I'm in need of some advice on setting up a good quality domestic stereo
system based on digital audio files.

Basically, I'd like to transfer my collection of around 500 CDs into
high quality digital audio files using a lossless compression method
(or 320kb MP3 if absolutely necessary) - and have them available for
instant access through my hi-fi system (based on a good quality 200W
Sony amp and TDL transmission line speakers).

I'd like to be able to access individual tracks using an effective and
detailed indexing system (like that of, say, iTunes) - but preferably
without using a computer. Obviously, I could burn tracks onto a CD and
use a CD-R compatible player, but this would limit me to around 700MB
of data and involve changing discs.

Are there any good quality playback machines that could handle files
burnt onto a DVD (as this would give me much more storage space per
disc) - or should I look to a computer hard disk drive as a solution?
If I took the latter route and bought a 500GB unit, I wouldn't even
need to use compressed files, but are there any hard disk systems
available that don't require a computer as a 'front end'?

Needless to say, I'd like the system to be remote controllable, but I'd
be happy to program in all the track information and not rely on the
Gracenote system. Everything I look at seems to be iPod based (which I
don't have and don't particularly want) and doesn't appear to offer any
kind of display that would be visible from across a room.

I'm sorry if the solution to this is staring me in the face- but I've
combed the hi-fi mags and can't find any suitable system. Surely I'm
not the only person who would like to have his entire music collection
available in high quality digital form, with individual tracks easily
accessible without using a computer or a small MP3 player?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

TIA...

Nige

Nige wrote:
I'm sorry if the solution to this is staring me in the face- but I've
combed the hi-fi mags and can't find any suitable system. Surely I'm
not the only person who would like to have his entire music collection
available in high quality digital form, with individual tracks easily
accessible without using a computer or a small MP3 player?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

TIA...

Nige

Have you looked at these?

http://www.slimdevices.com/

--
Nick

"Nige" wrote in message

I'm in need of some advice on setting up a good quality
domestic stereo system based on digital audio files.

Basically, I'd like to transfer my collection of around
500 CDs into high quality digital audio files using a
lossless compression method (or 320kb MP3 if absolutely
necessary) - and have them available for instant access
through my hi-fi system (based on a good quality 200W
Sony amp and TDL transmission line speakers).

I'd like to be able to access individual tracks using an
effective and detailed indexing system (like that of,
say, iTunes) - but preferably without using a computer.

That is commonly done using an iPod, or something like it.

Obviously, I could burn tracks onto a CD and use a CD-R
compatible player, but this would limit me to around
700MB of data and involve changing discs.

More specifically, it limits you to using CD players, and about 150s songs
per media swap. Not bad, but not luxurious.

Are there any good quality playback machines that could
handle files burnt onto a DVD (as this would give me much
more storage space per disc)

I understand that some DVD players do this.

or should I look to a computer hard disk drive as a solution?

That's the preferred route.

If I took the latter route and bought a 500GB unit, I wouldn't even
need to use compressed files, but are there any hard disk
systems available that don't require a computer as a
'front end'?

Hard disk systems that use computer hard drives for storage but aren't
computers are called digital music players.

Their name is legion, and the iPod is probably the most popular of them.
They exist as portable, car-based and home systems.

Needless to say, I'd like the system to be remote
controllable, but I'd be happy to program in all the
track information and not rely on the Gracenote system.
Everything I look at seems to be iPod based (which I
don't have and don't particularly want) and doesn't
appear to offer any kind of display that would be visible
from across a room.

IME the only thing better than visible across the room is visible in my
hand, but that's just me! ;-)

I'm sorry if the solution to this is staring me in the
face- but I've combed the hi-fi mags and can't find any
suitable system. Surely I'm not the only person who would
like to have his entire music collection available in
high quality digital form, with individual tracks easily
accessible without using a computer or a small MP3
player?

That's like saying, is there some way to wash clothes that doesn't involve
doing them by hand or using a washing machine?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Friendly advice: Broaden your mind to include existing digital media
players, both portable and otherwise.

