View Full Version : Please tell me what you think.
Over the years I have collected a hell of alot of nice records and out of print cd's.The media takes up a ton of space and our condo is getting to small for the 3 of us with so much stuff.My audio takes up the whole liveing room to be honest.
My plan is to sell my Turntable,phono stage,CDP,Rack and CD's,LP's and LP shelves and shot lead shot filled audio rack.
I just ordered a Apple TV box with 160 gig hardrive that can be upgraded to 1 tarabite.Useing I tunes I can burn all my CD's and fill in my LP's by just buying albums through Itunes.
Lossles,FLAC and wave are all CD quality and are only limited by the quality of the DAC so a moded musichall 25.2 DAC would be my next step.
The server has an optical out and so dose the DAC,there is a dac in the server but it's much like the cheap Ipod DAC. So there is no coax digital out.
My amp and headphone amp,server and dac would fit under the 65 inch DLP so that would free up even more space.
I got this pretty cheap on close out.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB189LL/A?mco=MTg5MTc5OTY
I will be able to organize all my music by Artist,Album or Songs.and use the big TV to make play lists.No more cleaning LP's Zero stat guns or getting up to change music,the server comes with a remote.
What do you all think,there will be no turning back once I do this.
Is there any way you can see if you can get the apple stuf first before you get rid of the gear even if only just a week
Remember you will need to back up files and sometimes files get crupted on Itunes I had a few experiences of this
Computer audio can sound pretty good but think its important to have a trail run if you can
I will back it up on the laptop and mabey even an exturnal hard drive.
How do the files become corupted?
Not sure but happened to 3 tracks
Has anyone else done this?
aquapiranha
11-09-2010, 19:13
I think that once you have done it, you will not go back. I have recently ditched the CD in favour of a 2TB hard drive into a Western Digital TV Live and it sounds better than the modified arcam cd it replaced. Also, the convenience is brilliant, I find I am listening to music much more now.
Ali Tait
11-09-2010, 19:16
I have,though I use a Squeezebox Touch and a Drobo.Sounds superb,especially with hi rez files.I won't be going back to cd!
I am looking at the Music hall dac 23.3 ,Little Dot DAC 1 and the cambridge audio Dac majic.http://www.musichallaudio.com/detail.php?p=68
http://www.littledot.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=548&sid=36722dbcc5449fa11fb7762e6d0792de
http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/summary.php?PID=320
of the 3 what would be your choice?
Any thoughts?
Ali Tait
11-09-2010, 23:20
I'm using the AN dac zero.A very good dac which you can pick up for around £200 used.
I'm using the AN dac zero.A very good dac which you can pick up for around £200 used.
Nice DAC but no optical in.
One of fist DAC's I thought about. BTW $1,800 new in the U.S.
I'm using the AN dac zero.A very good dac which you can pick up for around £200 used.
Contact me if you want one, i have some new old stock jobbies, will be a bit more than £200 though, but will come fully checked over factory direct.
Nice DAC but no optical in.
.
AN don't appear to do optical, more the pity
AN don't appear to do optical, more the pity
My music server only has an optical out,If Mr.Q added an optical he would loose a $1,500 digital cable sale.
Sad a $20.00 optical cable will send 11100110101010100110011011000
at the speed of light with no more jitter than the AN Sogon digital cable for far cheaper.
Thats why there is no optical out,in my own haritics opinion.
I could be wrong but if the 1's and 0's make it,it's done the same job unlike an anologe signal.
you could be right there Jeff, or is it down to clever marketing, very much like the Naim systems, " you just need to buy our power supply and special cables sir to make your Cd or amp sound better"
They suck you in
F##kshits to the end (Naim that is)
Steve Eddy
12-09-2010, 01:33
...I can burn all my CD's and fill in my LP's by just buying albums through Itunes.
http://www.q-audio.com/images/yikes.gif
Are you serious? You'd actually replace your LP's with lossy iTunes downloads?
se
http://www.q-audio.com/images/yikes.gif
Are you serious? You'd actually replace your LP's with lossy iTunes downloads?
se
Serious as a stroke on Christmass morning.
But I have been told it is better to up load from a CD for true lossless so thats the new plan.
