Home Stereo Digital media

[BatocheBob]

I have a reasonably hi-end, albeit old like me, stereo system based on a Yamaha RX-1000 receiver and Wharfdale E70 speakers plus other components. I have a fairly large collection of CDs and a Techniques 5 disc player. All this produces very good sound but I'm getting tired of constantly having to clean the CDs and player, not to mention that CDs are getting harder to come by. I'd like to know what my options are for a good quality digital music player that I can hardwire into my RX-1000. In addition to playing the music back on my stereo I am looking for something whereby I can add new music from on-line sources and ideally rip my existing CDs onto this device. I hope I have explained myself and look forward to all input

 

[lovinthehd]

You could dedicate a computer, or build a dedicated device based on something like the Raspberry Pi, or buy a dedicated unit from someone like Bluesound. Personally I rip my CDs to flac files and use them on a laptop via wifi (or I can connect by hdmi) or on thumb drives. I can download from Spotify onto my phone or laptop and can use my phone to direct things over my wifi network, too. Only CDs I have trouble getting are older ones out of print....altho they're generally available still but at silly prices.

 

[JerryLove]

CDs are hard to come by?

 

[BatocheBob]

I appreciate the replies so far. I looked at the Bluesound Vault 2i as suggested. it looks like a pretty nifty device but a bit rich for my blood and it looks like I would still need a hard drive and I'm still not clear on how I could play these file back through my RXV-1000.
I have done a bit more research and determined that I can uses one of the several software packages available to rip files to an external hard drive but then I don't know what device I could use that would give me an interface to these files and be able to connect to my RX-1000. Any more help will be appreciated. Thanks

 

[TheWarrior]

Whatever you do, just be sure to keep all of your physical media, and certainly do not stop buying more!

We have not yet arrived at 'download-only' solutions that consistently offer better quality than discs.

 

[JerryLove]

Whatever you do, just be sure to keep all of your physical media, and certainly do not stop buying more!

We have not yet arrived at 'download-only' solutions that consistently offer better quality than discs.

Both redbook-quality and higher-than-redbook quality audio is available for download.

I'm dubious of the advantages of higher-than-redbook sample rater / DR; but regardless, it's still there.

While this would not necessarily be "better than" what's available on, say BD-Audio; it's as good as most physical media.

Indeed: I'm not sure I could find someone who could distinguish a high-bitrate MP3.

And since most audio is DRM-free; you can store it on whatever you like.

 

[lovinthehd]

I appreciate the replies so far. I looked at the Bluesound Vault 2i as suggested. it looks like a pretty nifty device but a bit rich for my blood and it looks like I would still need a hard drive and I'm still not clear on how I could play these file back through my RXV-1000.
I have done a bit more research and determined that I can uses one of the several software packages available to rip files to an external hard drive but then I don't know what device I could use that would give me an interface to these files and be able to connect to my RX-1000. Any more help will be appreciated. Thanks

Yeah the Bluesounds are pricey but apparently simple to use and connect and they work well, the Vault 2i includes a 2 TB internal drive tho. Might have to fuss more with other solutions.

What hard drive do you want to use? What computer do you use? How many cd's do you have to rip now?

As far as specific software for ripping I like EAC (ExactAudioCopy.de) and Foobar2000 for managing the music on my computer (and use bubbleupnp on my android phone, altho I just downloaded an android version of Foobar2000 too but haven't used it yet).

While it's nice to hardwire a dedicated device, what about streaming from your computer over your network? You could hook up something like a Chromecast Audio unit (recently discontinued, tho) or even something like one of Apple's Airplay adapters to your receiver to adapt it to wireless music (I have avrs that have that feature built-in myself). Even a bluray player can serve as an adapter for wireless music (what I have done with older avrs).

 

[TheWarrior]

Both redbook-quality and higher-than-redbook quality audio is available for download.

I'm dubious of the advantages of higher-than-redbook sample rater / DR; but regardless, it's still there.

While this would not necessarily be "better than" what's available on, say BD-Audio; it's as good as most physical media.

Indeed: I'm not sure I could find someone who could distinguish a high-bitrate MP3.

And since most audio is DRM-free; you can store it on whatever you like.

The list of CD or better quality downloadable recordings is ever-growing. But my CD collection cannot be replaced via the internet, yet.

So don't throw out your discs!

 

[BMXTRIX]

Once you have all your music ripped to hard drives, you can then use a PC for playback with a direction connection to your AV receiver. You can use a keyboard mouse and software running on the PC for playback, or you can try using an outboard device for playback which offers a more standard remote control.

