Article: A Visit To Linn And Glasgow, Scotland

[jcbenten]

The Exakt system is pretty cool. If the DS was connected wirelessly to the speakers and had a USB input for an external drive, it would be perfect. Well, except for the pricing.

[jcbenten]

Why is everyone hung up on direct USB connections... All it means is the renderer (player) has to do file management duties as well as playing the music. A well set up UPnP server is much better idea (if you are avoiding utilising a computer).

 

Eloise

 

Minimalism. I do not want a pc, vortex box, UPNP server, an NAS, or anything similar to have to be active to play music. I want to plug in a USB drive, my turntable, BR/SACD player (for my two SACDs :-)) , and my TV sound and use a tablet/phone to control.

 

Is it the best way? Probably not. But with the music files being digital all the way to the speaker, how much can the file be mucked up? Of course, with the turntable....hmmmm.

[jcbenten]

It's not a matter of being "mucked up" by a specific connection method. It's a matter of usability and practicality. Many people think a solution that is easier to understand or involves a "simple" USB drive is the best. This is not the case is many instances. Your idea of minimalism if a bit shortsighted because it's minimal with respect to hardware, but the opposite when it comes to usability, practicality, and the time you will spend to keep such a system functioning.

 

If you connect a USB drive directly to a Linn DS, how are you going to add new music to the drive? Unplug it, walk it over to a computer, add music, walk it back to the Linn DS, reindex the library, etc...

 

Sure. Most of the music I am buying these days is vinyl. Not all but 80% or so. Reindexing on the SBT is the major drawback. Hopefully Linn would be smarter about the activity. Ideally, since the DS is on the network anyway, the HD would just show on the network for updatiing. I am not opposed to using a PC, just the reliance of having one operating to play music files. An NAS is not unreasonable and is the next best method (for me).

 

If you connect a USB drive directly to a Linn DS, would you keep a manually backed up copy of the music on another drive? Then you're adding new music to two drives.

 

Sure. Don't you have other backups? Or are you completely reliant on the NAS? I read your Cloud article so that could be an option but not one I am willing to pay. When will Google Drive have 2TB free? (rhetorical).

 

If you connect a USB drive directly to a Linn DS this music isn't available to any other systems like it would be if you use a NAS.

 

There are several items that could be brought up along these lines.

 

I know.

 

I have been reading the forums voraciously for a couple of years and looking for MY perfect solution for even longer. The SBT is pretty great for the price but has limitations. It occasionally whigs out and I have learned to get it back pretty easily. The Aries looks interesting but its 3-5 times the SBT new price. What I want does not currently exist in the quality that I want. Naim Uniti is close. If Linn had $5K Exakt system I would be all over it as it currently works. But they do not. So I keep dreaming. In the meantime, I am perfectly happy with my current Linn/Rega system (although I might do something about the NuForce DAC).