Essentials for laptop hifi?

Posted by: AndrewG on 26 September 2016

Hi

in my main NAS-based system I have NDS/300/282. However, I also want to set up a laptop PC based system for use in another room with mainly headphone listening. I would really appreciate advice on this, starting with what laptop to buy - not necessarily specific models or makes, rather, is an SSD drive preferred to a conventional HDD? Are CD/DVD drives all virtually the same these days (I would also use it for ripping CDs)? Do all laptops have the appropriate output sockets to feed a DAC/headphones? What is the preferred software for managing and playing music on the laptop? Also any thoughts on DACs? The new Dragonfly Red has caught my eye, but how would that compare with more expensive alternatives, such as the Chord Mojo?

I realise this is a very broad topic and there are numerous possible solutions for me. I have trawled the Internet and found a lot of related info but much of it rather old.

Please excuse my ignorance on this, but any advice would be greatly appreciated before I buy the wrong laptop! I haven't mentioned budget, but I am hoping to get set up for £400-600 if possible and then add a DAC, new headphones, etc.

Many thanks

Andrew

Posted on: 26 September 2016 by likesmusic

Are you planning to stream to your new pc from your NAS, or store your music on the pc itself?

 

Posted on: 26 September 2016 by AndrewG

I think I will stream it from the NAS, so no need for a large HDD on the laptop.

i should add that until recently I had never appreciated the sound quality potentially available via PC and headphones. Clearly it could get expensive, but I don't want to start off on the wrong foot by buying a rubbish laptop.

Posted on: 26 September 2016 by likesmusic

Then a modest SSD is a no brainer really - apart from anything else there's then no possibility of irritating clicks from a disc drive. Arguably you don't need a cd reader  (since you must already have some way of ripping cds), so you could get a nice simple machine - depending on your favourite player software a touch screen might be nice to use. I have a modest Acer notebook running J River under Windows 10. I deliberately bought a not very powerful machine for my music to keep noise levels down, and since J River runs at a tiny amount of CPU time a fancy processor is just a waste, and a potentially noisy one at that. It goes into my Chord DAVE and sounds magnificent. Acer, Asus, HP etc all seem to have nice machines well within your budget.

Posted on: 26 September 2016 by AndrewG

Many thanks for the very helpful suggestions.

Actually this laptop will replace an ageing PC running Vista that I have been using for ripping CDs, so I would like the new machine to fulfill that function too. I guess I could possibly use an external CD drive for that?

Andrew

Posted on: 26 September 2016 by likesmusic
AndrewG posted:

Many thanks for the very helpful suggestions.

Actually this laptop will replace an ageing PC running Vista that I have been using for ripping CDs, so I would like the new machine to fulfill that function too. I guess I could possibly use an external CD drive for that?

Andrew

Why not, keeps it simple, and minimises clutter. And if you find a streaming site that you like - Roon, Tidal, Qobuz or whatever - then it's probable  you'll be doing less ripping in the future anyway.  If cash is a bit tight you could even keep your old machine just for ripping .. OH! One really important thing I forgot to mention .. if you go the way I suggest make sure you get a fanless machine, then there's absolutely no chance of intrusive airborne noise. These tend to by low powered, which I reckon is a good thing. I suppose in fairness other folk would suggest you could look at a Raspberry Pi type solution - these are ridiculously cheap ways of streaming from a NAS, but you need to be slightly computer smart to get them going. (and ripping would be a problem).

Posted on: 26 September 2016 by AndrewG

Thanks again.

Money is not the problem - I just don't need anything slim, lightweight and expensive.  I need to get rid of the old PC as it's too big, old and slow to boot up. Raspberry Pi is not for me either. I do already subscribe to Tidal (which I do like) but normally prefer to 'own' a CD and rip that. I think it sounds better too, generally. 

Andrew

Posted on: 26 September 2016 by likesmusic

I just typed "fanless Windows 10 laptops" into Google and came up with several worthwhile links.

Posted on: 26 September 2016 by AndrewG

Thanks. I'll take a look.