The biggest advantage with music only devices, like Sonos (or Bluesound) is that they are built to use a smart phone as the interface. The flip side to using a PC as the interface is that the TV has to be on so you can start the music playing. But, once a playlist is started, you can turn it back off.

I'm not completely sure, but I believe a player like Plex may offer you the same type of user interface and it supports FLAC playback. So, you could have your entire CD collection on a local hard drive of any computer of your choice, and it will play back into your system. The computer will live local to the A/V receiver and just be plugged in via HDMI.

So, you can use a old laptop or buy a small form factor PC or build something specific.

The cool part is that Plex will manage everything automatically. So, as you add music to the computer, it will be a part of your collection automatically with cover art and the rest. If you want to play back the music elsewhere in your home on other devices, you can do so. You can play it back from your phone anywhere in the world. Your family or even friends can have access if you want to give them that access.

I use Plex for my video playback of local movies and tv shows along with my music collection. While I don't have the PC tied directly to my receiver, I can playback any of it through my Roku player. I'm not sure if the Plex doesn't transcode (convert) the lossless to .mp3 format for playback on my Roku. But, direct from the PC it supports lossless formats natively for playback.

https://support.plex.tv/articles/203824396-what-media-formats-are-supported/

Literally, if you have a laptop at home, you could rip a few discs, load Plex, and try it out today for free. That's kind of what I did to just get a feel for what it was like.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Wanted to add that I went home and I played with my phone and was able to change the phone from controlling itself (local playback on the phone) to playing back directly from Plex on the PC. Nothing changed on my phone, but instead of playing music on the phone, it played it out of the PC.

Pretty darn cool for those of you who haven't tried it/seen it/used it, this is the best media player I have ever laid my hands on.

 

[lovinthehd]

Wanted to add that I went home and I played with my phone and was able to change the phone from controlling itself (local playback on the phone) to playing back directly from Plex on the PC. Nothing changed on my phone, but instead of playing music on the phone, it played it out of the PC.

Pretty darn cool for those of you who haven't tried it/seen it/used it, this is the best media player I have ever laid my hands on.

A friend of mine gave me a plex demo recently, liked the interface particularly for movies (he has huge ripped collection) but as I don't have any but one in a format plex likes....didn't really need it for the music but still playing around with it.

 

[BMXTRIX]

What format are your audio files in? That link I gave shows that Plex supports a bunch...

• aac
• alac
• e-ac3
• flac
• mp3
• m4a
• wav

Just curious what you are using.

I guess the flip side is that if someone hasn't ripped their collection at all, then going with one of those and just trying out Plex is a great way to try things out.

Oh, and Plex now also can incorporate Tidal if someone is into that.

 

[lovinthehd]

What format are your audio files in? That link I gave shows that Plex supports a bunch...

• aac
• alac
• e-ac3
• flac
• mp3
• m4a
• wav

Just curious what you are using.

I guess the flip side is that if someone hasn't ripped their collection at all, then going with one of those and just trying out Plex is a great way to try things out.

Oh, and Plex now also can incorporate Tidal if someone is into that.

Not audio file format (most of mine are flac from my cds, with some mp3 and other format downloads), but rather video files I've ripped from discs (really haven't gotten into it either),don't think it had any issues with any of the audio formats.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Not audio file format (most of mine are flac from my cds, with some mp3 and other format downloads), but rather video files I've ripped from discs (really haven't gotten into it either),don't think it had any issues with any of the audio formats.

Yeah, for me it was a tough call because all my discs have been in ISO format. I had converted a bunch for playback on my iOS devices over the years (about 100) so I played with KODI at some point and I was not at all happy with how user heavy the entire experience was to make it work. It just wasn't easy and wasn't something I was going to be able to get my family to use.
I have two Dune HD players. Both of them do fine with the ISO files, but DVD and Blu-ray, but they can't handle H.265 encoding, and they have issues with subtitles.
So, I finally installed Plex on an old computer about a month ago and started the process of converting all my ISO files to MKV format. It hasn't been painless, but there is a way to basically do it completely automatically... more or less.

So, now I have about 600 out of 1,000 or so titles converted and on my Plex in MKV format and have had no issues with playback other than one 4K file I've been messing with. I think any 4K files I run into will need to always playback at 4K native.

Since the OP was really talking about a older audio solution which could be brought up to date with a digitized audio player, I thought this might be a really good option for them to try. Especially since they can try it out for free on any computer they already own within just an hour or so.

Of course, where anyone takes it from there is pretty much up to them.