Your Opinion

[sanbar]

Hi
I am a new user. I have been viewing your site for the last year. I enjoy reading the various posts even some of the more technical ones which are sometimes beyond my understanding. It is very heartening to see that people are passionate about quality audio

Over the last couple of months I have got back into listening to music . I have an Arcam A29 Amp , Rega 2 turntable and Arcam Alpha Cd player .Over the years I have built up a collection of cds recently I went through them all some still had the plastic on them and I found a few that I bought twice

I want to be able to access and play my cds easier. I have come up with two solutions the Brennan B2 2TB costing about 600 sterling including delivery or the Innuos Cen Mini MJ11 2TB with the Sonos Connect costing about 1200 Euros .Roughly there is about 500 euros in the difference

I would be grateful for any of your thoughts / views on the above ie is it worthwhile paying the extra 500 euros for the Innuos

I genuinely appreciate any feedback you may have and would like to thank you for taking the time to read this

[Adrian]

Welcome to the forum!

1200 will also get you a Bluesound Vault 2.

However I would recommend chatting to other users here who are well into digital audio before committing any cash, large or small etc.

In addition there could be a option of paying a few house visits for home demos etc from various users.

Album artwork, ease of use, ease of archiving etc are all important. In addition don't forget to back up your library of digital files.

The vault 2 I find very good, but there has been some teething problems but various updates have made things better. There has also been a learning curve with the equipment as well.

[Sloop John B]

Hi Sanbar and welcome.

I think you may be overpricing the zen, £800 is what my googling comes up with.

Either way you are probably buying tech you already have. A few questions:

• do you have a home computer with a CD ROM drive?

• have you ripped CDs before into ITunes for example?

• Do you have an IPAD or tablet device?

If you have the first and last above you will be able to set up a system for a max of €150 using your current equipment, the magic link is the Raspberry Pi or Squeezebox Touch.

The Pi gives more options but there is still a lot of life left in the Squeezebox touch yet and they are easier to set up.

So

Buy dBPoweramp and start ripping your CDs.
Buy a used Squeezebox Touch
Install the free LMS software on your PC
Install the free Squeezebox app on your phone or tablet
Have PC and Squeezebox on the same network (it works wirelessly)
Minimal setup and your ripped music is playing from your Arcam amp.


.sjb

[Fran]

Hi Sanbar,

I think there are quite a few better sounding and far cheaper options out there rather than either of the 2 you mention. Usually you cna do it very cheap if you are willing to work a bit at the computer side. An old laptop with an install of Daphile coupled with a good USB dac would give you excellent sound quality for about 500e or so.


Fran

[Diapason]

As always it depends on the level of simplicity you want, and the level of sonics you're hoping to achieve. FWIW, the Bluesound Vault 2 would be high on my recommended list as well (I actually own a Bluesound Node 2) because for me it has the right balance of sonics and simplicity. Others will disagree, of course, and I absolutely agree that you can achieve good results with many different approaches.

For my part, I started the CD ripping process about 2 or 3 years ago (using Exact Audio Copy) and I found the whole thing so tiresome I never finished the job. I got to about 350 discs ripped with about 1000 to go and I just couldn't face it. What's more, these were the "easy" 350 as they were mainstream titles that EAC correctly recognised and tagged for me. It was even more tiresome when I attempted to rip classical discs and found the tagging either non-existent or unusably inconsistent. You might have more staying power, but that's been a huge barrier to entry for me in terms of embracing computer audio, as the presentation or artwork and correct tagging was important to me. If you want a properly tagged database of rips, and especially if you have a lot of classical or obscure stuff, it will take a while, so the easier the solution there, the more likely you are to finish the job.

Then again, there are plenty of ways to do this that just involve ripping files, not worrying about tagging, not worrying about artwork, not worrying about a nice interface. That's not my preferred approach, but plenty here are happy to do things that way instead. Again, it's a matter of deciding how slick or how clunky you want the interface to be. Also, I (controversially) think there's no point in embracing a computer audio setup if you're then going to deny yourself the absolutely WEALTH of music available for streaming on TIDAL or Spotify (lossless coming soon, apparently) or similar. Most of the hardcore computer audio guys don't agree but I'm happy to accept a small trade-off in sonics to have the world as my oyster.

Of course, these days nearly all my listening is streamed Spotify via a Chromecast Audio I purchased for €18, so you might not want to listen to me!!

[nige2000]

Of course, these days nearly all my listening is streamed Spotify via a Chromecast Audio I purchased for €18, so you might not want to listen to me!!

the problem as i see it that things like that chromecast audio will be every bit as good or bad as most solutions costing 100 x
which is very much meh.....
but if it didn't cost too much.. so what...

digital audiophile could start with daphile a pc/laptop and good usb dac
most of everything else is good advertising
https://www.daphile.com/

[Diapason]

Yes, I've daphile on a USB thumbdrive, cheapest NUC available and Arcam rDAC in another system and it works well. The problem is the ripping. Dear God the ripping...

[tony]

Hi Sanbar,
I think there are quite a few better sounding and far cheaper options out there rather than either of the 2 you mention. Usually you cna do it very cheap if you are willing to work a bit at the computer side. An old laptop with an install of Daphile coupled with a good USB dac would give you excellent sound quality for about 500e or so.
Fran

+1 You are buying a nice shiny box there you will get better value and better output using something like Fran suggested. It really depends exactly what you are looking for. Go for something like the ciunas dac in the secondhand section with maybe a laptop you have already at home. That will come in well under €500. But I would accept it has more wires and might be regarded as more fiddly. Maybe a trip to Cloneys or listening suite to see what their latest offerings are. The brennan when I knew nothing seemed like the obvious choice but this place wrecked my head!

[sanbar]

Hi
Thanks for all your replies. You have given me some good ideas to consider and it is really appreciated. I am not really technically savvy but I will enjoy looking into the options you outlined.

I suffer from the darkness (depression) and this has been the project in my head for the last few months and has got me back into listening and enjoying music. I have a Cowen J3 and Xudoo X3 MP3 Players which I use when I am walking and have always used FLAC. I got married 30 years ago and our wedding present from my family was an AMP . Rega Turntable and Tannoy Mecury 2 speakers with stands from Clooney Audio we only had about 20 LPs at the time but it was great and the quality was unbelievable, It was expensive for the time while others were getting a cooker or a colour tvs we wanted music

Again thank you for your replies , Would it be ok to come back to you with new options once I have done some more research as my mind is racing in a good way and in reality I should not be spending 1200 euros. I genuinely don't want to waste your time, If I don't reply for a day or two please don't take this as ignorance or being rude

[Diapason]

Pop in whenever, we're always happy to chat here!