Steve Eddy
12-09-2010, 03:09
Serious as a stroke on Christmass morning.
But I have been told it is better to up load from a CD for true lossless so thats the new plan.
Yeah, but we're not talking about ripping CD's. We're talking about your replacing your LP's with iTunes downloads.
Are you still planning to do that?
se
Yeah, but we're not talking about ripping CD's. We're talking about your replacing your LP's with iTunes downloads.
Are you still planning to do that?
se
NO, I am still figureing all this out as I go.
My plan is to sell several hundred pounds of Lp's, some audio gear,Rack and stuff to make our home more liveable.
Steve Eddy
12-09-2010, 03:32
NO, I am still figureing all this out as I go.
My plan is to sell several hundred pounds of Lp's, some audio gear,Rack and stuff to make our home more liveable.
Given any thought to digitizing your LP's?
se
Given any thought to digitizing your LP's?
se
I have done this before with a Pioneer PD-609.
It takes a lot of time to do it right.
It is easyer to find it on CD most of the time.
I'm going to try and make this as painless as possable.
Steve Eddy
12-09-2010, 04:33
I have done this before with a Pioneer PD-609.
It takes a lot of time to do it right.
True enough.
It is easyer to find it on CD most of the time.
But of course the CD version won't sound like the vinyl version.
I'm going to try and make this as painless as possable.
Ok. Hope your LP's end up going to a good home. :)
se
As for DACs why not go for tthe Caiman, when you wish you can always upgrade with the passive mod If you speak nice to Stan he might even do a deal with this upgrade. He used to offer a small discount to AOS members and you get a good headphone amp thrown in
There's a new Apple TV just out. Apparently better and cheaper (and smaller) than the one you got. $99
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/apple_tv?mco=MTM3NTM1Nzk
Ali Tait
12-09-2010, 08:48
My music server only has an optical out,If Mr.Q added an optical he would loose a $1,500 digital cable sale.
Sad a $20.00 optical cable will send 11100110101010100110011011000
at the speed of light with no more jitter than the AN Sogon digital cable for far cheaper.
Thats why there is no optical out,in my own haritics opinion.
I could be wrong but if the 1's and 0's make it,it's done the same job unlike an anologe signal.
Perhaps go for the SB Touch instead.It has both optical and SPDIF.Sounds pretty good from it's analogue out too.Hi rez stuff through a good dac sounds stunningly good.
This way,you could get a dac Zero from Jon,which can easily be made better with some good coupling caps.I put AN coppers in mine.Sounds superb.
Jeff
Replacing your CD collection with a digital streaming solution is a no brainer imo. Pack your physical CD media away for storage, but i'd think twice about dumping your TT just yet. I think it depends on how good your vinyl set up is, but after selling my Rega P3 some years back I often get the itch to go back even though all my vinyl is now gone. Maybe sort through your vinyl and keep the stuff you like the most for now to create some space.
As for digital, only rip or download lossless files. Use EAC or XLD (Mac) to rip. Believe me you'll only want to rip your collection once, so do it right first time the best you can. if you need to replace holes in your collection buy used CD's from Amazon and fleaby in order to rip, it's often much cheaper and guaranteed lossless. Don't buy lossy crap from itunes. And obviously back up your media on to 2 external hard drives and maybe think about storing one of them away from the house.
There's a new Apple TV just out. Apparently better and cheaper (and smaller) than the one you got. $99
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/apple_tv?mco=MTM3NTM1Nzk
Cheaper yes,better not so much NO HARD DRIVE ,you can only stream into it from a computer.
I just bought the little dot DAC-1.http://www.littledot.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=814&sid=4e0d30cfd476cc8aa9da82ebf440e51bhttp://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380243921389&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
Is this cable a good choice?
Steve Eddy
13-09-2010, 23:29
Sweet!
se
dave2010
14-09-2010, 07:33
Jeff
My sympathies about your living room. There is little doubt that using computer technology can reduce the space requirements considerably. Indeed, if you can tolerate the quality, on-line streaming from the likes of Spotify, Napster can pretty much eliminate the need to keep anything, and there's a lot of music out there.
