Music streaming (again, sorry)
Discussion
Finally coming round to this streaming lark, and thinking this is the way to go rather than spending lots on a new cd player (hurrah I hear you shout).
But, I'm a technophobe (not really, but I do get pretty frustrated by it all) so need some pointers.
At the moment I have an imac, macbook, 'n' wireless network and a time capsule.
I have a ton of music on my imac in mp3 format. I want to stream FLAC files though. I don't really want to remove all off the mp3s as we use these for ipods/iphones.
So... can I set up a separate FLAC music collection on the time capsule and use this to stream to a squeezebox or sonus? Will this work? I might want the device in the kitchen (where sound quality doesnt matter) to stream from the MP3 collection. Is this also possible?
Am I getting there?
But, I'm a technophobe (not really, but I do get pretty frustrated by it all) so need some pointers.
At the moment I have an imac, macbook, 'n' wireless network and a time capsule.
I have a ton of music on my imac in mp3 format. I want to stream FLAC files though. I don't really want to remove all off the mp3s as we use these for ipods/iphones.
So... can I set up a separate FLAC music collection on the time capsule and use this to stream to a squeezebox or sonus? Will this work? I might want the device in the kitchen (where sound quality doesnt matter) to stream from the MP3 collection. Is this also possible?
Am I getting there?
You've got all the stuff you need!
What I did was start a fresh iTunes library on a USB drive attached to my Time Capsule.
When I ripped the CDs on with my MBP it rips straight to that drive. I can listen with my laptop streaming CD quality with headphones using iTunes, but when I want to listen properly, I set up my MBP next to my hi-fi and use digital optical into my DAC.
Just as good as any CD player. I tested. At length.
When connected like this I use the Apple remote and browse using Frontrow so I can shuffle, search by artist and song etc.
It really rejuvenated how I listen to music. The best upgrade I ever did.
What I did was start a fresh iTunes library on a USB drive attached to my Time Capsule.
When I ripped the CDs on with my MBP it rips straight to that drive. I can listen with my laptop streaming CD quality with headphones using iTunes, but when I want to listen properly, I set up my MBP next to my hi-fi and use digital optical into my DAC.
Just as good as any CD player. I tested. At length.
When connected like this I use the Apple remote and browse using Frontrow so I can shuffle, search by artist and song etc.
It really rejuvenated how I listen to music. The best upgrade I ever did.
JustinP1 said:
You've got all the stuff you need!
What I did was start a fresh iTunes library on a USB drive attached to my Time Capsule.
When I ripped the CDs on with my MBP it rips straight to that drive. I can listen with my laptop streaming CD quality with headphones using iTunes, but when I want to listen properly, I set up my MBP next to my hi-fi and use digital optical into my DAC.
Just as good as any CD player. I tested. At length.
When connected like this I use the Apple remote and browse using Frontrow so I can shuffle, search by artist and song etc.
It really rejuvenated how I listen to music. The best upgrade I ever did.
Brilliant. I'll take a punt for a few hundred quid! So I need a big-ish (1TB? like this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=25731... ) USB HD, and either a SB or Sonus to connect to my DAC/amp and I'm there?What I did was start a fresh iTunes library on a USB drive attached to my Time Capsule.
When I ripped the CDs on with my MBP it rips straight to that drive. I can listen with my laptop streaming CD quality with headphones using iTunes, but when I want to listen properly, I set up my MBP next to my hi-fi and use digital optical into my DAC.
Just as good as any CD player. I tested. At length.
When connected like this I use the Apple remote and browse using Frontrow so I can shuffle, search by artist and song etc.
It really rejuvenated how I listen to music. The best upgrade I ever did.
Which CD players did you test it against, out of interest?
Maxf said:
JustinP1 said:
You've got all the stuff you need!
What I did was start a fresh iTunes library on a USB drive attached to my Time Capsule.
When I ripped the CDs on with my MBP it rips straight to that drive. I can listen with my laptop streaming CD quality with headphones using iTunes, but when I want to listen properly, I set up my MBP next to my hi-fi and use digital optical into my DAC.
Just as good as any CD player. I tested. At length.
When connected like this I use the Apple remote and browse using Frontrow so I can shuffle, search by artist and song etc.
It really rejuvenated how I listen to music. The best upgrade I ever did.
Brilliant. I'll take a punt for a few hundred quid! So I need a big-ish (1TB? like this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=25731... ) USB HD, and either a SB or Sonus to connect to my DAC/amp and I'm there?What I did was start a fresh iTunes library on a USB drive attached to my Time Capsule.
