphone / pad / pod or Sonos own expensive remote. Thats it, you could add a DAC later if you felt the need.

Probably still sounds a bit confusing if you've not done any of this, but it really isn't - easier to do than expalin how to do!

Hope this is of some help?

 

[plastic penguin]

Sorry PP I didn't put my point across very well I meant have you considered the audiolab for yourself .you can use programmes to upload your cd collections and convert to flac .I found streaming via usb sounds just as good as the cds .

I'll 'never say never' to any option, but as you probably know, due to my lack of understanding [and confidence] of modtech, and certainly with the Audiolab's DAC, it's a feasible option.

The more I read about streaming, the more I become apathetic. Clearly something has to be done curtail my collection (storage terms). It'll happen sooner or later: At the moment I'm in that "I don't give a s***" mood, but no doubt that'll change.

Cheers, pp.