streaming formats

If you put them on the Mac, it will need to be switched on every time to want to play your music. I would get a nas, and put the albums on that. If you were to get a Qnap, you can put Asset on it, which is easy to set up and use. Asset is upnp software. You then put dbpoweramp on your Mac, which you use to rip the CDs and edit the metadata. I would rip the CDs to the flac format, which is smaller and easy to manage.

There are other options, but this is simple and reliable. 

Yep, as HH says. NAS also allows proper networking. Who knows you may want another 'all-in-one' later on or multiroom or your loved ones accessing other music at the same time.

I would give a big thumbs up to Asset / dbPowerAmp.

You may like to grab a well known CD and convert to various formats (flac can be stored at varying compression levels) for comparison. Personally speaking as long as the song arrives as .WAV at the streamer the exercise is not worth much time being spent other than to settle on a  rigid and satisfactory method of storing metadata. I do not store composer, genre and other information, just keep it as simple as possible. A lot of time can be wasted trying to curate metadata.

Personally I rip/store music as level 5 compressed flac (compression in flac is not 'lossy')

I use 600x600jpg cover art, artist, title, year, trackname. All text standardised to 1st letter capitalised with non-English characters replaced with nearest equiv.

Have fun but get your ripping right first time, it can be a real drag 2nd time around!

Hungryhalibut posted:

If you put them on the Mac, it will need to be switched on every time to want to play your music. I would get a nas, and put the albums on that. If you were to get a Qnap, you can put Asset on it, which is easy to set up and use. Asset is upnp software. You then put dbpoweramp on your Mac, which you use to rip the CDs and edit the metadata. I would rip the CDs to the flac format, which is smaller and easy to manage.

There are other options, but this is simple and reliable. 

Solid advice from HH.

One comment on a file format, as file sizes are less critical now. FLAC will not play on iTunes or iDevices, without additional plug-ins. So this may be somwehat inconcenient in a Mac environment.

You can rip in Mac's native lossless format - AIFF. This is equivalent to WAV, and carries all metadata. This is what I do if I rip on iMac.

All NAIM streamers support WAV, AIFF, FLAC as those are the most fundamental and common lossless formats.

Adam

Please excuse me jumping in here. 

Is there a general agreement that, for mac users, there is a sonic benefit to using AIFF rather than ALAC?

Similarly, for mac users, is there a benefit when copying cds to using dbpoweramp rather than itunes?

Ignorance is bliss, but I feel I need to interrupt my bliss a bit!!

Peter

Point 1: yes

Adam

northpole posted:

 

Similarly, for mac users, is there a benefit when copying cds to using dbpoweramp rather than itunes?

 

If itunes compares and repairs your rips against a database of identical CDs ripped by others then probably not. I don't use iTunes but chances are it does not do anything like dBPowerAmp. Approx 4% of my CDs required some additional 'repair' after ripping. Just making a decent copy (rip) will transfer the error to the NAS unless some 'reference' comparison is made and intelligent intervention applied to correct the faulty data.

Thanks for all the helpful tips.

So taking small steps would i be good to rip the cd's in aiff. onto itunes and then stream them on the naim, and when my bank balance recovers invest in nas storage device.

I guess what I am asking is  - will the aiff format serve me well long term and are they easily transferable from the imac to the storage device?

Thanks again 

zombywoof posted:

 

...

I guess what I am asking is  - will the aiff format serve me well long term and are they easily transferable from the imac to the storage device?

Thanks again 

AIFF can be selected and streamed from most NAS media servers (it certainly can from the Synology I use), it cab also be converted losslessly into WAV or FLAC if required.

thanks H 

zombywoof posted:

Thanks for all the helpful tips.

So taking small steps would i be good to rip the cd's in aiff. onto itunes and then stream them on the naim, and when my bank balance recovers invest in nas storage device.

I guess what I am asking is  - will the aiff format serve me well long term and are they easily transferable from the imac to the storage device?

Thanks again 

AIFF is an industry standard lossless file. It is supported by Naim, Linn etc streamers. I purchase all my high resolution audio in that format.

works well from my QNAP NAS, streamed either directly or via UnitiServe onto my streamers.

For Mac users ripping CD, dbpoweramp writes metadata into the created wav files, for some reason iTunes doesn't. Dbpoweramp supports FLAC as well and iTunes doesn't. The metadata supported by iTunes for ALAC and AIFF is quite limited.

Simon

Reasons for iTunes not including metadata in WAVE (.wav) files...

Theory 1  (Conspiracy):   Apple are trying to get their file formats to take over the world so they can start charging for the licences.

Theory 2  (Cock-up):   Apple are still using the pre-2002 definition of a WAVE file.

Theory 3  (Cheapskates):   Apple were trying to cut costs and didn't think anyone would actually use WAVE files.

