Tell me about hard drive systems...

Posted by: Tarquin Maynard-Portly on 13 March 2016

Hola muchachos

I now have a car that takes an SD card for music replay and so I've been busily putting fave choons onto the card. The sound IMO is bloody good.

To my utter astonishment, I yesterday heard an instrument on Ziggy Stardust that I've simply not heard before. I love the album, so this was a real surprise.

Long / short - I think I need to investigate hard drive systems. I currently use a CDX2.2 or LP12 - what kit would I need for this?

I am totally new to this field, so treat me like a simpleton...


TIA

MIke

Posted on: 16 March 2016 by Claus-Thoegersen

Just to clarify the Userve needs a dac, but someone posted on another thread that Ndac is cheap used, so userve/Ndac would be a simple way to start.

Bluesound has a much cheaper Userve like solution but hopefully not with SQ on cd x2 level.

Claus

Posted on: 16 March 2016 by dayjay

Is the OP asking about streaming from a nas, or is he asking about using a hard drive to directly feed a device that can play music from it - i.e. without having to have a network and streamer and all of the gubbins that goes with it?  Lots of advice above on Naim and non Naim network streaming but to replicate the set up in the car I think it is more likely to be a local hard drive and a device to play.  Cheapest and easiest is a thunderbolt drive feeding a mac mini playing into a dac.  Sounds fantastic with the right software and dac, can be controlled via an ipad/iPhone is small and unobtrusive and can either be left on at all times or powered up in ten seconds.  Hard to beat for simplicity and hard to beat for sq at the price 

Posted on: 16 March 2016 by Tarquin Maynard-Portly

Thanks to all for the helpful replies. 

To answer DayJays question - I don't know! I *think* I'm looking at the hard drive route - my Surface isn't really used much so adding a DAC and sticking it into my 252 might make sense - I have some High Resolution music files which sound darned good in my car via SD card.

@:HungryHalibut - I might take you up on that kind offer...

Regards

Mike

 

Posted on: 17 March 2016 by Solid Air

It's pretty much impossible to explain all the options on a forum like this one. It's a bit like going on a cycling forum and saying 'I want to buy a bicycle' - you'll get every bit of advice ever, until you're more confused than when you started. The only sensible approach is to find a really good dealer and talk to to them, and listen to some music, and talk some more. You'll find your way.

That said, there is some advice given above that I wouldn't take. I wouldn't buy something with a hard disk in it from Naim, eg HDX, Unitiserve. I see no signs of real life in that market, and Naim seems to have only limited interest in it. Go the DAC route (eg V1) or the streamer route (eg NDX), but not the server (?) route, IMHO.