'Audiophile' server into naim amps

Garyi,

I have two in front of me right now. If I pick one up, doing so now, and press to my ear, I can just barely perceive a slight hum. I cannot hear it spool up when awakened nor when it is accessing. Its strangely silent.

There are no fans, the metal case acts as a heat sink.

I have two other internal Seagates on another computer, that while quiet, are faster drives and certainly audible.

Free Agent Pro externals are NOT audible in any fashion from any listening position.

Regarding the Mac pricing issue. They aren't the only ones. WD does the exact same thing with the My Book world edition. But its white and thats pretty cool.

To my mind your collection would require what 6-8 of those drives, then back up?

What of the sound then? And the wall warts?

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
To my mind your collection would require what 6-8 of those drives, then back up?

What of the sound then? And the wall warts?

I have two external 1tb, and an internal 1tb. If and when one of the externals breaks (5 year warranty), I have an empty slot for another internal.

Back-up is to a few older drives. Also Free agent Pros.

Sounds great.

You said you had 3tb of music, that plus backup is 6tb.

Garyi,

Everything is backed up in a few different ways. Early backup (years ago) were done to DVD. Recent rips are getting backed up to a 1tb Western Digital (super loud, only for backups) and to two 750GB old Seagates. Thats 2.5 TB and covers just about everything.

I only pull them out once a quarter (if that) to do a back-up.

My 3tbs of space on my listening drives are not full of course. And I also have the ultimate backup of the original cds.

Yes, this is not perfectly ideal. You must remember I started ripping my cds and moved away from CDPs about 3-4 years ago. I had no idea where I was headed with it and only started ripping so I could fill up an MP3 player I was given for xmas. So I bought a 320 then a 500 GB drives. Then a couple of 750s about two years ago. Long before I heard of Naim anything.

So a NAS is definitely in my future, and I surely wouldnt be buying any further external storage.

But I think I am good opn storage for another couple of years. I probably have another 600CD worth of space on my Seagates. That is going to last a while.

Here is a pic (Eina is now a single stack).

You can see the free agents on top of the tower.

Well yes with a dell in place they no doubt sound very quiet.

I am not convinced by your credentials PCS, there is no real reason to have all that noisy gear in the audio space. I think you like to look at it

Garyi,

Luckily I couldn't care any less if I convince you of anything or not.

Since I dont stream wirelessly, where else would it go? Certainly I dont like looking at it. But since it interfaces with my HDTV and the Naim kit, it is in the listening room. Not a big deal.

Not sure why I am even responding to you but, my Dell is every bit as quiet as my Macbook, a Mac mini, or any quiet PC ive ever seen.

There is a silent fan on the box itself, and silent fan on the CPU. There are no accelerated cards in the box any longer that can make any noise. I dont game. And my previous accelerated card was liquid cooled (NO FAN). Other than fans, and drives, PC and Macs are relatively silent. With the seagates and upgraded fans, it is every bit as quiet as my buddy's Mini.

Go to quietpc.com if you need help understanding these things. I sourced my old video card and two fans from there.

The only things stock about the PC at this point in the box itself. It was a good starting point. The drive is stock but I dont use it. I rip on a different computer. This one is modified, upgraded and stripped down for audio use only.

It sounds fabulous, it is quiet and it works wonderfully.

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
they no doubt sound very quiet.

Jesus christ.... go to Best buy or other store and ask them to plug one in for you.

Or buy one and return it later.

They are silent. period.

You might not be convinced by my credentials (whatever the hell that means), but I am not deaf and not lying about it. I can hear if a Harddrive makes noise or not. Surely the Seagates make some kind of mechanical noise. Fortunately it is quieter than I can hear from any distance further than pressed again my ear.

Got to agree, some of the older Dells are nice and quiet. I still wouldn't put one by my hifi. YMMV.

I've just turned an Optiplex into a server so I can my use my PowerEdge as a test/virtualization rig again.

quote:

Originally posted by pcstockton:
They are silent. period.

You are adamant on that point, but I can't find where Seagate (the manufacturer) claims that they are silent. Can you give me a URL for that claim please?

I'm well aware of QuietPC, and have bought from them on multiple occasions.

Amongst the PC bits cluttering up my place are a Zalman Reserator, and a handful of modded Via mini-ITX boards, that have had the cpu fan replaced with a big Northbridge heatsink to silence them. (BTW, George can you drop me an email, address in profile)

I've built silent PCs, ultra quiet PCs, and very quiet PCs. I've used fanless PSUs, external bricks and DC/DC converters.

And I still go back to the Squeezebox for ease of use, I can pick up the supplied remote that runs on a couple of AAs that I never have to worry about the charge in, I can use the Dell Axim, my laptop or one of my PCs. And all of the music can be on a machine in a different room.

