'Audiophile' server into naim amps

Posted by: Simon-C on 30 June 2009

Dear all

I'm thinking of finally binning the piles and piles of CDs littering the house and going to a HDD / server based system. My naim amps will remain for now and comprise 82/Hi/180 into WB arcs. The CDP being replaced is a Meridian 588.

I was going to audition an Akurate DS and Ripnas as a possible source, the HDX seems the wrong way to go for me.

Wondered if anybody out there had gone this route and if they had any thoughts.

And answers along the lines of....put a supercap on it, I heard it all before :-)

Simon

Posted on: 14 July 2009 by AS332

Thanks James ,
I will look in to the foculpods .

Ed

Posted on: 14 July 2009 by ferenc

quote:
Originally posted by fixedwheel:
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

I do not understand what you are talking about, I am sorry for this, probably my bad English is the problem.

I do not know SqueezeCenter, however I am using G4s, G5s, MacPros since late 2003 as a server with central storage now with some 10 TB storage for streaming to Macbooks (mine, my wife's and my son's too) or MacMini in my home. I was using diferent NASs too and installed some for my friends. As I am very happy with either a Mac-based or a NAS-based storage streaming from my computer room, I was never really interested in trying the Squeezebox. Dealing with Macs, servers, central storage is my daily business, as I am building shared storage and so called SAN systems for television stations, post -production facilites since 1998.

Posted on: 14 July 2009 by ferenc

quote:
Originally posted by SC:
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..?!

Yes, sure, as the official Apple Service Center changed the internal 120 GB drive to a 128 GB Apacer SSD, not to break the warranty.

The Apacer 128 GB SSD is very affordable, I got mine for roughly 260-270 Euro. Works wonderfully well.

Posted on: 14 July 2009 by ferenc

quote:
Originally posted by pcstockton:
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

My listening habit is much simpler than yours.

Plus not everybody wants to see a mouse and a keyboard next to his audio system. I have some seven computers at home at the moment...

Posted on: 14 July 2009 by garyi

This is a screen grab of my tv, the interface is fully controlled with a logitech harmony 1000.

Posted on: 14 July 2009 by Patrick F

thats a nice looking UI.

Posted on: 14 July 2009 by js

agreed

Posted on: 15 July 2009 by glevethan

Garyi

Nice UI - refresh my memory - are you using a Lavry through iTunes? If the screen grab is off of the TV are you using a MacMini connected to the TV?

Thanks
Gregg

Posted on: 15 July 2009 by garyi

Hi Greg, no I do not own a larvy.

That is indeed a screen grab of my TV. I have the new stlye mini going into the TV twice. Once via the new display adaptor to HDMI and once from MINI DVI to VGA.

The VGA input is used purely to enable me access to the desktop via VNC when XBMC is running (The picture above) which runs at the native screen res, in this case 1080i

The Mini is digital out into a nVi in the first instance as its used a lot for video which XBMC handles. I'll bang some more pictures up at some point.

I am shallow, I want good sound but I also want a superb interface. In this day and age I think it has come to that balance more than say, loving Vinyl/how much vinyl you can store. Like CD ease of use/Versus CD/Vinyl quality.

Its all about balance. (that being said the above interface is as open to PCS on his PC as it is to me on OSX as is it is to the slightly wiffy guy with a beard playing with linux.

Posted on: 15 July 2009 by pcstockton

quote:
Originally posted by ferenc:

My listening habit is much simpler than yours.
Plus not everybody wants to see a mouse and a keyboard next to his audio system. I have some seven computers at home at the moment...

Right on. If you only use 128 GB of space it must be MUCH simpler. If I only had that much music I would probably be happy with my iPhone controller. In fact I would probably just get a 120GB iPod and a Wadia dock.

Whats the big deal about having a keyboard around?? If you have 7 computers and not one in your listening room, your house must be HUGE!! I have two computers and one is always powered down and in a bag. The other is dedicated for serving up music to the DAC, and is not powered on when not listening. The last thing some of us want is to play with computers when at home. I get enough of that at work.

My listening room/living room is also where the front door is, the fireplace, a dining table, and seamlessly transitions into the kitchen. For me to care about a keyboard or my iPhone (it is going to be sitting there anyway) sitting on the coffee table seems a bit silly.

I wouldn't even want a dedicated room for listening unless I had two nice systems. Maybe if I had kids i would.

To each their own.

Posted on: 15 July 2009 by ferenc

quote:
Originally posted by pcstockton:
quote:
Originally posted by ferenc:

My listening habit is much simpler than yours.
Plus not everybody wants to see a mouse and a keyboard next to his audio system. I have some seven computers at home at the moment...

Right on. If you only use 128 GB of space it must be MUCH simpler. If I only had that much music I would probably be happy with my iPhone controller. In fact I would probably just get a 120GB iPod and a Wadia dock.

I have a bit more than 6000 CDs and lots of original high-res live recordings, hundreds of digitized LPs, roughly 5 TB music mirrored in two 5 TB arrays, so a bit more than 128 GB. It is quite possible to use them for listening with a headless 128 GB Mini. Easy. I do not manage them (it is done on my MacPro where the disk arrays are connected), just listen similar way how I use a CD player. Find the album or an earlier completed playlist and press play and when it is over start another album or a playlist. Not too complicated

Posted on: 15 July 2009 by garyi

HOw do you find an itunes library and ipod work with that size of library Ferenc?

