2. digital
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MUSIC SERVER - HOW DO YOU............

I have a all McIntosh system with Tannoy speakers and have decided to go digital. Recently purchased a MDA 1000 to replace my C46. Easily over a 1000 cd collection.

I need a way to store and play. What I want to do is store to a NAS or similar device, sit on the couch with a touch screen of some sort to scan and select my listening pleasure. Can be hard wired or streamed. I use FLAC. Don't care about internet look up of playlist and cover art.

I'm not a computer wiz nor do I want to be. Is there a system that does what I want, seems like from what I read most self built servers require that you spend more time configuring and dealing with online support then listening to music.

What do you suggest? Thanks in advance for your help.
fishcricket

Showing 3 responses by fishcricket

fishcricket OP
3 posts
 
Thanks Guys, it's going to take a little while for me to digest your suggestions, however it seems the Mac Mini is unanimous. At this time I don't want to say any more for I will certainly show my computer ignorance. Also appreciate you not bashing me for not knowing how this works, I'm a civil engineer and thank goodness for the IT department.

One thing I forgot to mention is that my DAC has coaixal, optical and balanced digital audio inputs so is one type input better than the other?

Time for me to start really studying your responses, thanks again.
fishcricket OP
3 posts
 
Again, thanks for all the food for thought. I knew it would happen, the engineer part of me took over, 1 am this morning and i'm still doing research. Seems reguardless of which way i go(squeezebox,Emperical Audio) the most important thing is to get the digital signal to my DAC with the lease amount of jitter possible. It appears their are software upgrades available for the SB Touch as well as hardware and both the SB and EA would work best by being hardwired rather than streamed. Also, cable type plays an important role.

So right now I'm leaning toward a NAS, after looking around at the external hardrives i have laying around stuffed with music plus all the CD's i'm guesstimating I have about 1.5TB of music at flac compression, so need at least 2TB plus another 2TB for backup.

Also think I will use an I Pad. The SB or EA decision remains a tough one. I just realized my DAC upsamples all data streams to 24bit before sampling at 768khz.

Hope I'm on the right track, I truly enjoy the way my system sounds and certainly don't want to take a step back. By the way what I have are McIntosh MC300 amp, M46 pre-amp(that i will be takening out of the system), MR85 tuner(I will also be selling the tuner), MDA1000 DAC, MCD205 cd player and all plugged in to a Powervar 12. Speakers are Tannoy D700's and also a McIntosh SL-1 subwoofer that is used at times. When the little lady won't put up with anymore I use a pair of Sennheiser HDR 180 headphones.
fishcricket OP
3 posts
 
Thanks, I'm trying to understand. I also appreciate all the links that have been offered, guess I like to do a lot of research.

I ran across some info on a new USB converter, a music fidelity v link. Seemed intersting to me because it is simple. The hype says it is very good for what that is worth.

Anyway the more I research the more I understand and one thing seems certain, the future is digital.

Thanks all!
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