mace Posted November 15, 2008 Share Posted November 15, 2008 Hi all, I'm moving to Europe and don't want to take my CD's (but I can take my Cornwalls!). What I'd like to do is rip them all at AIF or lossless to a hard drive (preferably a 1 or 1.5 TB). I've done some searching here and haven't seen a "turn-key" solution. Does anyone know of any excellent hard drive based player (as good or better than my Sony SACD player) which I could use? I looked at www.redwineaudio.com/Olive.html but these Opus units are thousands of dollars which seems a bit steep. Any advice or experiences to share would be great. Thanks, Mace 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted November 15, 2008 Share Posted November 15, 2008 Get a RAID NAS 5 box, 2TB to be safe, and rip them with Exact Audio Copy, which freeware, (if you are fastidious) or with Media Center or whatever. If you don't want to use a computer for playback (which I and many others do) then you can choose your player whenever you find what meets your needs and budget. The NAS can serve as storage for the rest of your computer files as well. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshnich Posted November 15, 2008 Share Posted November 15, 2008 I have the olive opus and it has been a great turnkey server. I use it with it benchmark DAC and to my ear it out performs my modded Sony SACD player. I dont think that you would need to go to the rewine modded approach in order to best the Sony. The opus without the benchmark is pretty remarkable as well. I am sure however that Daves approach will be more cost effective. It may be simple to some, but using a pc to do anything it tough for me. With the olive I opened the box plugged it in had it search for my home network and viola I waa up and running. The 100 cd preload is a nice option as well. Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpines Posted November 15, 2008 Share Posted November 15, 2008 http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1231354979&/Mcintosh-MS300-300gb-music-ser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mace Posted November 20, 2008 Author Share Posted November 20, 2008 Thanks for all the helpful replies. I've checked out all these links and it seems mucho dinero is needed for these things... Let's say I was to get a Mac Mini for a digital jukebox (or old iMac) with optical audio out. Does this mean that the signal coming out is just pure 1's and 0's? If so, can I run this directly into an amp with an optical in and pretty much have a pure signal going to the amp and then the amp does the D/A conversion? In other words, is it possible to forego the $1600 D/A converter such as the Olive unit? Thanks much! Mace 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 The Olive unit has its own D/A converters as well. Check this out. http://www.olive.us/home.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CO1 Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 Thanks for all the helpful replies. I've checked out all these links and it seems mucho dinero is needed for these things... Let's say I was to get a Mac Mini for a digital jukebox (or old iMac) with optical audio out. Does this mean that the signal coming out is just pure 1's and 0's? If so, can I run this directly into an amp with an optical in and pretty much have a pure signal going to the amp and then the amp does the D/A conversion? In other words, is it possible to forego the $1600 D/A converter such as the Olive unit? Thanks much! Mace Yes!!! I have a AuzenTech X-Meridian sound card that has 2 optical connections that I output to my amp to do exactly what you described. For analoge you can also upgrade the card with better op amps until you find the ones that sound best to you. This is what I did for the analog out to my Rockhopper Audio M³ headphone amp and now the combo has a more detailed warm sound. As computer tech goes I'm out dated now but I have no desire to change because I am extremely happy with the sound that I have. I know AuzenTech has newer offerings and I'm sure there are others as well. You migh try asking some questions in the computer speaker section of this forum...there should be some updated geeks there to point you in the right dirrection unless you just want digital out to an amp with is easy peasy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mace Posted November 21, 2008 Author Share Posted November 21, 2008 Yes the Olive is a nice option but at $1700 it is also an expensive one. With a Mac Mini and a 1.5 TB drive I'm out about $900 (if I buy new)... plus I get the benefit of having a real computer for other stuff as well, or for using as a video server. On the olive.us web site I couldn't find the power specs. Is it switchable 120-220 V and 50-60 Hz? This is important since my stint in Europe is around 3-4 years only and then I'll be back in the USA. I suppose power transformers are an option but I'd rather stay away from these for my audio equipment. Thanks much, Mace 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 Mace, if money is an object then just go with a PC and a card deluxe (if you want a known DAC that is compared by some to those going up to 15k and costs 375.00) or another good quality soundcard. Even the latest Intel audio chipset is really very good, better than the majority of CD player until you get to the stratosphere. You don't have to be a PC techie to get a soundcard to work and just start with Media Center. There are other players you may like better but Media Center is a good place to smart. While many of these distribution and storage systems offer a lot of convenience, they don't sound a bit better and cost a lot more, and you still need a RAID or other backup system. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted November 22, 2008 Share Posted November 22, 2008 I was about to look into buiding my own music server, until I lucked into an Elan Via!DJ unit on clearance/liquidation for $1,200 (normally, around $3,600). No way I would've paid $3,600 for something like this, but $1,200 was much more reasonable in my opinion (even still, somewhat on the pricy side). However, once I got to thinking, the time and effort that I would've had to spent sourcing decent hardware and having to put it together and getting to work the way I want it, in the end it would've probably came out to about the same. Yeah, I have some parts laying around that I could've used, as I do have plenty of spare computer parts around here. However, I would still want a decent case that would fit in with my component rack, some kind of LCD display, a remote, as well as appropriate software, whether it be MS Media Center ala Vista Home Premium, or one of a number of free/open-source solution, and then the time to put it all together and get it to work properly for my needs. At least this Elan Via!DJ unit - took it out of the box, hooked up like any other stereo component and voila! Got instant access to over 80 gigs of music I already got stored on my home network! Oh course, I could've taken the poor-man's way out and just got some kind of dock and simply jacked in my iPod, like I do for my little office setup, but I guess I wanted something a bit more elegant. However, for the original poster, this may not be a bad idea for something to be taken to Europe. You could simply rip all your CDs into something like the 120-gig iPod, thus you got all your music in a very small, convenient package, and then get something like this Creative X-Fi dock, that you could just plug into your stereo, thus giving you instant music server with streaming capabilities. However, I don't know how much better this fairly inexpensive rig (compared to many of the other solutions to accomplish this same task out there) would sound, plus with the iPod, depending on how extensive your music collection is, you may end up having to use one of the compressed formats to fit all your music on it. Just a thought - take it or leave it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpines Posted November 22, 2008 Share Posted November 22, 2008 Mac mini $599 Cambridge DacMagic $400 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mace Posted November 26, 2008 Author Share Posted November 26, 2008 So, with this set-up (mac mini and DacMagic) is it possible to just use iTunes as the jukebox for my ripped AIF files and then hook up an optical cable from the Mini to the DACMagic and that's it? Thanks much, Mace 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 By the time you add up everything that you will need the computer will run about $1,000. I built a PC, cost about $1,000 to $1200. A friend went the mini mac route, cost about $1000 with external hard drives. If you use the sound card, you are done. If you use an external DAC you need to factor that in. I had a Benchmark DAC1. Mightly fine DAC to say the least. If you plan on adding a CD player later this is the way to go because it has a selector switch for multiple inputs (RCD, optical and pro). For less money it is extremely hard to beat a Musical Fidelity A3.24 (Stereophile Class A a few years back). About $500 or so. I replaced my Benchmark DAC1 with the A3.24, mostly because it martches everything in my rack. It is a tossoup between the Benchmark and Musical Fidelity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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