AudioNervosa
Systemic Development => Digital Audio Devices => Topic started by: jimbones on November 28, 2017, 06:55:45 PM
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I am moving away from a laptop as a music server and am interested in a streamer/bridge to replace it. I just bought a 4tb NAS and I have a Burson Conductor DAC. My budget is $2500, not that I need to spend all of it :lol:. I have seen so many units but the buyer must beware because if potential compatibility issues and features. I would prefer something with it's own App. Thanks in advance for recommendations.
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SOtM sMS-200 is what I use, I love it. It can emulate Roon Endpoint, MPD, HQPLayer, Squeezeplayer, etc. I use it as Roon or MPD, controlled from my laptop or phone. Sound is excellent. $500. Requires a USB DAC, not SPDIF.
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Lumin D1 looks like a good fit. Its a network player with a DAC, can play Tidal, Roon, MQA and DSD which i can not do now. I can also bypass the DAC (but lose MQA and DSD features). Getting the external Linear Power Supply.
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Jim look at Innous Zenith mk2. I can make ya a great deal. SS drive, linear power supply, Roon, MQA, Tidal DSD etc. Read the reviews.
charles
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If you can plug a hard drive in, you can do most of this yourself.
I've been using a $175 fanless Win 10 machine to stream Tidal with local storage managed by Jriver. It's also my HQPlayer NAA device for highest he-man quality. It's also fun to stream YouTube vids direct to the main system. Add a USB decrapifier and you have a large percentage of the performance of a dedicated server for a tenth (fifth?) of the cost.
If you only want spdif out I can recommend a Rapsberry Pi with an Allo Digione board. Load free PiCorePlayer on it and you have a very high quality device. But it'll run you all less than $200. Take the extra 2K and spend it elsewhere to get the most bang for the buck.
-Mike
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If you can plug a hard drive in, you can do most of this yourself.
I've been using a $175 fanless Win 10 machine to stream Tidal with local storage managed by Jriver. It's also my HQPlayer NAA device for highest he-man quality. It's also fun to stream YouTube vids direct to the main system. Add a USB decrapifier and you have a large percentage of the performance of a dedicated server for a tenth (fifth?) of the cost.
If you only want spdif out I can recommend a Rapsberry Pi with an Allo Digione board. Load free PiCorePlayer on it and you have a very high quality device. But it'll run you all less than $200. Take the extra 2K and spend it elsewhere to get the most bang for the buck.
-Mike
Mike, I am not a big fan of Microsoft and I don't like JRiver (nor the guy who runs J River) I do however like JPlay. But I won't get into that whole shitfest
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Interesting how we develop our preferences. Ever since Apple decided for me that I cannot put music from two different computers onto the same Ipod, I swore them off and want absolutely nothing of their's touching my music or life. I can't make a Mac work or do even the most basic things with any Apple software :rofl:
Best of luck. From all I read those dedicated servers do rock but you gotta pay to play.
-Mike
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Yea,I wont use a Mac either. I do agree that you can get great results from a music player. I am using the term generically. But any device that can be optimized for music playback. I was at a decision point, and felt that i would give the streamer a shot since i never used one before. My friends use the Mr and Ur with great results. I'll post my finding/experience once I get the device. Fingers crossed but I fully expect it to destroy my laptop
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For me, even as I get old and compromised in acuity I rely completely upon how does it all sound to me... An incredibly picky, trained audio professional that is always searching.
I gave up on analog some years ago and sold a very nice (really...) very nice analog front end and moved to digital as my only source in 2000. I was determined to try to understand and help solve the conundrum of "Perfect Sound Forever". I'll never forget the look on the salesmans' face when I identified the digital recording 10/10 in the great marketing assault in the late 80's.
I've been searching for THE digital answer for a long time. Didn't take us long in the mid/late 80s to figure out that the SQ sucked and that the discs sounded emotionless with little foot boogie on playback.
I was a PC guy for a long time. I suffered through the crashes, blue screens of death and all of the insanity of Windows for years. I spent 2 years trying to make a dedicated Windows based music server sound as good as my Cary 306Pro CD player.
Never happened. I finally relented to several friends and acquaintances and bought a Mac mini. Not just any mini. But a 2012 Quad Core I7 2.3 Ghz mini. The first time I played music through that machine and I grokked the Mac thing. Simple: better audio engine and very low noise (RFI) layout with a great grounding scheme.
I then got a software package designed to minimize the mini and maximize the audio capabilities. That package was/is a true digital playback epiphany.
Now the disclaimer: I am completely biased, unashamed and sold on the playback software offered by dB Audio Labs as being the most musical of everything I have tried.
There are many things available to enhance the digital experience. First, we need to get it off of the available digital medium and make it the best raw data possible.
My $0.02 derived from spending way too much money in business and life trying to just make music.
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Very good post dbe. I figure im learning all the time and the money i spend on equipment are my educational costs lol.
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I am moving away from a laptop as a music server and am interested in a streamer/bridge to replace it. I just bought a 4tb NAS and I have a Burson Conductor DAC. My budget is $2500, not that I need to spend all of it :lol:. I have seen so many units but the buyer must beware because if potential compatibility issues and features. I would prefer something with it's own App. Thanks in advance for recommendations.
