The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

brownsugah said:
I just want to have access to all my music in one places instead of going between apps.
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If you're ditching Apple Music/Spotify for Qobuz, then I'd say Roon is a great choice. I will say, that for everyday on-the-go listening, I still use Apple Music on my iPhone. I have too much in my library on that to get rid of it at this point (unless I somehow get everything downloaded and moved over to Roon). There's also a lot I have in Apple Music/iTunes (especially new music) that is not on Qobuz and my Red library isn't comprehensive enough yet.

But I really love Roon at home and it is infinitely better than Plex for music (I still use Plex for video/movies). I live in a railroad apt, have speakers in just about every room and can do multi-zone audio very easily with Roon. And since I have two listening setups at home (one in living room and one in office), Roon is perfect for me when combined with a Roon end point.
 
MikeH said:
That might be more of a question for @Joe Mac as he seems more informed on those particulars than I am...
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It’s definitely comparable with the HiFiBerry dac when using dietpi/roopie/HiFiBerry os as your operating system. Don’t have a clue with the cobalt but my instinct would be that it’d covert the files ok from either the core computer or a computer acting as a bridge that it’s plugged into. It’s not actually doing anything Roon, the computer is and is just passing the audio files to it to decode.
 
Joe Mac said:
It’s definitely comparable with the HiFiBerry dac when using dietpi/roopie/HiFiBerry os as your operating system. Don’t have a clue with the cobalt but my instinct would be that it’d covert the files ok from either the core computer or a computer acting as a bridge that it’s plugged into. It’s not actually doing anything Roon, the computer is and is just passing the audio files to it to decode.
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I'm going to order the HiFiBerry dac+ pro and pi4. I assume I can connect directly into my laptop or mac to set-up and use existing keyboard etc rather than having to purchase the raspberry official ones? I'm going to use volumio I think so I can do quboz.
 
Bsdmr2 said:
I'm going to order the HiFiBerry dac+ pro and pi4. I assume I can connect directly into my laptop or mac to set-up and use existing keyboard etc rather than having to purchase the raspberry official ones? I'm going to use volumio I think so I can do quboz.
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you don’t use a keyboard/mouse attached to it, the video output isnt utilised by volumio. For initial set up it needs to be connected by Ethernet and you connect to it remotely from your computer to configure it. Once configured you can set up a wireless network within volumio and then disconnect from Ethernet or if its convenient leave connected that way.

Just a warning, qobuz features are behind a paywall on volumio and I’ve never used them so while I’m sure they work I’m not in a position to vouch how user friendly an experience the interface for it is etc, have a read.

with it being a pi the great thing is that the os is on the micro sd card so if you don’t like it just pull out the micro sd card and flash a different os onto it!

The HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro and pi is a great sounding value for money product, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!
 
Joe Mac said:
you don’t use a keyboard/mouse attached to it, the video output isnt utilised by volumio. For initial set up it needs to be connected by Ethernet and you connect to it remotely from your computer to configure it. Once configured you can set up a wireless network within volumio and then disconnect from Ethernet or if its convenient leave connected that way.

Just a warning, qobuz features are behind a paywall on volumio and I’ve never used them so while I’m sure they work I’m not in a position to vouch how user friendly an experience the interface for it is etc, have a read.

with it being a pi the great thing is that the os is on the micro sd card so if you don’t like it just pull out the micro sd card and flash a different os onto it!

The HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro and pi is a great sounding value for money product, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!
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Thanks - I wondered if you needed one to set it up, but sounds even easier than I thought!
 
Joe Mac said:
you don’t use a keyboard/mouse attached to it, the video output isnt utilised by volumio. For initial set up it needs to be connected by Ethernet and you connect to it remotely from your computer to configure it. Once configured you can set up a wireless network within volumio and then disconnect from Ethernet or if its convenient leave connected that way.

Just a warning, qobuz features are behind a paywall on volumio and I’ve never used them so while I’m sure they work I’m not in a position to vouch how user friendly an experience the interface for it is etc, have a read.

with it being a pi the great thing is that the os is on the micro sd card so if you don’t like it just pull out the micro sd card and flash a different os onto it!

The HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro and pi is a great sounding value for money product, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!
Click to expand...
One year of volumio is pretty cheap, so I'm going to give it a go with a Quboz trial and see how I get on. Worst case I can change OS and just use it for airplay on my apple music sub and also use it for internet radio like Radio Paradise etc. Should be much better than my current options of bluetooth to the arcam miniblink!

Thanks for the help.
 
Bsdmr2 said:
One year of volumio is pretty cheap, so I'm going to give it a go with a Quboz trial and see how I get on. Worst case I can change OS and just use it for airplay on my apple music sub and also use it for internet radio like Radio Paradise etc. Should be much better than my current options of bluetooth to the arcam miniblink!

Thanks for the help.
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Volumio is a great sounding os and even if you don’t stick with qobuz I’d keep using it as it has Spotify connect and airplay native on the free bit anyway so after the year you could just stop paying. I switched to HiFiBerry’s own os just to get Roon endpoint functionality.
 
