'Analog Dinosaur' succumbs to the joys of FBA : enter Raspberry Pi 2/IQ-Audio DAC+!!

[Marco]

But if you have the space to store all your LP's and CD's you can have the best of both ! Discover stuff on the Internet then buy the CD or LP at your local music store (maybe). Great times.

Indeed, which is precisely my situation and what I'm doing, but for some bizarre reason Justin just wouldn't accept. As they say, 'there's nowt as queer as folks'!

You might not have heard that one in Switzerland

Marco.

[The Black Adder]

Me too Jo, despite switching over to FBA 4 years ago, I still buy CDs and will only buy a download if there is no other possible way of getting the music, which sadly is increasing. What really pisses me off greatly about the majority of downloads, is the lack of any artwork and liner notes - I like to have the lyrics, I want to know who the musicians are and who wrote the songs and every other bit of information you would have, if you bought either the CD or LP. And the worst of the worst are low bit rate downloads, I will never buy those.

Have you seen the price of some of those 24bit downloads Jo Shared file stuff on HDD etc are not always what you think your getting either. Some stuff purporting to be 24bit or DSD or even 16 bit are in fact far lower bit rates. When you buy the physical stuff you can be sure what your getting

Yep... This is one of the reasons why (IMO) vinyl has such a big resurgence. You can hold it and look at it. Download and streaming is very convenient and if we can get it sounding as good as a top end transport/dac combo then that's fab... but it's still nothing... there is nothing there... it's physically bereft of life... it's a dead download.

[Jimbo]

Yep... This is one of the reasons why (IMO) vinyl has such a big resurgence. You can hold it and look at it. Download and streaming is very convenient and if we can get it sounding as good as a top end transport/dac combo then that's fab... but it's still nothing... there is nothing there... it's physically bereft of life... it's a dead download.

Another benefit of buying vinyl is they often throw a CD in for good measure. You never get the vinyl thrown in when you buy a CD:

[The Black Adder]

Another benefit of buying vinyl is they often throw a CD in for good measure. You never get the vinyl thrown in when you buy a CD:

lol.. your right there.

[r100]

Yep... This is one of the reasons why (IMO) vinyl has such a big resurgence. You can hold it and look at it. Download and streaming is very convenient and if we can get it sounding as good as a top end transport/dac combo then that's fab... but it's still nothing... there is nothing there... it's physically bereft of life... it's a dead download.

sorry, with all due respect, I don't quit agree. What is more important : the spirit of the music or the ownership of a piece of vinyl or plastic of which the content is only lent to the end-user for a specific usage by law ?

I don't see downloads as "dead", they let me discover more music and artists.

[r100]

Indeed, which is precisely my situation and what I'm doing, but for some bizarre reason Justin just wouldn't accept. As they say, 'there's nowt as queer as folks'!

You might not have heard that one in Switzerland

Marco.

sorry, never heard of that but got the definition after a quick search.

UK informal saying: said to emphasize that people sometimes behave in a very strange way...

I guess we all do at times.

[Qwin]

Marco - having got interested in FBA, but not yet done anything about it, I came accross this thread.

I have read large chunks of it but find very little detail about what is involved in the way data is handled that makes this system in anyway better than any other.

The number of acronyms means I have to keep going and finding out what is being talked about.
As I see it the Rassperry Pi is a small computer to which you have attached external drives by cat5 cable (your music library) how is this streaming?

I can not see any hard drive on the Pi (got me at it now) does it store its operating system on a flash drive and what is the operating system?

The on board DAC looks tiny, are you just taking the analogue output from this to your amp?
What type of data is the DAC working with and what is the interface (transfer method) USB bus?

The more I look at FBA the less I want to dip my toe in, seems there is so much happening I don't know which way to jump, eg DSD/1bit, kernel streaming etc.

I have an old desk top computer sat with iTunes and about 500 gig of lossles music on it. Its not wired into my system at the moment and rather than bother with it I was looking to build a state of the art FBA system. Like all things audio, it would seem there are many roads to choose from and no consensus on which is best.
The argument over which interface software or library software to use seems to me to be a sideline and has little to do with sound quality and is more about convenience and personal preference. The whole subject is complex and hard to keep pace with in my opinion and detracts from enjoying the music.

Still on the fence.

[The Black Adder]

sorry, with all due respect, I don't quit agree. What is more important : the spirit of the music or the ownership of a piece of vinyl or plastic of which the content is only lent to the end-user for a specific usage by law ?

I don't see downloads as "dead", they let me discover more music and artists.

ooh, ello... lol.. Well, 'with all due respect', downloads don't allow me to discover music and new artists... you can do that via youtube, bandcamp, going to gigs, asking on forums etc. more than anything. If I do find an artist I like, I buy the physical media, it's as simple as that. The downloads just don't interest me... they are sterile to me.

Each to their own ol chap!

[r100]

sure, I meant streaming files which is, I suppose a form of download. Each to his own as you say.

[Marco]

Just a few pic-choors of the FBA set-up, chez Marco (not that computer audio looks like much)....

NAS box (containing 2TB of choons, many of which are high-res 24-bit):





Ze Pi (with IQ-Audio DAC inside):







Volumio (with Macbook Pro):






Marco.