Newb questions

[mordante]

In the future I might want to try out streaming audio. But I'm not really sure how and were to start. First I was looking into MAC gear, but I was a bit surprised at the cost of Mac gear. A Mac mini starts at €800 a iPad starts at €500 and then you also need to buy a NAS. Then I started to look further. Brands like Acer, MSI, Asus etc all have all in one PC's with a touch screen for about €800. So instead of a Mini Mac + iPad I was thinking about buying a all in one PC. But will that give me the same level of audio quality. Both need a NAS obviously.

 

Speaking about a NAS is it ok to have a wireless connection to the NAS or is a cable better. I was thinking of buying a NAS that can hold 4 HDD in raid 5. Currently I have about 1000-1300 CD's how much storage would I need to rip all of those into AIFF and with some spare space left if I buy more CD's.

 

Also I was thinking to rip all my CD's to AIFF and then use mediamonkey. Is that a good combo? I would prefer AIFF over other formats. Can Mediamonkey also rip CD's into AIFF or would I need a different program to do that.

 

Next is the DAC I would prefer an asynchronous USB DAC that also has other inputs like AES/ebu etc so that I can continue to use my CEC transport. Is there a DAC that can use CEC superlink and has asynchronies USB input?

 

So how if and where should I start. I calculated a little and a decent streaming audio system will cost between €2000 and €6000. Right now I don't have that kind of money. But will a streaming audio set of say €4000 be able to compete with a CD player of that money, say an AMR CD777, Accuphase DP-400 etc.

 

 

[winst]

Hi,

I am also new, and have a >http://www.qnap.com/ model 439pro

connected by cat5.

I have used apple tv, Mede8er MED500X a little box that streams everything,also an ipad.

Note: with just a Mede8er MED500X without a hard drive ($161.00) you do not need to have a computer connected one can stream Audio/Video/Photos/Web Radio almost all formats, wired or wireless.

Good Luck

Winst

 

[bikemig]

You could use a Logitech Touch which is well within your budget. There is a nice review of it on this site, http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Logitech-Squeezebox-Touch-Review. I use logitech squeezebox products and while they require some tweaking, they work and sound great. I am listening to it as I write this and one of the great things about the products is how they make it easy to access internet radio. There is a good and helpful user community on the logitech forums. I have found the web based squeezebox software to be intuitive and it gives you nice control over your music. Plus, from what I've seen, a fair number of nas drives are set up to work with squeezebox. I haven't set one up (I use a mac mini as my media server) but it is something I am exploring. The Touch is inexpensive and works well. Miguel

 

[mordante]

But I doubt a SB touch will sound better then my CEC TL51x transport and Wadia 12 DAC. And that combo is the minimum of quality I want to reach. If I cannot beat a simple transport DAC combo why should I switch to streaming. I want both high quality and convenience. I have heard de AMR CD777 CD player. I would like a sound quality equal to that.