Digital Source and HDD Help

[Guest jakeyb77]

9 minutes ago, RankStranger said:

 

i don’t think a Mac mini or a NAS get you any further functionality, unless losing the iMac is the point?

 

If I got the Mini then I guess I can let the iMac (space) and BS go and have a one boxer.

 

[jgunner]

@jakeyb77 Roon is the way to go for large libraries mate. I've used Audirvana for well over a year and never really liked it. I hesitated with Roon because of its eye watering subscription fee. opportunity came knocking  one day with Roon and I never looked back (read - i folded )

 

older mac mini's are very affordable these days and can be easily sourced in ebay. you can just pair it with an external HDD and then go the NAS route later if you want. its a small powerful box and can be tucked away (unlike a laptop or your imac). best part is you can even surf the net on your tv and watch youtube with your 2 channel. its just very versatile thats why so many people use it (still)

[Ittaku]

1 minute ago, jgunner said:

@jakeyb77 Roon is the way to go for large libraries mate. I've used Audirvana for well over a year and never really liked it. I hesitated with Roon because of its eye watering subscription fee. opportunity came knocking  one day with Roon and I never looked back (read - i folded )

Roon is sensational. I folded too and not only did I get better management of my music collection, I got more capabilities, better sound, and managed to retire hardware worth 10x the subscription fees for a lifetime of Roon in the process. It allows me to do insane things relying entirely on my PC's processing power.

 

[jgunner]

@Ittaku yes mate, similar experiences here. I tried native Tidal vs. Tidal on Audirvana vs Tidal on Roon.

SQ with Tidal on Roon won hands down together with its user interface, stability & information (song, artist & album)

 

 

@jakeyb77 i forgot to mention i have not tried BS so I cannot comment there. but if you hook up your PC (running Roon) to your TV, you also get album art, band art of lyrics. all customisable like below. 

 

 

 

 

[mjs]

54 minutes ago, RankStranger said:

i have a synology NAS which is great and I use a lot but I think if I was starting again, it would be with a desktop Mac (iMac or mini) and one or two large external drives. 

That's interesting. My experience has been the reverse, I still use a Mac Mini, but used to have the music library on a 2TB outboard HDD. I also had a crappy Netgear Duo NAS at the time, but upgraded to a Syno 918+ NAS last year, which I now use for my music library and it is great.  

[mjs]

12 minutes ago, Ittaku said:

Roon is sensational. I folded too and not only did I get better management of my music collection, I got more capabilities, better sound, and managed to retire hardware worth 10x the subscription fees for a lifetime of Roon in the process. It allows me to do insane things relying entirely on my PC's processing power.

 

 

Given that I am now looking at the Roon website at this minute, I fear that I might be going the same way 

[naggots]

I’ve been using a Mac mini and Audirvana for 7yrs. I find it simple and good sounding. A definite step up from streaming Spotify. I had a BS for a while but I preferred the Mac mini in the end, the BS didn’t bring anything extra to the table for me. I run Mac Mini > Dac> power amp.   
 

Ive heard Roon is the way to go with large databases. I only have around 500-600 gb and Audirvana deals with this ok. I create playlists in ITunes and play with Audirvana. I updated my 2011 i7 Mac mini to have 2x OWC 1tb SSDs and maxed the ram to 16gb a couple yes ago, it also runs cooler now with less fan noise. 
 

when the Mac falls over I’ll probably stick with a new Mac or may think about SOTA Ultra which I’ve been told is a decent step up........ and then maybe roon

[Steffen]

I had a look at Roon recently and am tossing up whether or not to give the free trial a go. What has held me back so far is the way they characterise the app themselves – mainly as an asset/library management tool, but nothing with any particular audio quality chops. In fact, they recommend using things like HQPlayer for doing the actual heavy lifting. Am I misunderstanding something here?

 

[Ittaku]

6 minutes ago, Steffen said:

I had a look at Roon recently and am tossing up whether or not to give the free trial a go. What has held me back so far is the way they characterise the app themselves – mainly as an asset/library management tool, but nothing with any particular audio quality chops. In fact, they recommend using things like HQPlayer for doing the actual heavy lifting. Am I misunderstanding something here?

Yes, HQplayer is just for some of the other stuff, like high quality upsampling, which isn't to everyone's taste anyway. Make no mistake, Roon is for extremely high quality lossless playback at extremes. Its hardware management of playback is unparalleled. You saw my screenshot above.

[Steffen]

Yes saw it, but don’t know what it means. Which part is Roon, and what is octo?

[Ittaku]

12 minutes ago, Steffen said:

Yes saw it, but don’t know what it means. Which part is Roon, and what is octo?

It's a screenshot of roon showing you how the data is being routed. I'm playing lossless flacs at 768/24 with room correction all done in roon (the Convolution filter.) Octo is the name of my silent passive PC that's in my study, it's what's connected directly to the DAC, serving it 768/24 bit data. The main roon server is an Intel NUC in another room on my home LAN so there's no noise here from the NUC.

 

Edited July 5, 2020 by Ittaku

[RankStranger]

44 minutes ago, mjs said:

That's interesting. My experience has been the reverse, I still use a Mac Mini, but used to have the music library on a 2TB outboard HDD. I also had a crappy Netgear Duo NAS at the time, but upgraded to a Syno 918+ NAS last year, which I now use for my music library and it is great.  