On the other hand, you say you have got some nice, possibly also some rare, LPs etc. I'm always very reluctant to get rid of stuff which may never be recovered. If you go for disposal, you're braver than I am, and possibly more sensible too! You have to decide what's right for your life - and just maybe clearing space is the better option.
Although I have the technology, this business of ripping a collection to hard drive seems too much trouble to me. It will inevitably take too long for most people who have a sizeable collection.
Obviously iTunes is well known software. It can be a real pain for albums though, particularly classical music, where it can result in everything being shuffled out of order. This might not affect you, but you ought to be aware of that. I also know people who have either lost music or who have had to completely reindex their iTunes collection. Loss = irretrievable - a pain for paid for music, while the need to reindex recovers the music but takes a few more days out of your life.
For preference I'd rather have high quality sound than not, but I have to say that quite frequently I listen to online sources such as Spotify to save myself the bother of going to find CDs in my collection. It's so much quicker!
Good luck, whatever you decide.
The Vinyl Adventure
14-09-2010, 08:55
I have a superbly written cataloguing code thingy to organise your music that you can copy and paste into whatever software you choose to use ... I'd go for dbpoweramp for ripping your music ... I also have a tutorial for how to set it up to get the best out of it (including using the code thing for catalogue I mentioned)
I recently went through a system shrinking proccess with getting my actives ... I can't tell you how liberating it was ... I wouldn't even question ditching te cd player for a streamer of some sort... It takes a while to rip the CDs, but it's a common misconception that you have to do it in one go... I just did it as and when I wanted to listen to a cd ... I have a few I still haven't ripped 2-3 years on....
As for the vinyl ... I have spent a shit load on my turntable to get it to sound as good as my streamer... I'm still not confident it beats it on all counts ... Good record players beat good cd players but IMO good streamers raise the bar!
I wouldn't encourage or discourage someone to do what you are planning, it is really a personnal choose that I think has as much to do, if not more, to do with lifestyle than anything else ... But I can tell you my life has got easier and my music enjoyment has got better since I shrunk my hifi
What is the cataloguing thingy Hamish?
The Vinyl Adventure
14-09-2010, 11:24
[IFCOMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],Various Artists[]\[album]\[IFMULTI]\Disc[disc][]\[track] - [title][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[IFMULTI]\Disc[disc][]\[track] - [title][]
librarys your music like this
Madonna\Immaculate\05 - Holiday
it puts all music by one artist into one folder
[IFCOMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],Various Artists[]\[album]\[IFMULTI]\Disc[disc][]\[track] - [title][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[IFMULTI]\Disc[disc][]\[track] - [title][]
librarys your music like this
Madonna\Immaculate\05 - Holiday
it puts all music by one artist into one folder
I like it Hammish,when all the stuff I ordered gets here I'll PM you for more info.
The future is moveing to digital storage,I'm just getting on the train but menny have allready gotten to desonation like your self.
Pack rating hundreds of pounds of sorce material just isen't needed any more.
I love my rig but it takes up to much needed space from my family.
The Vinyl Adventure
14-09-2010, 12:02
a familiar sounding story...
i too am now concidering selling my turntable... although i havent really thought it through properly yet
The future is moveing to digital storage,I'm just getting on the train but menny have allready gotten to desonation like your self.
Hmmm... is it really the destination, or just a nice little change of scenery for a while...? Maybe the train has an engine at either end and can just come straight back again...
I'm being flippant, and I have the luxury of more space and solid state so it all squeezes in nicely without dominating the room, and I've found a way of storing CDs that takes up a lot less space. However I would hate to get rid of any of it - especially the vinyl - but then I am a hopeless romantic... and a hoarder...
Best of luck with it Jeff. :(
[IFCOMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],Various Artists[]\[album]\[IFMULTI]\Disc[disc][]\[track] - [title][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[IFMULTI]\Disc[disc][]\[track] - [title][]
librarys your music like this
Madonna\Immaculate\05 - Holiday
it puts all music by one artist into one folder
Oh, iTunes does that.
Steve Eddy
14-09-2010, 16:43
Pack rating hundreds of pounds of sorce material just isen't needed any more. I love my rig but it takes up to much needed space from my family.
Yes, it is. You've just got your priorities backward is all. :lol:
se
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