 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
May 6, 2016 - 10:35 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
|
I know it isn't what you are looking for but consider ripping your CDs to your hard drive and connecting your PC to your Hi-Fi setup and playing music that way.
An increasingly common practice, I gather. But does it entail a computer in the living/listening room? (Ugh!) Or booting up a laptop every time you want to play something? Or streaming via wi-fi (with possible attendant disruptions)? Just curious.
No, you do not need to have the PC (or, better: NAS) in the listening room though, of course, you do need to get the signal from the PC/NAS to the hi-fi. This can be wireless but for a better, non-disruptive, signal then a wired connection is preferable (especially for lossless such as FLAC).
In place of the CD player (or record deck/tape player) you have a Network Streamer and this is the device which takes the signal streamed from the storage device (i.e. the PC/NAS) and converts it to a signal identified as music by the hi-fi amplifer. It sounds complicated and I acknowledge there are complications but the benefits are immeasurable.
If you are the sort of person who likes to trawl though a CD/vinyl/tape collection, select an album and sit and read the sleeve notes whilst listening then I don't think streaming is for you. Alternatively, if you'd like to access any albums, or just one track from a large collection within seconds and hear it play, or arrange a playlist of tracks, then certainly look at these options.
Similarly, if you are a fan of internet streamed music then a hi-fi streaming device is a great step forward from listening via your PC.
Ripping your own CD collection is time-consuming and I have read comments where the reviewer has said he doesn't wasn't to spend time in front of his PC cataloguing those CDs (incorrect metadata can be a problem) but I would say that having spent time doing just that I am finding my collection so much more accessible and fun to play.
As for booting the PC every time you want to play anything ... that is one of the reasons the NAS is a better option. This is left on 24/7 and it takes seconds only to have a track playing. The main delay is choosing what to play!
There are various ways to access the stored collection and I can do this by using either an iPad/iPod or my android smartphone or directly from the streamer hi-fi device (buttons on the front or small remote control). My earlier system (Logitech) had PC access, too, but upgraded hardware for improved sound quality, etc. removed this facility. I can control the amplifier, too, from the iPad/iPod/android smartphone which can be very useful when I'm not in the listening room.
I have a very large CD collection but as mentioned in an earlier post I rarely play CDs these days and because my streamer is better quality than my old CD player I get better sound quality by ripping the CD to the NAS and streaming the signal.
Not for everyone but don't rule out streaming without checking if it's for you!
Mitch
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you like playing discs but can't get a new carousel changer, a compromise would be to rip your CDs and then burn the music files to CDR. This would give you at least 400 minutes per disc if I'm not mistaken, and at that point who needs a changer? I'm pretty sure today's CD players will play compressed files.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