I've sat 6 to 8 feet from an idling HDX, and I can hear the hard drives. It just p***es me off, as I can't see any sensible reason for the damn things to be there.

Cheers

John

quote:

Originally posted by fixedwheel:

You are adamant on that point, but I can't find where Seagate (the manufacturer) claims that they are silent. Can you give me a URL for that claim please?

I've sat 6 to 8 feet from an idling HDX, and I can hear the hard drives. It just p***es me off, as I can't see any sensible reason for the damn things to be there.

Cheers

John

John, it sounds like you know what can be done to mitigate/eliminate ambient noise.

I do not know if Seagate makes any such claim. But they certainly should.

Maybe the non "pro" versions (which are plastic) are not as quiet. I dont know.

All I know is that mine are. A friend suggested them after buying one and finding how quiet it was. They are priced well, available anywhere, well built, 5 year warranty, and according to my buddy who replaced one after 3 years on 24/7 use, absolutely painless to get a warranty replacement. All done easily online. They dont even ask any questions. They simply give you an RMA number and they ship you a new drive. No questions asked.

And yes I've "heard" the HDX as well. I agree, the HDX would be much better off if there was an option to not have drives inside.

I entertained moving the PC to another room then streaming the audio, but cannot find a reason to do so. I even bought a 25 foot DVI cable so I could continue to use my HDTV as the display for my Foobar.

In my current house, I have an office directly behind my listening area. I could easily punch a small hole in the wall to route the toslink and DVI cable but, once again, haven't found a reason to go through the effort. I just sit back and enjoy the music!

Display is HDTV, control of hifi via either iPhone (when I want the TV off) or Blutooth Apple Keyboard and Bluetooth Logitech m1000 mouse.

The reason I keep on PCS is your are very defensive and so sure your way is right you seem to say what needs to be said.

I have heard a Pro. My step brother bought one over to nab pictures of his daughter from my harddrive.

It was quiet but far from silent. It sounded like a multiplatter harddrive with park heads in an enclosure. Its no silent at all. It makes sound. In a quiet passage of music it would be heard.

I also own a free agent pro under the stairs. It is however the standy up model so not fair in comparison, its also fanless and when in use for back up can clearly be heard. It can be heard because there are mechanical processes going on inside.

Can't really remember what we were arguing about now, I am sure it was really important.

quote:

Originally posted by pcstockton:
Here is a pic (Eina is now a single stack).

You can see the free agents on top of the tower.

I think it looks great . A simple but very effective system . Although I haven't used PC's in a few years , I did use quiet PC in the past and you could get very good results .
My system is in the same room as my Sky HD box which is a laughably noisy and buggy piece of kit but once the music is on you can't hear it .

The main point is that it works well and is simple to operate and makes you happy .
( especially after a good round of golf and a beer ! )

Ed

One of the best solution to use a Mac Mini, the newest one with an SSD drive in it with 4 GB RAM and an iPhone or iPod Touch for remote controlling plus a Firewire interface as a D/A or as a FW-SPDIF converter. You do not need monitor, keyboard, the Mac Mini can boot directly to iTunes. The newest Mac Mini with SSD sounds very good even on the Toslink output to an external DAC. You can stream your music wirelessly from a central storage (NAS if you will or from any old Mac used as storage with few drives connected to it in the next room or hidden somewhere, where noise is not an issue) or using Ethernet.

Very easy to use, to setup, and exceptional sound. No noise at all. Nothing. Dead quiet.

ferenc ,
The Mini does sound appealing and I realize that using a itouch to control the music is fairly easy . However , I wonder if you or someone else could tell me how you can easily listen to / control Radio , especially BBC radio and Last FM on a headless Mini ?
My system is used by my Wife and Son as well and they find the Sonos controller very easy to use , I'm not sure how they would take to finding their way round App's on a iTouch . It's taken me months to train them to use a Logitech Harmony remote !

Ed

quote:

Originally posted by ferenc:
One of the best solution to use a Mac Mini, the newest one with an SSD drive in it with 4 GB RAM and an iPhone or iPod Touch for remote controlling plus a Firewire interface as a D/A or as a FW-SPDIF converter. You do not need monitor, keyboard, the Mac Mini can boot directly to iTunes. The newest Mac Mini with SSD sounds very good even on the Toslink output to an external DAC. You can stream your music wirelessly from a central storage (NAS if you will or from any old Mac used as storage with few drives connected to it in the next room or hidden somewhere, where noise is not an issue) or using Ethernet.

Very easy to use, to setup, and exceptional sound. No noise at all. Nothing. Dead quiet.

