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Re: Naming/paths/Comps/Folders
Getting some feedback from several sources is useful in exploring your options. I'll throw in my 2 cents. First, a good hi-fi shop may be an excellent place to start. That said, buyer-beware. Many of the few remaining hi-fi shops I've dealt with in recent years have folks that are almost worse that clueless about digital music and streaming. I say worse than clueless because rather than saying "I don't really know" they instead think they do know, and know better. You'll hear very strange and entirely wrong things such as WAV sounds better than FLaC (even though both are lossless and any differences can be TESTED) and even that FLAC files *created* on some computer operating systems sound better than a bit perfect copy of same FLAC files created on a different operating system. Bizarre I know, but you'll even find stuff like this published in hi-end stereo magazines (The Absolute Sound is one of the worst offenders with sometimes publishing complete nonsense). These same dealers/shop owners can be upstanding, knowledgeable people about stereos and audio otherwise. I find that too many try to bring analog concepts over into digital.
You say you don't care about multiroom, synched playback and just want digital music at your main stereo. I assume you want to be able to then control all this from your chair via a smart phone or smart pad. For this setup, I'd recommend something like a small, headless, fanless, keyboardless computer with a USB or S/PDIF output. Run Logitech Media Server (LMS) on this computer (which is designed for serving music to squeezeboxes) and this becomes your SERVER. But you don't need a hardware squeezebox. You can simply install the software SQUEEZELITE on this computer and that becomes your PLAYER. You can control all this from a smart phone or tablet (or another laptop or computer on your network). If you use iThings, I suggest the app "iPeng". For your music, just connect a 3 or 4 TB external USB drive to your computer to hold your music (or use the computers internal HDD if it is large enough). If you want something turnkey with all this, I'd recommend a "Vortexbox" on a microcomputer (fanless). I have one and find it very nice to use. Small & silent and runs 24/7 for months at a time (I only reboot occasionally to install some software updates).
Then connect the USB out or S/PDIF out of the computer to the input on your DAC, your DAC to your stereo input, and you're good to go. LMS and your computer will deliver bitperfect audio files to your DAC. So the quality of your sound will be based on your DAC and Speakers and room environment. (I left out stereo amp/preamp simply because beyond certain badly designed stuff (some cheap, some very expensive) any decent quality amp/preamp should work well.
At this point you'd have a quality audio server software setup (LMS, that is being continuously developed by an active userbase even though Logitech long ago dropped Squeezeboxes) and the ability to stream bitperfect lossless files to your stereo, all being controlled by your smart phone or tablet. If the computer is connected to the internet, an extra bonus is that you can also play internet radio from this same setup (free stuff from 1000s of streaming radio stations, BBC, BBC on demand, and even premium services like Spotify, tidal, Quobuz, etc.)
Anyhow, just my 2 cents. There are lots of different options. I don't work for any of these folks, just a happy user....
Getting some feedback from several sources is useful in exploring your options. I'll throw in my 2 cents. First, a good hi-fi shop may be an excellent place to start. That said, buyer-beware. Many of the few remaining hi-fi shops I've dealt with in recent years have folks that are almost worse that clueless about digital music and streaming. I say worse than clueless because rather than saying "I don't really know" they instead think they do know, and know better. You'll hear very strange and entirely wrong things such as WAV sounds better than FLaC (even though both are lossless and any differences can be TESTED) and even that FLAC files *created* on some computer operating systems sound better than a bit perfect copy of same FLAC files created on a different operating system. Bizarre I know, but you'll even find stuff like this published in hi-end stereo magazines (The Absolute Sound is one of the worst offenders with sometimes publishing complete nonsense). These same dealers/shop owners can be upstanding, knowledgeable people about stereos and audio otherwise. I find that too many try to bring analog concepts over into digital.
You say you don't care about multiroom, synched playback and just want digital music at your main stereo. I assume you want to be able to then control all this from your chair via a smart phone or smart pad. For this setup, I'd recommend something like a small, headless, fanless, keyboardless computer with a USB or S/PDIF output. Run Logitech Media Server (LMS) on this computer (which is designed for serving music to squeezeboxes) and this becomes your SERVER. But you don't need a hardware squeezebox. You can simply install the software SQUEEZELITE on this computer and that becomes your PLAYER. You can control all this from a smart phone or tablet (or another laptop or computer on your network). If you use iThings, I suggest the app "iPeng". For your music, just connect a 3 or 4 TB external USB drive to your computer to hold your music (or use the computers internal HDD if it is large enough). If you want something turnkey with all this, I'd recommend a "Vortexbox" on a microcomputer (fanless). I have one and find it very nice to use. Small & silent and runs 24/7 for months at a time (I only reboot occasionally to install some software updates).
Then connect the USB out or S/PDIF out of the computer to the input on your DAC, your DAC to your stereo input, and you're good to go. LMS and your computer will deliver bitperfect audio files to your DAC. So the quality of your sound will be based on your DAC and Speakers and room environment. (I left out stereo amp/preamp simply because beyond certain badly designed stuff (some cheap, some very expensive) any decent quality amp/preamp should work well.
At this point you'd have a quality audio server software setup (LMS, that is being continuously developed by an active userbase even though Logitech long ago dropped Squeezeboxes) and the ability to stream bitperfect lossless files to your stereo, all being controlled by your smart phone or tablet. If the computer is connected to the internet, an extra bonus is that you can also play internet radio from this same setup (free stuff from 1000s of streaming radio stations, BBC, BBC on demand, and even premium services like Spotify, tidal, Quobuz, etc.)
Anyhow, just my 2 cents. There are lots of different options. I don't work for any of these folks, just a happy user....
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