Nige wrote:
I'm in need of some advice on setting up a good quality domestic stereo
system based on digital audio files.

I'm looking to integrate my CD collection, A/V system and PC to enable
to easily find and play CDs.

The standard way of doing this is to use a PC to store the audio files
and some sort of player unit to play them out to the A/V system.

I'm probably going to go with a Windows PC (my existing one) running
iTunes and an SoundBridge to read the data from the PC, convert the
audio to PCM (the audio format used by CDs) and output it the A/V amp
which contains a DAC. If you have a pure stereo system an
external DAC or the DAC built into the SoundBridge could be used.

Why do you prefer not to use a PC?

Guy

In article , Guy Dawson
wrote:

Nige wrote:
I'm in need of some advice on setting up a good quality domestic stereo
system based on digital audio files.

I'm looking to integrate my CD collection, A/V system and PC to enable
to easily find and play CDs.

The standard way of doing this is to use a PC to store the audio files
and some sort of player unit to play them out to the A/V system.

I'm probably going to go with a Windows PC (my existing one) running
iTunes and an SoundBridge to read the data from the PC, convert the
audio to PCM (the audio format used by CDs) and output it the A/V amp
which contains a DAC. If you have a pure stereo system an
external DAC or the DAC built into the SoundBridge could be used.

Why do you prefer not to use a PC?

Guy


Actually Guy, I use a Mac rather than a PC - but obviously that doesn't
affect the basis of your question. I suppose I could use the computer -
I just hadn't thought it would be necessary. Looking at the SlimDevice
Squeezebox mentioned by Nick Gorham (thanks Nick..) and the Sonus
system - both of which use a networked computer - this does appear to
be a viable option.

But given the low cost of massive hard drives these days, I still
wonder why no-one has come up with a self-contained 'audiophile' system
- or have they?

Nige

Nige wrote:
In article , Guy Dawson
wrote:

Nige wrote:
I'm in need of some advice on setting up a good quality domestic stereo
system based on digital audio files.
I'm looking to integrate my CD collection, A/V system and PC to enable
to easily find and play CDs.

The standard way of doing this is to use a PC to store the audio files
and some sort of player unit to play them out to the A/V system.

I'm probably going to go with a Windows PC (my existing one) running
iTunes and an SoundBridge to read the data from the PC, convert the
audio to PCM (the audio format used by CDs) and output it the A/V amp
which contains a DAC. If you have a pure stereo system an
external DAC or the DAC built into the SoundBridge could be used.

Why do you prefer not to use a PC?

Guy


Actually Guy, I use a Mac rather than a PC - but obviously that doesn't
affect the basis of your question. I suppose I could use the computer -
I just hadn't thought it would be necessary. Looking at the SlimDevice
Squeezebox mentioned by Nick Gorham (thanks Nick..) and the Sonus
system - both of which use a networked computer - this does appear to
be a viable option.

The systems I've seen all use a PC as both storage and as the music
server. There has been some hacking of some network storage devices
running Linux to support a music server application. While I'm happy
hacking it's not something I want to spend my time on right now.

But given the low cost of massive hard drives these days, I still
wonder why no-one has come up with a self-contained 'audiophile' system
- or have they?

The disk drives are just the start. They need a power supply and a
music server program somewhere to send the data to the player. The
general consensus seems to be that a PC (or Mac) will do that job very
nicely. To make a music server both worthwhile (ie commercially viable
to develop) I think it needs to do the following:

rip CDs to disk in one of a number of user selected formats
index the tracks using CDBD
support playlists

Plus there will be other features other people want. Before long you
end up building most of an PC anyway - A user interface will be
needed to select ripping format and edit playlists - so why not
just write a PC application?

Guy

Guy

Thanks to all who offered help and advice on this - think I'll take the
Squeezebox route as this seems to offer just about all the features I'm
looking for at a very affordable price...

Nige


In article , Nige
wrote:

I'm in need of some advice on setting up a good quality domestic stereo
system based on digital audio files.