Forgive me for being a bit thick here, but please forgive me if I think you are using a JCB or Caterpillar bulldozer to open a Peanut.

Have you added all that up? Including the Touch or iPhone?

And then you are still suggesting to use a NAS in another room? And an alternative DAC?

Forgive me for, IMHO, thinking that is all style over substance. If you are going to use storage

If you are going to use a NAS in another room you could just as easily, and cheaper, config your existing machine to run SqueezeCenter, using your existing rips, and have internet radio stations.

Then put your savings into a very good DAC, that will improve more than one source.

All IMHO.

John

quote:

Originally posted by ferenc:
One of the best solution to use a Mac Mini, the newest one with an SSD drive in it... The newest Mac Mini with SSD sounds very good.

Do Apple know about this yet..?!

quote:

Originally posted by ferenc:
You do not need monitor, keyboard

Yes, if you only want to skip tracks, pause, and change existing playlists.

Forgive me if I go against the grain here, but I sometimes perform slightly more complex actions. And I like the bigger art on the screen to enjoy (sorry George!), the ability to scroll through other art if i put it in the folder. Recently I have been running a LastFM Bio component which is cool for guests who dont know the artist. There is a lyric window I opened up once for some really drunk ladies who were having a blast singing.

Often my listening seshes are with the company of good friends, during dinner and drinks or BBQs. They like to choose albums and setup playlists as well. Watching the Tour de France, on mute, with a buddy and swapping the TV between the race and Foobar to change an album or song is nice.

In such times my iPhone might be charging, in use, friend's kid playing an app on it, in my pocket in the backyard, smoking ribs etc... I wouldn't ever want to rely on solely that as a controller.

EVERYONE understands how to use a mouse and a keyboard.

When I am solo, especially if watching a Mariners (baseball) game, I use my iPhone almost exclusively. It is sweet!

I would guess though that 1/3 of my listening happens with friends around and half of them have been asking what it takes to get a comparable kit!!! I have one friend really interested in a Uniti, another who is looking into an old used 32.5/HC/160, and a third who told me he wants me to help him get EXACTLY what I have in my room. Hilarious.

-p

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
The reason I keep on PCS is your are very defensive and so sure your way is right you seem to say what needs to be said.

I have heard a Pro. My step brother bought one over to nab pictures of his daughter from my harddrive.

It was quiet but far from silent.

Agree to disagree??? I cannot hear mine. Seriously. anyway.....

Where did I say anything about being "so sure my way is right"? All I said was that I think my Seagates are silent.

My method is not for everyone, Mac users for one, but it is perfect for me or I would have moved on to something else. I would have used the Macbook or bought a Mini or decided iTunes is useable for me. The music is great, SQ is wonderful, seshing late into the night is as fun as can be.

Coming home to the lady the other night, dancing her ass off, with a glass of wine in hand, makes me very happy.

-p

In order to agree I would need to see a picture of that...

you want a picture of my brain activity whilst straining to hear a Seagate hard drive?

quote:

Originally posted by AS332:


I think it looks great . A simple but very effective system .

Thanks Ed!!!

I really enjoy it immensely. Surely it can be improved on. But for now it works wonders and FAR exceeds what I had prior.

quote:

My system is in the same room as my Sky HD box which is a laughably noisy

Ed - get yourself some of these Milty foculpods



They really helped to reduce HD noise from my V+ box as the V+ and Sky boxes tend to 'excite' the surface they are on, amplifying the noise.

James

PS - Nice clean system Patrick - how do you find the Arrivas ?

quote:

Originally posted by james n:

PS - Nice clean system Patrick - how do you find the Arrivas ?

James,

Many thanks! I am very very pleased with my speaker selection. Bought without demo on pure spec.

They are super fast, and very fun. Maybe they are not as serious or refined as the Allae, but not all that different either. Ive heard SL2s, Allaes, and SBLs, and I would assume, if blindfolded, they are all the same manufacturer. Although all different of course, they all "sound like Naim" to me. Not sure why people have disregarded the Ariva. At $1500 for an ex dem pair, I would choose them over Allaes any day of the week. Sure, I would happily upgrade to Allaes if free. But for me, even at $3000 I would be happy with what I have.

Sweet bass... tight. Goes as low as needed when its asked for, but never adds it where it isn't. Lean recordings still sound as such. But when the big deep bass is requested by the recording, they put out. Big time. No boom in my rooms so far.

The tweeter is blowing me away lately. I suppose it has been my musical selections. Doing an Animal Collective session now. Very crispy.

I thought they were easier to get on with than the Allae and a bit more forgiving of rooms and positioning. Very much an n-Sat without the need for the Sub. Glad you like them.

James