albireo
pfm Member
Right so I'm putting back together a hi-fi setup after a major house move and I've decided I want to improve the digital chain of the set-up. Haven't caught up with the latest developments in the digital hifi/streaming world so I thought I could use some of the wisdom in here!
Briefly, I have all the digital music I've ever owned ripped to FLAC on a portable HDD (suitably backed-up, of course, and yes, the CDs are all in the basement). I have a netbook running foobar2000 and all the FLAC files are nicely organised and browsed via foobar2000 media library. The netbook will send a digital stream to my DAC (a Benchmark DAC usb). I also have an android app (foobar2000 controller) which uses the home wifi to remote-control playback of my media on the netbook. The benchmark DAC is also a preamp (inputs: netbook, TV and also a phono preamp; output: RCA into a pair of Dynaudio Focus 110 active standmounts).
So the netbook-based solution has worked OK for a few years, but it's not ideal: you need to boot Windows 7 (or wake it up from suspend), make sure foobar2000 is running, make sure wifi is on, etc. It is quite rare when the whole thing is 'instant on' and this has bugged me quite a bit. I really miss the immediacy of slapping a CD in the tray and listening to stuff; although if I went back to a CD player, I'd miss the immediacy of having access to all my music at a fingertip (once the whole netbook thing is up&running).
So I'm looking for a dedicated FLAC-playing solution. I guess what I'm asking is: is there a FLAC transport, i.e. a separate, that will give me the CD player experience but starting from my FLAC material instead? Importantly,
1. I won't need a new DAC: I'm quite happy with my Benchmark already. Ideally, this component will allow me to capture digital out and send it to the Benchmark. It's fine if there's a DAC in, but I will need digital out.
2. I don't need the capability to play millions of multiple external streams of music: digital radio, spotify, etc. I have more music that I can listen to in a lifetime and it all sits there, in a physical hard drive, in one room. So ideally no need for multi room, LAN-based devices etc.
What I need is a good interface to browse the media: so either a nice display on the device itself, allowing me to browse by, say, genre, year, artist, album; or (even better) an associated android app which does the same.
Does such a thing exist? Hope I'm not asking too much (or too little). Cheers
Briefly, I have all the digital music I've ever owned ripped to FLAC on a portable HDD (suitably backed-up, of course, and yes, the CDs are all in the basement). I have a netbook running foobar2000 and all the FLAC files are nicely organised and browsed via foobar2000 media library. The netbook will send a digital stream to my DAC (a Benchmark DAC usb). I also have an android app (foobar2000 controller) which uses the home wifi to remote-control playback of my media on the netbook. The benchmark DAC is also a preamp (inputs: netbook, TV and also a phono preamp; output: RCA into a pair of Dynaudio Focus 110 active standmounts).
So the netbook-based solution has worked OK for a few years, but it's not ideal: you need to boot Windows 7 (or wake it up from suspend), make sure foobar2000 is running, make sure wifi is on, etc. It is quite rare when the whole thing is 'instant on' and this has bugged me quite a bit. I really miss the immediacy of slapping a CD in the tray and listening to stuff; although if I went back to a CD player, I'd miss the immediacy of having access to all my music at a fingertip (once the whole netbook thing is up&running).
So I'm looking for a dedicated FLAC-playing solution. I guess what I'm asking is: is there a FLAC transport, i.e. a separate, that will give me the CD player experience but starting from my FLAC material instead? Importantly,
1. I won't need a new DAC: I'm quite happy with my Benchmark already. Ideally, this component will allow me to capture digital out and send it to the Benchmark. It's fine if there's a DAC in, but I will need digital out.
2. I don't need the capability to play millions of multiple external streams of music: digital radio, spotify, etc. I have more music that I can listen to in a lifetime and it all sits there, in a physical hard drive, in one room. So ideally no need for multi room, LAN-based devices etc.
What I need is a good interface to browse the media: so either a nice display on the device itself, allowing me to browse by, say, genre, year, artist, album; or (even better) an associated android app which does the same.
Does such a thing exist? Hope I'm not asking too much (or too little). Cheers
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