When I ripped the CDs on with my MBP it rips straight to that drive. I can listen with my laptop streaming CD quality with headphones using iTunes, but when I want to listen properly, I set up my MBP next to my hi-fi and use digital optical into my DAC.
Just as good as any CD player. I tested. At length.
When connected like this I use the Apple remote and browse using Frontrow so I can shuffle, search by artist and song etc.
It really rejuvenated how I listen to music. The best upgrade I ever did.
Which CD players did you test it against, out of interest?
http://www.pcworld.co.uk:80/martprd/product/seo/96...
What I would recommend is that with hard drives, it is not 'if' they will die, it is when. Therefore if you can I would budget for an identical second drive or another way of backing up. For example, I have about 300GB of music and this is on the main network drive which contains the whole Time Machine backups and also my music. The music is also duplicated every few months on a second 500GB drive.
If you already have a Time Capsule, there is a cheaper option in getting a single big drive like I did and use it externally to the Time Capsule for backups, then you could even use the Time Capsule as your main music drive.
Not sure about the SB uses the files so I can't comment on that though.
However, I am more than happy with using FrontRow and my laptop as when I am listening properly to music I don't need my laptop anyway.
As for CD players I tested, I wanted to do a fair test between an Integra Research universal transport (£3000) and the optical output of the Mac Mini and Macbook Pro.
So I could evaluate just the 'transport' qualities of both, I was using the external (Apogee) DAC in my AV controller.
I did a test whereby I could start a CD on the transport and play the audio file on the Mac at the same time, and instantly A/B between the two by remote control.
I could hear no difference in a blind test, and even when I knew which was which and was really trying to ascertain any kind of even miniscule difference I was not able to hear anything at all.
Indeed, my understanding of the science behind it confirms that although the hardware CD transport does a very good job and deciphering the 3 analogue laser paths to a data stream, that data stream is not going to be any more accurate than just playing the digital file. In fact, in theory it should be much more prone to error.
As a caveat, whilst I can confirm that this is the case on my system, the Apogee DAC on my unit is pretty trick and does have a lot of anti-jitter designed into it. I would suggest though that with a modern (or even not so modern in the case of something like a Chord DAC 64) DAC with that kind of facility, it really levels out the transport end in terms of what you need to get a well timed stream.
So I could evaluate just the 'transport' qualities of both, I was using the external (Apogee) DAC in my AV controller.
I did a test whereby I could start a CD on the transport and play the audio file on the Mac at the same time, and instantly A/B between the two by remote control.
I could hear no difference in a blind test, and even when I knew which was which and was really trying to ascertain any kind of even miniscule difference I was not able to hear anything at all.
Indeed, my understanding of the science behind it confirms that although the hardware CD transport does a very good job and deciphering the 3 analogue laser paths to a data stream, that data stream is not going to be any more accurate than just playing the digital file. In fact, in theory it should be much more prone to error.
As a caveat, whilst I can confirm that this is the case on my system, the Apogee DAC on my unit is pretty trick and does have a lot of anti-jitter designed into it. I would suggest though that with a modern (or even not so modern in the case of something like a Chord DAC 64) DAC with that kind of facility, it really levels out the transport end in terms of what you need to get a well timed stream.
JustinP1 said:
If you already have a Time Capsule, there is a cheaper option in getting a single big drive like I did and use it externally to the Time Capsule for backups, then you could even use the Time Capsule as your main music drive.
Not sure I follow this. So, buy a 1.5tb drive then plug it into the ethernet port on this TC and let the TC do the streaming? My TC is only 500gb, so I couldnt back a massive drive like your 1.5tb up to it.I'm not convinced my TC works 100% as I never seem to be able to connect to it (to drag and drop to it for example). The backups work though. I'd probably just end up with the HDD plugged into my imac.
JustinP1 said:
Indeed, my understanding of the science behind it confirms that although the hardware CD transport does a very good job and deciphering the 3 analogue laser paths to a data stream, that data stream is not going to be any more accurate than just playing the digital file. In fact, in theory it should be much more prone to error.
That's as I understand it. The top CDP will 'error correct' in real time (as it has to), but the streaming device doesnt need to error correct as the source was read properly the first time as it could be read/re-read without any 'real time' pressures.So, using my dodgy logic the quality now comes from the streaming device not introducing any inaccuracies (jitter?) to the 'perfect' data, which is where some streaming devices might differ very slightly from others. Assuming each is fed into the same DAC.
Does that sound right?
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