Joe Mac said:
Volumio is a great sounding os and even if you don’t stick with qobuz I’d keep using it as it has Spotify connect and airplay native on the free bit anyway so after the year you could just stop paying. I switched to HiFiBerry’s own os just to get Roon endpoint functionality.
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Good idea, thanks! Looking forward to getting it up and running.
 
Got Volumio premium for the year with 15% off now. Also I remembered I had a tidal subscription that I got when I bought my car, so I’ve now got that going. Listening to one of their Masters playlists and sounds brill.
 
Bsdmr2 said:
Got Volumio premium for the year with 15% off now. Also I remembered I had a tidal subscription that I got when I bought my car, so I’ve now got that going. Listening to one of their Masters playlists and sounds brill.
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If you’ve got tidal I don’t know if I’d bother getting qobuz too, when I was choosing a hi-res streaming service it was an either/or call for me and I landed on qobuz. How is the volumio interface for tidal?
 
Joe Mac said:
If you’ve got tidal I don’t know if I’d bother getting qobuz too, when I was choosing a hi-res streaming service it was an either/or call for me and I landed on qobuz. How is the volumio interface for tidal?
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I’ll use the tidal sub till it expires and then move to quboz I think. It’s okay, not the easiest to search by artist but fine for new music or genres.
 
Finally bit the bullet and grabbed an external DAC for my Aries Mini. Got a lightly used Singxer SDA-2C (advanced). Want to sit down with it longer and figure out a good album to throw on, but really digging it so far. Also want to mess with settings on the Aries to see what is sounding best. Went for the Singxer because it seems to pair well with the Aries (the mini recognized it right away). It has quite a few input options and has balanced output if I want to go down that road in the near future. Right now just using USB in and RCA out though.
 
since i'm using my digital setup in my bedroom my brain is torn between doing a dongle dac like an ikko zerda and dragonfly red or small but not battery powered "desktop" dac like the ifi zen
 
A newbie digital question/request for help here folks. I skimmed this thread and my head is spinning, so sorry if this has been asked and answered.

While working in my office at home over the last several weeks and listening to a lot more music digitally, I have realized that my current set up is rather limited and not ideal for me.

What I have
I currently have over 1TB of Flac files. I converted my 2000+ cd collection a few years ago all to Flac and they are currently sitting on an external hard drive connected to my iMac. Though most of my cds are available on streaming services, I do have quite a few artists from small labels, limited releases and eps that aren’t. I currently subscribe to Apple Music for streaming, but think I will switch over to Tidal as I prefer the higher bit rate and sound quality. I am on their 4bucks/4months intro offer right now.

What I currently do
The hard drive is connected to my computer. Though I am an Apple person (iMac, iPhone etc) I hate iTunes and don’t use it. I use Foobar to play my Flac files and listen to them with headphones through a small DAC.

I have a set of AudioEngine 5+ speakers, and an AudioEngine wireless streaming adaptor. But I am not overly happy with this set up. The speakers are also connected to my turntable.

For the streaming services I will listen via the desktop app with headphones and the DAC mostly, or sometimes streamed to the AudioEngine speakers.

I also have a Sonos One speaker in our kitchen. My wife uses it primarily for streaming podcasts or radio from her phone. I do also use it to stream Tidal from my phone as well.

What I want to do
I think what I am looking for is some sort of streaming device that I can connect my external hard drive to. I would then connect the device to the AudioEngine speakers. I would be able to control the streaming device via either a desktop app or app on my iPhone. I could also get a cheap tablet to control it down the line if need be.

I don’t need a feature rich UI, just being able to easily navigate the folder structure on the hard drive and show the cover art of what is currently playing would make me happy. I don't want to reorganize my flac files as I am happy with the way the file structure is set up, so I also don't want the UI software mucking with the structure.

Not deal breakers - nice to haves (in order)
  • Ideally I would also be able to stream to the Sonos speaker via the app.
  • It would be nice to be able to stream via the app on my phone when I am outside the house, specifically while at work. I would just listen with headphones.
  • Integration with streaming services (Apple or Tidal) - of these 3, the least important.
I don’t want to go the Raspberry Pi home brew route as I think that is a bit too under-the-hood for my skill level I think. The solution does not need to be plug and play but looking for something that is fairly straightforward to get setup and running. I like the idea that once it is set up, I don’t need to constantly tinker with it, but if I want to tweak it I can. I would like to keep cost for the streaming device to less than $500 USD.

thanks
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
A newbie digital question/request for help here folks. I skimmed this thread and my head is spinning, so sorry if this has been asked and answered.

While working in my office at home over the last several weeks and listening to a lot more music digitally, I have realized that my current set up is rather limited and not ideal for me.

What I have
I currently have over 1TB of Flac files. I converted my 2000+ cd collection a few years ago all to Flac and they are currently sitting on an external hard drive connected to my iMac. Though most of my cds are available on streaming services, I do have quite a few artists from small labels, limited releases and eps that aren’t. I currently subscribe to Apple Music for streaming, but think I will switch over to Tidal as I prefer the higher bit rate and sound quality. I am on their 4bucks/4months intro offer right now.

