Music Storage for DAC???

Hi Justin

You could do a lot worse than the Logitech Squeezebox, run the server software on your existing computer, and just run a CoAx or Optical lead from the Squeezebox to the Naim DAC.

I've been using a Squeezebox 3 for a couple of years, and am also waiting for the DAC to ship. SB3 at about £150, the new touch will be about t£250, or the Duet starter pack at about £300. Great as you expand the number in the house all running from one library.

In my case I mainly have FLACs, but some in Apple lossless, some in MP3. The only thing it doesn't do is stuff with DRM on it.

HTH

John

I think the OP only asks for advice about a music storage device for a Mac-based system.

I personally would go for a Lacie external HD. Lacie HDs are very stylish and known to be reliable and you have a choice of using firewire 800 / 400 or USB 2 or even eSATA. There are some SATA external HDs but for music playback, firewire or USB 2.0 would be more than adequate.

I have my music stored in three formats (FLAC, WAV and Apple Losslesss) on an external hard drive which is also backed up to another drive.

I ripped my CDs using DBPOWERAMP which has a mulit encoder so you can rip simultaneously to diffretn locarions so I only had to rip the cds once to get the three files.

I stream these to the hifi using a SONOS system which works really well.

I sense the problem you have is that you already have your music in the formats specified which will not be optimal using the Naim DAC and a Naim system. Converting existing files wil not rpelace the missing quality so you need to consider buying files in the higher resolution formats or reripping your cds using DBPOWERAMP or similar.

Look at the wireless Sonos system it's fairly cheap (circa £700) for one zonebridge to connect to the router, one hand controller and one zone player which has a digital output for the DAC.

Good luck,

quote:

Originally posted by Peter Dinh:
I think the OP only asks for advice about a music storage device for a Mac-based system.

Actually, if you re-read the OP he asked for music storage for a Naim DAC, and then goes on to say he is considering getting a MacMini or MacBook Pro.

As the DAC is not a streamer in itself he has to get the music from storage to the DAC. The server software for the Squeezebox is free, will run on different operating systems, so can run on the OPs existing computer, rather than having to purchase a dedicated machine. The Squeezebox also has no moving parts to cause annoyance, so the hard drives and computer can be housed away from the HiFi.

Depending on the iPod it may be used as a streamer to the DAC, or if iTouch/iPhone it can run iPeng as an advanced remote for the SqueezeBox.

HTH

John

OK, I understand your point. Thanks.

A vote for the Mac. Great user interface, iTunes is much nicer to use than Squeezecentre and an iPod touch makes a great remote. A Mac Mini can run headless, sit quietly in the rack (my n-Vi and 300 have bigger fans). If you dont go down the computer route the Sonos is very good.

James

With about 5,000 tracks I reckon that'll be about 150-200Gb at lossless, so the base MacMini doesn't really have enough space.

So start at 499, add 80 for the 320gb, or maybe 160 for the 500gb, and then think about back up etc....

The OP may have plenty of HDD space on existing computer, and just needs to make sure that it is all backed up, maybe even back it all up offsite for as little as £2.25 a month.

John

HI,
I AM USING A QNAP STORAGE DEVICE USING EXACT AUDIO COPY INTO FLAC FILES STREAMED INTO MY SB3 AND SUPERNAIT.THE QNAP IS RUNNIG SLIMSERVER WICH CAN BE OPERATED FROM A COMPUTER/LAPTOP ANYWERE IN THE HOUSE VIA HARDWIRE OR WIRELESS.REGARDS SCOTT

hi,
sorry please forgive me,caps lock on again.i have some passwords set up in upper case and obviously forget to knock the caps lock off after entering the password.please bare with me i will get used to it.sorry again,regards scott

Scott, you get about 40mins to edit a post if you want to.

I often have to tidy up my own.

HTH

John

Have been running a Squeezebox Duet with music served from a Mac Mini for approx 18 months, and am very happy with the setup. Almost 11 000 songs in Apple Lossless on an external 500 Gb drive. Use iTunes as primary ripping & management tool, but have also found that I've had to use mp3tag (run in VM Ware Fusion as it is Windows app) to do some tag management that iTunes doesn't do.

Further down the track my hope would be to have funds available for a Naim DAC to go between the SB and amp ...

Thanks guys for your replies.

Mac mini server server.http://www.apple.com/macmini/server/

Or Drobo/droboshare