Fair enough. Like I said, I use my NAS all the time and I think it’s great. I think I meant more that I thought Jake could do what he wanted with mostly what he’s got. Doesn’t sound like it would work, logistically though. At any rate, my needs around storage have changed over time. Aside from my music library and photos, I don’t really need to store a bunch of stuff on my network. I have a lot of movie rips but I mostly don’t need them now and hang on to them out of habit more than anything. 
 

I had a Mac mini-based music server about 10 years ago and I thought the nas would be simpler and in some ways it is and in some ways it isn’t. It mostly depends on what you want your computer to be. I do 99% of my work and leisure on a 12.9" iPad Pro but there are certain things that can’t do. It’s hard because everyone has different habits and requirements. 

[Guest jakeyb77]

7 minutes ago, RankStranger said:

Fair enough. Like I said, I use my NAS all the time and I think it’s great. I think I meant more that I thought Jake could do what he wanted with mostly what he’s got. Doesn’t sound like it would work, logistically though. At any rate, my needs around storage have changed over time. Aside from my music library and photos, I don’t really need to store a bunch of stuff on my network. I have a lot of movie rips but I mostly don’t need them now and hang on to them out of habit more than anything. 
 

I had a Mac mini-based music server about 10 years ago and I thought the nas would be simpler and in some ways it is and in some ways it isn’t. It mostly depends on what you want your computer to be. I do 99% of my work and leisure on a 12.9" iPad Pro but there are certain things that can’t do. It’s hard because everyone has different habits and requirements. 

Cheers Rank! I think I could add the NAS to the Bluesound and be happy. I might try this first as I can always use the NAS if I get a Mac Mini anyway. 
I’ve learnt a shedload today and need to take some of it in. 
 

 

[jgunner]

@Ittaku how do you get 768kHz 24bit source? 

[Ittaku]

4 minutes ago, jgunner said:

@Ittaku how do you get 768kHz 24bit source? 

They're not originally 768. I have a long thread here about my upsampling. Basically I upsample all files to 705 or 768 24 bit, using a 100 million tap sinc resampler, and I modified the flac format to accept higher resolutions. I've pushed my modifications to the flac encoder to the main developers in the hope they include my changes:

 

[Guest jakeyb77]

One last thing. 
Dac has coax and optical input. 
What’s the best way to connect a Mac Mini? 
 

I may get another @Gieseler Audio DAC in the future if one comes up. 
 

Maybe @mwhouston can add a USB to my current one? 
 

[Steffen]

Depending on the age of the mini, Toslink would be the way to go. The last mini with optical output was the 2014 model.

[RankStranger]

14 minutes ago, jakeyb77 said:

One last thing. 
Dac has coax and optical input. 
What’s the best way to connect a Mac Mini? 
 

I may get another @Gieseler Audio DAC in the future if one comes up. 
 

Maybe @mwhouston can add a USB to my current one? 
 

When I was using a mini the toslink out was considered to be pretty pedestrian. Can’t imagine it’s something that Apple have paid a lot of attention to in the intervening 8 years or so. It might also be limited to 24/96, if I remember correctly. It was generally held that a USB to coax converter was the way to go, these varied widely in price, though I’m sure you could get a decent one for not much these days, given the advances in dac technology

[mwhouston]

57 minutes ago, jakeyb77 said:

One last thing. 
Dac has coax and optical input. 
What’s the best way to connect a Mac Mini? 
 

I may get another @Gieseler Audio DAC in the future if one comes up. 
 

Maybe @mwhouston can add a USB to my current one? 
 

Originally didn’t think so but now I think there is a board which drops on. 

[Guest jakeyb77]

10 minutes ago, mwhouston said:

Originally didn’t think so but now I think there is a board which drops on. 

That sounds promising. If it does can you PM or text me the details? 
Looks like it will be the best option going forward

[Steffen]

3 hours ago, RankStranger said:

When I was using a mini the toslink out was considered to be pretty pedestrian.

Yes, and it maxes out at 96kHz (if that matters). What’s more significant is that all modern DACs with modern USB receiver chips (XMOS...) perform significantly better with USB than with any of the other inputs, in the jitter stakes.

 

[RankStranger]

8 minutes ago, Steffen said:

Yes, and it maxes out at 96kHz (if that matters). What’s more significant is that all modern DACs with modern USB receiver chips (XMOS...) perform significantly better with USB than with any of the other inputs, in the jitter stakes.

 

Cool 

Edited July 5, 2020 by RankStranger

[mwhouston]

3 hours ago, jakeyb77 said:

That sounds promising. If it does can you PM or text me the details? 
Looks like it will be the best option going forward

I’ll do some research.

[Guest jakeyb77]

3 minutes ago, mwhouston said:

I’ll do some research.

That still won’t allow DSD though will it? 
I have no idea about these things. 

[mjs]

7 hours ago, mjs said:

Given that I am now looking at the Roon website at this minute, I fear that I might be going the same way 

Hmm, downloaded the free trial version of Roon. Full package onto the Mini and the controller onto the iPad, bit of friggin’ around with libraries and audio settings, and now I have to say I’m very impressed. Output to various sources in the house, the 2ch system, in which the Mini sits, my iPad, both AppleTVs, the Sony TV and the Sonos Arc Soundbar. All pretty seamless. This might be a keeper!