What I currently do
The hard drive is connected to my computer. Though I am an Apple person (iMac, iPhone etc) I hate iTunes and don’t use it. I use Foobar to play my Flac files and listen to them with headphones through a small DAC.

I have a set of AudioEngine 5+ speakers, and an AudioEngine wireless streaming adaptor. But I am not overly happy with this set up. The speakers are also connected to my turntable.

For the streaming services I will listen via the desktop app with headphones and the DAC mostly, or sometimes streamed to the AudioEngine speakers.

I also have a Sonos One speaker in our kitchen. My wife uses it primarily for streaming podcasts or radio from her phone. I do also use it to stream Tidal from my phone as well.

What I want to do
I think what I am looking for is some sort of streaming device that I can connect my external hard drive to. I would then connect the device to the AudioEngine speakers. I would be able to control the streaming device via either a desktop app or app on my iPhone. I could also get a cheap tablet to control it down the line if need be.

I don’t need a feature rich UI, just being able to easily navigate the folder structure on the hard drive and show the cover art of what is currently playing would make me happy. I don't want to reorganize my flac files as I am happy with the way the file structure is set up, so I also don't want the UI software mucking with the structure.

Not deal breakers - nice to haves (in order)
  • Ideally I would also be able to stream to the Sonos speaker via the app.
  • It would be nice to be able to stream via the app on my phone when I am outside the house, specifically while at work. I would just listen with headphones.
  • Integration with streaming services (Apple or Tidal) - of these 3, the least important.
I don’t want to go the Raspberry Pi home brew route as I think that is a bit too under-the-hood for my skill level I think. The solution does not need to be plug and play but looking for something that is fairly straightforward to get setup and running. I like the idea that once it is set up, I don’t need to constantly tinker with it, but if I want to tweak it I can. I would like to keep cost for the streaming device to less than $500 USD.

thanks
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audirvana? mac based. you can connect to your sonos by making it an airplay device, you pick the DAC you use and can connect to the audioengine, integrates with tidal, no itunes, you cant stream on your iphone though because all they have is a remote for iOS, but only 75 bucks

besides that the only idea i can think of is roon and thats expensive as fuck
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
A newbie digital question/request for help here folks. I skimmed this thread and my head is spinning, so sorry if this has been asked and answered.

While working in my office at home over the last several weeks and listening to a lot more music digitally, I have realized that my current set up is rather limited and not ideal for me.

What I have
I currently have over 1TB of Flac files. I converted my 2000+ cd collection a few years ago all to Flac and they are currently sitting on an external hard drive connected to my iMac. Though most of my cds are available on streaming services, I do have quite a few artists from small labels, limited releases and eps that aren’t. I currently subscribe to Apple Music for streaming, but think I will switch over to Tidal as I prefer the higher bit rate and sound quality. I am on their 4bucks/4months intro offer right now.

What I currently do
The hard drive is connected to my computer. Though I am an Apple person (iMac, iPhone etc) I hate iTunes and don’t use it. I use Foobar to play my Flac files and listen to them with headphones through a small DAC.

I have a set of AudioEngine 5+ speakers, and an AudioEngine wireless streaming adaptor. But I am not overly happy with this set up. The speakers are also connected to my turntable.

For the streaming services I will listen via the desktop app with headphones and the DAC mostly, or sometimes streamed to the AudioEngine speakers.

I also have a Sonos One speaker in our kitchen. My wife uses it primarily for streaming podcasts or radio from her phone. I do also use it to stream Tidal from my phone as well.

What I want to do
I think what I am looking for is some sort of streaming device that I can connect my external hard drive to. I would then connect the device to the AudioEngine speakers. I would be able to control the streaming device via either a desktop app or app on my iPhone. I could also get a cheap tablet to control it down the line if need be.

I don’t need a feature rich UI, just being able to easily navigate the folder structure on the hard drive and show the cover art of what is currently playing would make me happy. I don't want to reorganize my flac files as I am happy with the way the file structure is set up, so I also don't want the UI software mucking with the structure.

Not deal breakers - nice to haves (in order)
  • Ideally I would also be able to stream to the Sonos speaker via the app.
  • It would be nice to be able to stream via the app on my phone when I am outside the house, specifically while at work. I would just listen with headphones.
  • Integration with streaming services (Apple or Tidal) - of these 3, the least important.
I don’t want to go the Raspberry Pi home brew route as I think that is a bit too under-the-hood for my skill level I think. The solution does not need to be plug and play but looking for something that is fairly straightforward to get setup and running. I like the idea that once it is set up, I don’t need to constantly tinker with it, but if I want to tweak it I can. I would like to keep cost for the streaming device to less than $500 USD.

thanks
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Difficult. Roon is the obvious call and could probably do the hardware for a core and 1 endpoint for 500/600 and it would use Sonos speakers as endpoints too. Problem Is they it’s US$129 a year or $699 lifetime.
 
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