Posted on: 15 July 2009 by pcstockton

quote:
Originally posted by ferenc:
just listen similar way how I use a CD player. Find the album or an earlier completed playlist and press play and when it is over start another album or a playlist. Not too complicated

So you are streaming to the mini from your MacPro?
You made it sound like you "simply" play from the Mini.

Whats the point of the Mini if you already have everything on drives with MacBook?

How do you navigate the 5 TB of music without a keyboard or mouse?

thanks,
-p

Posted on: 15 July 2009 by garyi

I believe I can answer that for him. He has his music on the pro which shares to the mini. He uses an ipod or similar to pick music to play out of the mini.

I use something nearly similar. I have a NAS with the itunes music stored on it and use the mini and a touch most of the time or XBMC when I have the TV on.

Posted on: 15 July 2009 by pcstockton

Garyi,

What exactly does "sharing" entail? How do you make new playlists and/or browse the hard drive from the iPod/iPhone?

There is no way all of it is in one playlist. That would kill things.

Posted on: 15 July 2009 by pcstockton

Here are a few cool UIs for Foobar.

Posted on: 15 July 2009 by glevethan

Garyi
Thanks for the reply

Ferenc

Can you expound a bit on the system you are using - DAC, cables etc.

Thanks
Gregg

Posted on: 15 July 2009 by garyi

PCS Its only you who wants to have a single playlist which makes no sense to me what so ever.

if you want a single playlist why not just look under songs?

Posted on: 15 July 2009 by pcstockton

Sorry Garyi... I thought others did the same thing.

Ill drop out.

thx
-p

Posted on: 16 July 2009 by ferenc

quote:
Originally posted by garyi:
HOw do you find an itunes library and ipod work with that size of library Ferenc?

I use Remote app on the iPhone. Generally I use playlists, generated on the MacPro, which is the server for the MacMini. The MacMini connects to the MacPro using Ethernet. The iPhone remote is connected to the MacMini through wifi. If I need to search, I search usually based on Genres, than Artist then Albums. For me it is the easiest way or just type what I want in the search menu. The only problem with the Remote app, that it can not be used for remote controlling shared iTunes Library, so you need to import the iTunes library of the server on the MacMini through the network. Sounds complex but it is not

All the Macs have VNC running, so I can remote control any of them from any other.

This is a simplifed diagram of what I have. Sorry for the quality of the drawing, but I had only few minutes to make it. I hope soon I can show Naim DAC too

I do not have HDX at the moment, hope to have it again soon. I liked it very much when I had.

Posted on: 16 July 2009 by ferenc

quote:
Originally posted by pcstockton:
quote:
Originally posted by ferenc:
just listen similar way how I use a CD player. Find the album or an earlier completed playlist and press play and when it is over start another album or a playlist. Not too complicated

So you are streaming to the mini from your MacPro?
You made it sound like you "simply" play from the Mini.

Whats the point of the Mini if you already have everything on drives with MacBook?

How do you navigate the 5 TB of music without a keyboard or mouse?

thanks,
-p

The MacPro is quite far way at the moment from my room, so I use the MacMini. It is very quiet.

Posted on: 16 July 2009 by garyi

PCS, I am still confused as to why you would want a playlist of every song?

Posted on: 16 July 2009 by pcstockton

quote:
Originally posted by ferenc:
Generally I use playlists, generated on the MacPro, which is the server for the MacMini.

Aha. Got it.

When you said "no keyboard or mouse needed" you only meant for listening. I thought you meant you could control the entire music experience without keyboard and mouse.

We are on the same page.

I use a keyboard and mouse for setting up Foobar as well. Just like you do on your Pro. Then mostly use the iPhone to control everything.

Certainly my keyboard/mouse are not used for mundane actions like skipping tracks, picking songs, pausing etc....

I, and others, do use my keyboard/mouse for setting up a playlist or importing a new CD. As you do. Only I do everything on the same computer.

We are not so different after all. I just don't use two computers, and have a bigger one in my listening room.

Question... why not simply go straight from the MacPro to the Konnect? Is it an issue of cable length, routing the cables etc??? The Mini seems superfluous.

thanks
-p

Posted on: 16 July 2009 by pcstockton

quote:
Originally posted by garyi:
PCS, I am still confused as to why you would want a playlist of every song?

Garyi,

I like everything in one playlist so I can navigate my entire library easily. Especially when using the iPhone controller.

You cannot easily setup playlists remotely (iPhone). How else would I have everything at my fingertips? Create a playlist for each artist? That would take forever. I have almost 1,000.

I suppose it comes down to how I listen. Just like my books, I like to be able to stand in front of my bookshelves and have equal opportunity to choose anything I want. I dont want to have to bust out the keyboard and mouse everytime I want to listen to something not on a current playlist. I like flexibility.

Also, I enjoy throwing Foobar on random until something strikes my fancy. Then I turn back to default playback. I can come home from work, open Safari on my iPhone, and have my entire world of music right there. No need to decide what playlist to create or what i want to listen to.

Not doing so for me would be like storing only a few of my CDs in the listening room. But would have to go to a different room to find others.

I just dig it this way. I suppose I am the only one who does this. Dont disparage me though. And dont assume I haven't tried every possible method of incorporating a computer in the hifi. I have used dozens of players, on both Mac and PC, and have found this the best for me.

-p

Posted on: 16 July 2009 by QTT

Then why do you need a playlist? If you use iTunes, you just go straight to the music library.