Hi Tim,
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Originally Posted by
Tim
Ha ha, yup but I'm not going to gloat and say 'told yer so' as like anything it has to be done right to satisfy those with a refined musical palette, but when you do get it right, it can and often does astonish the doubters.
For sure, although I've always rated the sonic potential of FBA (File-Based Audio, for those who aren't familiar with the term), but up until now have never heard it so convincingly delivered, and at stupidly low cost!
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If you go right back to some of my first posts on AoS, I was a doubter too, but I like discovery and thought that all the folk who keep saying its good can't all be wrong - so I went out and tried it myself, then spent ages testing and learning. It's a lot easier these days and the performance keeps on marching forward, whilst the relative costs keep going down.
That's true. However, I was never really a doubter, always being pretty convinced by its potential advantages.
I just had no real motivation to look into FBA very deeply. Vinyl is still very much my primary music source, and always will be (as my T/T is still my best sounding piece of kit), plus I have a very capable CDP and DAC, so I've never needed to bother with FBA, from the point of view of achieving a sonic upgrade. Convenience was also never a factor, or indeed a desire to be up-to-date or 'trendy'.
Furthermore, for all the technical sonic benefits of streaming digital music, via a computer and DAC, rather than accessing it via the physical interface of a CD and CD player, on paper, in my experience those benefits never materialised into real-world listening conditions. The Sony, playing CDs, always did it better. Plus, up until now it's always been a bit of a ball-ache getting into FBA, especially for someone like me with ZERO interest in computers!
One of the benefits of the Pi, once it's all set-up, is that there is next to no 'techy' stuff to worry about or any intrusive computer presence. I already had a router and a laptop, so the only 'computer addition' in my listening room is the tiny little Pi unit itself, which sits unobtrusively on top of my Sony DAC.
I find the Volumio control interface intuitive and a doddle to use, especially as I don't use 'fancy' mobile phones, with tiny screens and buttons, and instead have a lovely, super-fast MacBook Pro and 15" Retina screen with which to access and control it, as I lie back and chill out on the sofa - bliss! :)
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The big thing though as you have discovered and what the Pi is now allowing even amateurs to achieve, is quite staggering musical performance compared to the very modest financial outlay, which for me was a significant factor as I like to spend my money on music, not gear.
Same here - at least these days it is. I now spend much more money on music than hi-fi, and that's the way it will stay. The SPPV of the Pi/IQ-Audio DAC combo is indeed staggering, and so I intend to promote it as vigorously and successfully as I have the modded Technics T/T or vintage Tannoy DCs, as more enthusiasts *need* to know just how good this thing is for beer-token money...
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Its a shame more people aren't open minded enough to give file based audio a go (and properly, not just loading foobar2000 or JRiver onto a laptop and hooking it up to an amplifier :nono:) and it really isn't that hard these days and there are plenty of people around to help out now.
Indeed, and the latter sounds pants in comparison to what I've got going on here now.
The problem is going to be convincing the 'key-jangler brigade', who judge how good something is by its price tag and/or 'exclusivity', or looks. I doubt we'll ever convince folk like that not to drop £1000s on something 'posh', from the likes of Linn or some other company with a 'high-end profile', thinking that they'll be guaranteed the best sound.
However, for those on AoS who seek maximum SPPV from their systems, and love music more than collecting shiny boxes, the Pi/IQ-Audio combo will be a Godsend and very easy and cost-effective way of achieving high-quality music streaming.
:exactly:
Marco.
