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I am considering setting up a media server in my hifi system (to back up my collection of CDs). I do not want a laptop in my system but would rather like to set up a hard-drive type media server. I have seen some for a good price on-line and I plan to stay away from expensive name (naim) brand servers. As far as I can tell, the usb output of the server would connect to a DAC feeding my amplifier.
I am not really tech savvy and am a complete newby at this. Am I going about this (endeavor) the right way?
Follow Ups:
I have too many cds. I am hoping a server will help me save space.
Edits: 07/14/12
Take a look at the Vortexbox servers. They have models that start at about $400 for a 1 Terrabyte system. They also have "audiophile" versions available.
They come with direct player software and also support DLNA, Squeezebox and Sonos. I've got one and highly recommend it. (They are designed as a headless system so ideally you want a laptop, iPad or Kindle to use as a controller.)
Thanks a bunch for the suggestion.
Vortexbox also makes their operating system & software available as a free download. You can always build your own server and save some money.
You want to rip all of theses CD's ONCE, for sure- it's a ton of time spent! Do rip losslessly and back your rips up to a second HD. I keep my backup HD in my waterproof safe.
Check on computer audio at computeraudiophile.com and especially thewelltemperedcomputer.com for good basic, balanced information you can use.
I am stumped why you wouldn't want a computer around- a "music server" is essentially a midget PC any way you slice it. I'm a cheapskate and use an old laptop PC connected to a big external HD to play music through a USB-to-S/PDIF converter, thence to the digital input of my preamp. I also use that laptop to rip discs and to stream internet radio. The laptop is conveniently set atop my hi-fi credenza thingy. I drilled a hole in the credenza to *almost* invisibly run the power, LAN and USB cables down into the back. The HD and the converter are stashed behind things and the whole affair takes a footprint of about 12 x 14"- Bearette doesn't even hate it and can play her music with a couple clicks and a minimum amount of growling.
I'm pretty sure the settings on the computer are all good and that all the software other than music handling and internet explorer is removed. The laptop is not working hard at all, it never makes ugly noises or hiccups. The smallish (15") screen provides a display of what's cued-up, what's playing, album art, etc. without having the television on. Its pretty inoffensive and sounds really quite good compared to the original CDs.
Thanks a bunch for the suggestions.
I am wary of using a PC as a server.
I have never used or owned a PC that did not at some point get a virus that interfered with its functionality. I would hate to go to the trouble of ripping all these discs only to have the library made useless.
I see a server as a way to integrate the library into my hifi system without PC functions that I don't need (like the internet - I don't plan to download anything) and without exposing the library to malicious code.
The Vortexbox software is based on Linux and therefore far less susceptible to viruses than MS Windows.
Second, you should keep a backup of the music only on at least one separate, external drive. (I keep two backups, one of them away from my home).
If your system does crash or get infected, it is then a simple process of restoring the software from your install discs and then copying the music from your backup drive to your system.
I also do not use my music server for ordinary internet access, so that machine getting hacked or infected is one of the last issues of concern to me.
All that -and more- can fit on one of these.
Dynobots Audio
Music is the Bridge between Heaven and Earth - 音楽は天国と地球のかけ橋
Layman,
You do not list any equipment. If you have a Oppo Digital 93 or 95 it will stream off an external drive.
a custom media server like the link below.
Hi. Thanks for the link.
Looks a bit pricey to me. I have been looking at some priced around $300.
Linux Music Server with Music Player Daemon and built in M2Tech HiFace2.
Mini iTX - Music Server features
1) Fanless 25watt PiCo power supply.
2) Solid State hard drive.
3) cMP2 bios optimizations to reduce cpu and ram power [EMI] as well as decrease ram latency.
4) Low resource distro of Linux with the Real-Time Kernel installed.
5) Full RT-Kernel optimizations done following "IBM's" and "Real-Time Kernel Wiki's" instructions to reduce "operating system" latency and jitter.
6) Full ALSA optimizations following the AlsaProject Low Latency Wiki instructions to reduce "audio thread" latencies and jitter.
7) Music Player Daemon running real-time with CPU affinity set to allow Music Player Daemon to use a single cpu core all to itself.
8) Alsa with USB 2.0 support to allow full 24bit playback.
9) Kill all processes that are not needed for either OS or Audio.
10) One minute after boot-up X-server [desktop graphical user interface] is turned off to further reduce cpu load.
11) Headless - No peripherals [mice, keyboard, monitor] plugged in, only 2 usb ports active in bios.
12) Squeezeserver installed for Squeezebox Touch.
13) Integrated USB to SPDIF converter connected directly to motherboard.
Dynobots Audio
Music is the Bridge between Heaven and Earth - 音楽は天国と地球のかけ橋
Hey DR,
how do like the wadia. not seen a review from you.
Afterwards we discovered faith; it's all you need
I posted a mini review on my site but have yet to do a good write up.
When I first plugged the new Wadia in what stood out the most was its immediate smoothness. It seemed as if break-in would be very short to non-existent. I probably had a preconceived notion about the Sabre Dac chip as being way on the analytical side. Over time it has broken in though, I would say the soundstage depth and realism is top notch....better than any Dac I have owned. At times notes and voices appear in places I don't expect, even my dog is surprised sometimes because she thinks someone or something is in the house or room. Top to bottom the frequency range extends to where the music takes it, not cut off at all. Its a fantastic Dac, so much so that it has stolen all the air time from my Audiogd Ref7.
Dynobots Audio
Music is the Bridge between Heaven and Earth - 音楽は天国と地球のかけ橋
Thanks DR.
I am thinking of getting 2 of them for some biamping. Either that or modding the lynx. Advantages to both.
Afterwards we discovered faith; it's all you need
Hey Bot
Yes the Maggie's are holographic especially with the mods I did
I would need 2 sacs since the crossover would be before the dacs
Yeah the wadia is attractive for the balanced outs
I am also thinking about biamping with their dac amps. What a simple solution that would be.. I know, you aren't interested, but think of the simple signal path!
Afterwards we discovered faith; it's all you need
You mean those digital amps you posted...yes they are interesting.
Give it a shot...the signal path can't get much shorter than that.
Dynobots Audio
Music is the Bridge between Heaven and Earth - 音楽は天国と地球のかけ橋
Not those. Those have just a usb connection and well I dont like usb, especially if the crossover is before the dac.
That was just from the same brand that soundchekk used.
Above is the amp and link below
Afterwards we discovered faith; it's all you need
"Those have just a usb connection and well I dont like usb, especially if the crossover is before the dac."
Yikes. Whether this will work or not will depend on how the DAC handles buffering. If you use a single multi-channel DAC for all channels and frequency bands then you will probably be OK with USB as well as SPDIF. But if you have separate DACs then I would expect synchronization problems with USB (or even with SPDIF in some cases, e.g. if the DACs were different models and/or if they used any kind of reclockers.)
If the different channels or drivers get even slightly out of sync there will be audible sonic degradation or worse.
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
Thanks tony.It would be 2 of the same dacs.
I suppose if I needed I could use them in a horizontal configuration, and use spdif.
I would need an asio driver and I find that problematic with usb.
Oh and I just remembered. There was a guy who years ago created a player that had xos built in and it was cplayesque before cplay existed. Very minimalist (no ff or rewind IIRC, cue sheets and .wav only but it supported cover art) and it was designed for his system. Which featured a lynx aes16 fed directly into multiple Tact digital amps. He made no mention of the issues you raise, so maybe he got lucky.
Sadly his site is no longer on the web. But I think he was using an external clock too. Would that make a difference?
Afterwards we discovered faith; it's all you need
Edits: 07/13/12
The comments below speak to using multiple DACs in digital crossover applications. With multiple DACs there is a possibility that the time delay out of the separate DACs may differ.
If there is a fixed delay through the different channels, you will be able to see that by capturing the output, e.g. by using a measurement microphone. If the software crossover has delay compensation because it is working on impulse response then there will be no problem, no matter how the delays work out so long as they are consistent, because the delay compensation in the digital crossover can be adjusted appropriately.
If there are variable delays, then all bets are off. It is possible that the delays might vary from time to time or might be different each time the system is powered up. (I am not saying it is likely, but it does seem possible, at least with some software and hardware.) If this happens then the sound will be incorrect, ranging from imperceptibly degraded to absurd. Therefore I suggest that running some tests to verify that this isn't happening, e.g. measure the impulse response at the listening position from time to time during a long session and measure the impulse response at power up for a number of days. Of course, this paranoia won't be necessary if there is consistently consistently good sound. :-)
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
Any other way to resolve digital delay between Dacs besides using a distribution amplifier?
It would be very hard to sync up multiple dacs without one.
Dynobots Audio
Music is the Bridge between Heaven and Earth - 音楽は天国と地球のかけ橋
I believe the player software that I am using has the abiity to delay each individual channel separately, but not in the context of a digital crossover. I suspect there are other products that will do what you need, but not having faced the problem of synchronizing multiple DACs I can't offer any specific product recommendations.
I have faced the corresponding problem on recording, where a 4 channel recording was made using two separate two channel devices (running at different sample rates). I was able to synchronize the four channels so I could subsequently mix them down to stereo. (This was a bit of a nightmare, but the end result was satisfactory. It would have been good if the people who made the recordings had understood the problem they were creating and documented the exact position and distance of the microphones and instruments.)
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
Hey T,
The crossover programs all have delay settings.
So if the dacs were identical would I still have the sync issues??
Afterwards we discovered faith; it's all you need
"So if the dacs were identical would I still have the sync issues?"
Most likely, no, once you found the best settings and assuming that the settings are sufficiently fine grained. If I were using a digital cross over I would go down this route and see how it works It will probably be fine, but I wouldn't be amazed if the synchronization didn't gradually drift out or vary from day to day.
Here is my version of Murphy's law, from the late 1970's: "If correct operation of a system requires that two clocks be synchronized, then the clocks will be unsynchronized. If correct operation of a system requires that two clocks not be synchronized, then the clocks will be synchronized."
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
Hey Tony,
LOL. I like your version of Murphys law.
Afterwards we discovered faith; it's all you need
Surely other pro companies have multiple channel dacs as well....might be an option.
Dynobots Audio
Music is the Bridge between Heaven and Earth - 音楽は天国と地球のかけ橋
Edits: 07/15/12
Hey D,
I would probably go with the lynx AuroraFW.
But I am thinking about the fully digital amps. This might be the way to go and certainly makes things very simple and 2 less boxes. The challenge of synchronization would still be the same.
The prism is crazy expensive and the RME is priced right but I dont know about its drivers.
In the context of a cmp2 build where everything is minimized I dont know how rme will work. The Lynx drivers are fine.
Though for the same price I could get 2 wadias and probably get better sound?? or at least have a better resale if it came to it.
Afterwards we discovered faith; it's all you need
I think I may have missed that....will you use a Distribution Amplifier or....
Dynobots Audio
Music is the Bridge between Heaven and Earth - 音楽は天国と地球のかけ橋
Hey D,
The data is crossed over so I can use a distribution amp.
The Lynx Aes16 has 4 digital outputs assignable with asio. That is 8 channels.
Afterwards we discovered faith; it's all you need
s
Afterwards we discovered faith; it's all you need
Wow 2!!
You have Maggies right....those are already holographic, I think the Wadia would be a good complement.
I take it you need 4 outputs probably all balanced.
Just a wild thought so bear with me....Audiogd has started making their Sabre Dacs as well as the 1704's. Kingwa the owner will build just about anything, me might be able to build a Dac with 4 xlr outputs.
Dynobots Audio
Music is the Bridge between Heaven and Earth - 音楽は天国と地球のかけ橋
D
Afterwards we discovered faith; it's all you need
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