Tír Na HiFi

I bought my Squeezebox Duet as a dip my toe in the water. To see if computer storage of music files was really all that it was made out to be. To me it is, as most of the time I could not say whether the music source is from a CD or a FLAC file.

Having proved this to myself, I feel it is time to upgrade the SB. Ivan Cloney suggested the Naim Audio UnityCute as this player can handle hi-res music files. I think a SB replacement would need to be able to handle hi-res but it needs to be controllable from an iPad or similar. The only output that I would use is the digital one as I will be feeding the signal into my Resolution Audio Opus 21 CD player. If the streamer had a 'good' [analogue?] volume control, I could sell the Opus 21, thus keeping by box count down to the minimum. The UnityCute has more technology than I need but it seems to fit the bill, hard to tell from reading the Naim Audio website info, it seems that a demo is required.

Anyone got any suggestions? Linn and Meridian are other names that come to mind, anyone know about Linn streamers?

Thanks.

Squeezebox transporter?

Hi Rocker, what part of your set up looks after storage? I too am making the big move to streaming and looking for advice. Tempted by the JKDAC32 and John's newer items called Ciunas? I like the idea of the Vortexbox and Olive units where you pop in your CD/DVD/Bluray and the high res ripping is done. And like you control from iOS devices is a must. I have an Apple TV2 at the moment but I need a decent DAC for conversion and a NAS for storage.

I really want to avoid getting too technical though and end up mucking around with a laptop at night time when all I want to do is zone out and listen to some music.

Charlie

Charlie, I store my music files on an external USB hard disk attached to my computer. The music is sent by Wi-Fi to the Squeezebox. While the Squeezebox is very good [especially as it cost so little], I can't help but feel that there is a 'better' solution out there. And there is always hi-res music [which my SB cannot handle].......

Tom, you have a PM .
KM

Thanks for the info Rocker. You have the toe in the water for sure :-)

Guys in general is there a preferred NAS device for media storage? I'd prefer that the NAS can exist alone on the network, as in it doesn't need a pc or laptop present to function, is this what is meant by DNLA? You get the gist.

Would anyone consider RAID configuration in a NAS in case there was a disk disaster? I know it halfs the overall storage but all eggs in one basket is very risky.

A top DAC from JK and a well specced NAS is going to be a fraction of the cost of my high-end CDP. Don't mind putting dollars into this to get it right although I appreciate the technology is constantly changing and in 3 years time anything we buy now will be considered archaic.

Last ques - on Spotify, its about 10 per month subscription and you can play away tracks till your hearts content. If you save/download tracks what res are they in? And when you are just playing them from Spotify, same qoes, is the res any different? Seems a decent streaming option.

Thanks, Charlie

Rocker the Linn Sneaky? regularly appears to get good things said about it but I admit I know nothing about it. I used to be all Meridian components, their Sooloos is mega bucks so I ran away from that as a possible HDD based/streaming solution. I've hijacked your thread, sorry.

cbarone wrote:
Last ques - on Spotify, its about 10 per month subscription and you can play away tracks till your hearts content. If you save/download tracks what res are they in? And when you are just playing them from Spotify, same qoes, is the res any different? Seems a decent streaming option.

Thanks, Charlie

Not 100% on local files, but the Premium files stream as OggVorbis 320kbp/s

Well, the simplest way to go is a dedicated laptop/netbook with all you music stored in and equipped with JPlay that you can manage by your smartphone/tablet, that connected to any kind of a dac which is connected to your amplifier. Once you'll get everything up and running you just operate it with your touch device.