Jim,
What is your current setup? Do you have LMS setup already? If not, does you NAS have the ability to run either LMS or Minimserver? If yes, I can loan you my RPi3 setup with PiCorePlayer for you to try. The only question would be is the Burson DAC supported under Linux via USB. It seems to be USB Class 2 compliant interface so should work well. The other option is i can send you the RPi3 + Kali + Piano setup. The Piano uses PCM5122 DAC chip and the sound might be different compared to the Sabre that in you setup right now.
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I am moving away from a laptop as a music server and am interested in a streamer/bridge to replace it. I just bought a 4tb NAS and I have a Burson Conductor DAC. My budget is $2500, not that I need to spend all of it :lol:. I have seen so many units but the buyer must beware because if potential compatibility issues and features. I would prefer something with it's own App. Thanks in advance for recommendations.
Jim,
What is your current setup? Do you have LMS setup already? If not, does you NAS have the ability to run either LMS or Minimserver? If yes, I can loan you my RPi3 setup with PiCorePlayer for you to try. The only question would be is the Burson DAC supported under Linux via USB. It seems to be USB Class 2 compliant interface so should work well. The other option is i can send you the RPi3 + Kali + Piano setup. The Piano uses PCM5122 DAC chip and the sound might be different compared to the Sabre that in you setup right now.
Acronym Hell! lol! LMS??? Burson s class 2 USB. (Anemero board). I have 2 Burson Dac boards ESS and BB. I prefer the BB.
So I have a Dell laptop using JRMC USB into my Burson. I don't like JRMC but it is what it is. I have an external 2TB HDD (USB 3) into the Dell. Not sure what Kali, Minimserver, and Piano are. Have to learn this stuff.
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Acronym Hell! lol! LMS??? Burson s class 2 USB. (Anemero board). I have 2 Burson Dac boards ESS and BB. I prefer the BB.
So I have a Dell laptop using JRMC USB into my Burson. I don't like JRMC but it is what it is. I have an external 2TB HDD (USB 3) into the Dell. Not sure what Kali, Minimserver, and Piano are. Have to learn this stuff.
Sorry Jim, for making assumption.
LMS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logitech_Media_Server) = Logitech Media Server (Squeezebox) (Latest Download]http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.9]Latest Download (http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.9))
Kali (https://www.allo.com/sparky/kali-reclocker.html) = Allo Kali Reclocker
Minimserver (http://www.minimserver.com/) = Minimserver is UPnP Media server
Piano (https://www.allo.com/sparky/piano-dac.html) = Allo Piano DAC based around PCM5122 (http://www.ti.com/product/PCM5122/datasheet)
PiCorePlayer (https://sites.google.com/site/picoreplayer/home) = Squeezebox type of solution running on Raspberry Pi (https://www.raspberrypi.org/)
If your Burson is running Amanero board you should be set for the using it with Linux, provided you are not trying to do DSD (Direct Stream Digital (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Stream_Digital)) higher than 128.
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correct, I can not do dsd. My NAS is a 4tb WD. That is in addition to my external HDD. I will move music to my NAS.
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correct, I can not do dsd. My NAS is a 4tb WD. That is in addition to my external HDD. I will move music to my NAS.
Hopefully, your NAS has the ability to install LMS - https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=11042, if not you can always install LMS on your laptop.
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Choice made: Lumin D1. A very sincere thanks to Shadowlight for assisting me with the setup of my NAS and transferring of my music files.
Only had a couple of hours to play with it so far. Had a buzzing sound initially and left the unit powered on overnight, came back the next morning all is quiet. Played some tunes and sound is pretty good from a quick assessment (but have not compared to my Burson Conductor DAC) so far seems very quiet (blacker background) fuller bass but not quite as defined, goos soundstage but seems a hair lass detail. no obvious glaring errors. This weekend i hope to compare with my Burson. Stay tuned :)
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Congrats!
Does the Lumin allow you to select among the various filtering options of the Wolfson WM8741?
If so try that out - you can get significant differences between them.
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there is a settings section that allows customization. I am still on Lumin 101 :rofl:
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having some noise issues grrrrrr
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Ok so i spent some time last night it is definitely the Lumin generating the noise. I suspect the cheap power supply.when i moved the walwart to a different ac circuit it got better but not perfect.
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Been working at this noise thing and have it down to "normal" meaning there is some residual but very low. I now have a linear power supply driving the Lumin. I would classify the difference as when you listen to your music at night when all the electrical hash is at a minimum.
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Jim with all that good gear you use , wall warts ???? C'mon Man.
charles
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Jim with all that good gear you use , wall warts ???? C'mon Man.
charles
I dont WANT wall warts, thats what came with it. Once I found out the voltage I bought a high quality/laboratory grade LPS. Sounds better.I finally found out why the system was sound like doo doo, it was preamp tubes. They must be spent. I plugged in some RCA's and the sound improved but one channel does have noise so I have to isolate that tube. ughh
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After lots of hours I have finally returned my system to sounding really good. I found I had CBS Hytron tubes that had degraded. I returned to my RCA Grey Glass. Sounds stunning!!
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Just in time for long winter's night of listening to tunes! :thumb: