Newbie asking for advice to get started

[Paul R]

5 hours ago, boffore said:

Hello guys,

 

I am slowly stepping into the audiophile work and wanted your opinion and advice regarding my potential HiFi setup. I am kind of a minimalist so I am trying to keep things as simple and as tidy as possible.

 

Half of my music is stored in iTunes (ALAC format) and the other half is played using subscriptions to both TIDAL and Qobuz. What I was planning on doing was (1) using my iPad mini as my main source of audio — I would store my iTunes songs on the iPad and access the rest of my music through the TIDAL and Qobuz apps. (2) I would then connect the iPad to an external DAC and (3) simply connect the DAC to my speakers.

 

Sorry if this sounds stupid but I am lost — does this sound like a good setup? Will I be getting good quality sound? If yes, which DAC and speakers would you guys recommend? If no, what would you suggest?

 

Thanks a lot for your help

 

Welcome to the adventure! 

 

I would recommend two things, pick up a spare Mac or PC to use as a dedicated server, and put Roon Core on it with all your music files. That will give you a solid and reliable base to work from, even if it takes you years to build the “perfect” system or two. Your music will play on everything, including your iPad Mini, and sound great too. 

 

From there? There are no limits! 

 

Where do you want to go?

[Paul R]

3 hours ago, boffore said:

Thank you for your answer! I had not even heard of the Roon Core before and will be looking into it!

 

I was actually considering using a PC instead of my iPad. In this case, PC+DAC+speakers should do the trick, right? I am just looking to get great sound out of my speakers since I'll be streaming 24 bit.

 

Yes, and there is a lot of good advice coming your way as well.

 

I would consider starting with something like this. (See attached.) 

 

 

-Paul 

 

 

Roon1.pdf

[Paul R]

10 hours ago, bobfa said:

Boffore,

 

Maybe we should start out a bit slower.  I approach things from a systems engineering viewpoint. I have been designing my own systems for 30 years.  For a while, I did it as a living!  

 

But before we even get to engineering we need the big picture.

 

Where will you be listening?

Who will you be listening with?

Do you have a target budget in mind?

Tell us a little bit about what you like to listen to.

What are your goals?  Broad strokes.

Are other people to be considered in this decision?  

 

As examples, I have two listening systems I have written about on this forum.  One on the Naim Unity Atom and another one on the Chord Mojo/Poly.  Both of these are dead simple.  The first is an integrated digital system to drive a pair of speakers.  The second is a pair of portable electronic devices to drive headphones.  Both can use an iPad as a control interface.  Chris the site owner did review of some Dynaudio self-contained speaker systems that appear to be great and form an even simpler systems design. 

 

Below are the links to the three reviews.  This may help you think about where you are going.  

 

 

 

 

 

Good advice, but maybe a bit over complicated. With digital audio, the first step is usually to come up with unified staotage of the digital files, whether that be local, cloud based, or some hybrid solution. Once you have that in place, you can build one or more systems that satisfy your listening pleasure. 

 

Remember, the OP is using an iPad to listen here at the present time. He may not want to give that up as he explores all the myriad choices open to him.  Nor indeed, should he have to.  

 

Just my two cents.