DevaFever
20-02-2010, 12:47
Hi all,
It's my first post and as with most peoples first post its a request for helpful advice!
My requirement seems quite simple. I want to play lossless music directed via a recently purchased Beresford Caiman to my amp + speakers.
My problem is what to play the lossless music on? My initial effort has been to connect my old laptop to the caiman via USB. However, the fan on the laptop is proving a noisy nuisance – so I need another solution.
It seems many people use a wireless solution – using a squeezebox or a sonos or something similar. I could go down this route but it seems unnecessarily complex as I don't really need the music streamed to many rooms – and it would mean turning on the computer (or buying a NAS) in the computer room every time i want to play music in the lounge.
In other words I just need something that will sit in the lounge – that has a hard drive – that is quiet in operation – and that will send lossless files to my DAC, amp and speakers. It seems so simple – but is causing me huge difficulty - I have spent days surfing this on the internet but just seem to be going around in circles.
I guess one obvious option is a computer that is quiet. But I guess most laptops have noisy fans and with a desktop if I could find one that is quiet I would need a monitor of some kind connected to it which is a bit of a hassle for the lounge.
Alternatively I have thought media players might be an option as they do generally have a hard drive and a digital audio output - even though they seem mostly aimed at streaming video onto tv's. But then I start hitting problems of file compatability. A playstation3 doesn't seem to play most lossless formats. Something like the Netgear EVA9150 will do, but doesn't play apple lossless – and I think I would need the tv switched on to operate it. This leaves an Apple tv as a possible option. With a suitable iphone ap I could operate this without needing to use the tv. On the downside however, this very much ties me into Apple products and music formats and there are quite a lot of reviews around that say the apple tv isn't particularly good.
Am I missing something obvious? Is there a product category I have missed that is specifically aimed at playing a hard drive full of lossless music via ones hifi?
Any suggestions as to what I should be looking at, or where my thinking has gone awry would be gratefully received
thanks,
Richard
Notes a) I have started saving my cds as apple lossless via itunes – but am still in an early stage so could backtrack to a different format and software if necessary.
b) I am thinking I should be able to achieve what I need for £200-300 – the price of a cheap computer or ps3/apple tv. But please let me know if I should be spending more (or less!) on something.
c) my amp and speakers are a NAD c352 and Mordaunt Short 25i so not high end but even so I would still like to get the best out of them – thus the purchase of the DAC and the wish to use a lossless format.
It's my first post and as with most peoples first post its a request for helpful advice!
My requirement seems quite simple. I want to play lossless music directed via a recently purchased Beresford Caiman to my amp + speakers.
My problem is what to play the lossless music on? My initial effort has been to connect my old laptop to the caiman via USB. However, the fan on the laptop is proving a noisy nuisance – so I need another solution.
It seems many people use a wireless solution – using a squeezebox or a sonos or something similar. I could go down this route but it seems unnecessarily complex as I don't really need the music streamed to many rooms – and it would mean turning on the computer (or buying a NAS) in the computer room every time i want to play music in the lounge.
In other words I just need something that will sit in the lounge – that has a hard drive – that is quiet in operation – and that will send lossless files to my DAC, amp and speakers. It seems so simple – but is causing me huge difficulty - I have spent days surfing this on the internet but just seem to be going around in circles.
I guess one obvious option is a computer that is quiet. But I guess most laptops have noisy fans and with a desktop if I could find one that is quiet I would need a monitor of some kind connected to it which is a bit of a hassle for the lounge.
Alternatively I have thought media players might be an option as they do generally have a hard drive and a digital audio output - even though they seem mostly aimed at streaming video onto tv's. But then I start hitting problems of file compatability. A playstation3 doesn't seem to play most lossless formats. Something like the Netgear EVA9150 will do, but doesn't play apple lossless – and I think I would need the tv switched on to operate it. This leaves an Apple tv as a possible option. With a suitable iphone ap I could operate this without needing to use the tv. On the downside however, this very much ties me into Apple products and music formats and there are quite a lot of reviews around that say the apple tv isn't particularly good.
Am I missing something obvious? Is there a product category I have missed that is specifically aimed at playing a hard drive full of lossless music via ones hifi?
Any suggestions as to what I should be looking at, or where my thinking has gone awry would be gratefully received
thanks,
Richard
Notes a) I have started saving my cds as apple lossless via itunes – but am still in an early stage so could backtrack to a different format and software if necessary.
b) I am thinking I should be able to achieve what I need for £200-300 – the price of a cheap computer or ps3/apple tv. But please let me know if I should be spending more (or less!) on something.
c) my amp and speakers are a NAD c352 and Mordaunt Short 25i so not high end but even so I would still like to get the best out of them – thus the purchase of the DAC and the wish to use a lossless format.