Basically, I'd like to transfer my collection of around 500 CDs into
high quality digital audio files using a lossless compression method
(or 320kb MP3 if absolutely necessary) - and have them available for
instant access through my hi-fi system (based on a good quality 200W
Sony amp and TDL transmission line speakers).

I'd like to be able to access individual tracks using an effective and
detailed indexing system (like that of, say, iTunes) - but preferably
without using a computer. Obviously, I could burn tracks onto a CD and
use a CD-R compatible player, but this would limit me to around 700MB
of data and involve changing discs.

Are there any good quality playback machines that could handle files
burnt onto a DVD (as this would give me much more storage space per
disc) - or should I look to a computer hard disk drive as a solution?
If I took the latter route and bought a 500GB unit, I wouldn't even
need to use compressed files, but are there any hard disk systems
available that don't require a computer as a 'front end'?

Needless to say, I'd like the system to be remote controllable, but I'd
be happy to program in all the track information and not rely on the
Gracenote system. Everything I look at seems to be iPod based (which I
don't have and don't particularly want) and doesn't appear to offer any
kind of display that would be visible from across a room.

I'm sorry if the solution to this is staring me in the face- but I've
combed the hi-fi mags and can't find any suitable system. Surely I'm
not the only person who would like to have his entire music collection
available in high quality digital form, with individual tracks easily
accessible without using a computer or a small MP3 player?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

TIA...

Nige

Nige writes in
ve.co.uk:

But given the low cost of massive hard drives these days, I still
wonder why no-one has come up with a self-contained 'audiophile' system
- or have they?

This guy has an interesting project - still a computer, but pretty much turned
into just that. Pity the "Meedio" software is no longer available, but a good
read all the same (although I could do without all the blue LEDs;-)
http://www.jimmyneutron.org/MS-100%20media%20server.htm
--
RdM

PS:
If you go back to his project index afterward there's a record cleaner too.

Nige wrote:

I'm in need of some advice on setting up a good quality domestic stereo
system based on digital audio files.

Basically, I'd like to transfer my collection of around 500 CDs into
high quality digital audio files using a lossless compression method
(or 320kb MP3 if absolutely necessary) - and have them available for
instant access through my hi-fi system (based on a good quality 200W
Sony amp and TDL transmission line speakers).

I'd like to be able to access individual tracks using an effective and
detailed indexing system (like that of, say, iTunes) - but preferably
without using a computer. Obviously, I could burn tracks onto a CD and
use a CD-R compatible player, but this would limit me to around 700MB
of data and involve changing discs.

Are there any good quality playback machines that could handle files
burnt onto a DVD (as this would give me much more storage space per
disc) - or should I look to a computer hard disk drive as a solution?
If I took the latter route and bought a 500GB unit, I wouldn't even
need to use compressed files, but are there any hard disk systems
available that don't require a computer as a 'front end'?

Needless to say, I'd like the system to be remote controllable, but I'd
be happy to program in all the track information and not rely on the
Gracenote system. Everything I look at seems to be iPod based (which I
don't have and don't particularly want) and doesn't appear to offer any
kind of display that would be visible from across a room.

I'm sorry if the solution to this is staring me in the face- but I've
combed the hi-fi mags and can't find any suitable system. Surely I'm
not the only person who would like to have his entire music collection
available in high quality digital form, with individual tracks easily
accessible without using a computer or a small MP3 player?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

TIA...

Nige

Apple TV has been released since you posted this.

What solution did you go for?
--
substitute domaininvalid.com with ntlworld.com for email

What solution did you go for?

I can't see the original POST, so I'll just tack my piece on the end here.

I found that you could play MP3's off DVD's with my SONY DVD player (I
think most SONY's can do this). The drawback was that there was a tiny
limit (something like 200) of tracks per physical volume, which made it
almost pointless to use DVDs.

I was very happy with 160Kbps MP3's played from CD's in my 400 disc SONY
CDP-X455, apart from a short (1-2 second) period of very quiet buzzing
added to the end, and sometimes the beginning of each MP3. It wasn't
there all the time, as some of my MP3s include periods of silence, and
the buzzing wasn't there.

--
Steve Swift
http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html
http://www.ringers.org.uk