I'd camp in the 2 or 3 variant...  
iTunes does rip to WAV and supports it. When I get back home, I will try to run some tests and see if they have improved their meta-data handling.

I'd camp in 2 & 3 & also believe the long term object is 1.

I just find Apple/iTunes irritating & although it might be OK for the masses that don't care about SQ or have been hoodwinked into believing Tunes is the ultimate,  I don't see & hear anything in SQ terms that makes me want it.       After years of corporate & heavily controlled Mac use & then experiencing the breath of fresh air when we moved to MS,  I now tend to avoid anything Apple/Mac,  (Rant over,  feeling much better now)   I do use an iPad simply because it works best with the Naim app.,  why? because Naim use it as the development lead for the app.  If they did the same with Android I would be more than happy to move to Android.  (sorry slight thread deviation drift)

Mike B, my sentiments exactly I didn't by a Naim streamer till they had a Android app, the app works well on both my Samsung tablets and S7 phone.

I put them in what I consider reverse order of likelihood.  But you still have to include a conspiracy theory about governments or multi-national corporations or 1/2 the population of some countries won't believe you!

Pcd posted:

Mike B, my sentiments exactly I didn't by a Naim streamer till they had a Android app, the app works well on both my Samsung tablets and S7 phone.

I also have an S7 phone & do use the Naim app on it,  it does work well,   but I do tend to reach for the iPad as I prefer the screen size.    Whatever,  Naim do get the iOS updates out first,  & as I volunteered for the beta team,  & I did buy the NDX knowing full well an iPad was needed.  Guess I'm stuck with it.  

Mike-B posted:

Pcd posted:

Mike B, my sentiments exactly I didn't by a Naim streamer till they had a Android app, the app works well on both my Samsung tablets and S7 phone.

I also have an S7 phone & do use the Naim app on it,  it does work well,   but I do tend to reach for the iPad as I prefer the screen size.    Whatever,  Naim do get the iOS updates out first,  & as I volunteered for the beta team,  & I did buy the NDX knowing full well an iPad was needed.  Guess I'm stuck with it.  

I tried both (iPad and Android versions) and somehow I prefer iOS. 

But than again I have a full Apple system at home, which I set up so it just works (opposite to Mike's story - I dislike MS products, which are so resteicted at work so much).

Adam, the problem is that the Mac OSX is moderately 'locked down' by Apple; iOS and Android are quite restrictively 'locked down' by Apple and Google respectively.  MS Windows on the other hand isn't (except for the default modify access to some system directories); however, when a Windows PC joins a network, it's subject to the Group Policies on that network, and subject to the conditions configured by the network admins, these can 'lock down' a Windows PC most severely.

If a PC is operating in a restrictive mode, then that's due to policies set by the network admins, not due to the OS; so blame your admins not MS!

And even the earlier (original) wav definition that preceded the hidef and multichannel version (2002) supported List Info meta data - so probably even more of a cock up?

Huge posted:

Adam, the problem is that the Mac OSX is moderately 'locked down' by Apple; iOS and Android are quite restrictively 'locked down' by Apple and Google respectively.  MS Windows on the other hand isn't (except for the default modify access to some system directories); however, when a Windows PC joins a network, it's subject to the Group Policies on that network, and subject to the conditions configured by the network admins, these can 'lock down' a Windows PC most severely.

If a PC is operating in a restrictive mode, then that's due to policies set by the network admins, not due to the OS; so blame your admins not MS!

Huge - I do realise that.

My private MS experience was with XP and then Vista. This was abysmal. So moving to a Mac OS was like a breath of fresh air - it is of course ilimited in how it can be configured. But that's OK - I value the stability.

Each to their own

Stability? I like Mac OSX - but stable - compared to MS Windows10? -I don't think so - stability  is not one of Yosemite's  strengths

Yosemite was probably Apple's equivalent to MS Vista - utter non-sense. It was so bad, I actually skipped alltogether and moved from an ultra-stable Snow Leopard to El Capitain.

My own experiences with Windows, up to, and including, XP where the dreaded "blue screen of death" seemed to feature increasingly as time went on, led me to move to a Mac.

I don't really understand the criticisms of Apple's various operating systems, other than from folks who are serious gamers, or maybe folks who code.

I have also found that using Apple's applications seems much more intuitive than Microsoft's where one often first had to learn how they worked.

I simply want a laptop which performs faultlessly over a period of years, each time I turn it on, one which simply works.

I would guess that that is what Adam means by stability...................though, each to his, or her, own. 

dave marshall posted:

 

I simply want a laptop which performs faultlessly over a period of years, each time I turn it on, one which simply works.

I would guess that that is what Adam means by stability...................though, each to his, or her, own. 

Exactly - I just want it to work. Every day, every time I open it....