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Thinking of changing

Blzebub said:
Loud and Clear suggest Linn Akurate DS. Suggested also upgrade to preamp. I'm not certain any significant preamp upgrade is possible. I'm lost.

P.S. as a side-dish, I'm thinking of changing my Whest PS .20 phono stage.
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When I was looking months back I spoke to linn bout the DS & kontrol v DSM, the guy on customer support said the DSM is 99% as good and he couldn't recommend the former for the extra £3500, in his word; it'd be a total waste of money. A nice honest answer I thought!

PS, I take it you're going with network streaming as apposed to local playback and storage?
 
Loud and Clear suggest Linn Akurate DS. Suggested also upgrade to preamp. I'm not certain any significant preamp upgrade is possible. I'm lost.
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There is no significant preamp upgrade possible.

The 'streaming' issue is very diverse, there's no simple yet complete answer. I don't see that a Linn streamer per se is an answer, you also need a network with a storage device running just so you can play your music. If you're streaming video and music to every room there's an argument, but otherwise I don't see it.

The constant is a disc drive full of FLACs containing your digital music. So I would start to create that, which involves no investment other than a fat USB drive from Amazon and a modest fee to buy dbPoweramp.

Paul
 
That's what I think. What is the point of the Linn DS? Why is it better than a competent DAC plus a, what, a laptop? This is what I don't really understand.
 
You have a laptop, a competent DAC is relatively peanuts, it's a place to start. Evolution etc.

I've no idea about commercial DACs. I think mine is pretty good, despite appearances.

Paul
 
Indeed. I did the network thang for a few years from 2008, didn't really see the point. The NAS, which is basically a stripped back server running a small script was busy spinning away making a racket with 2TB of then ALAC files and the system was in t'other. It was quite convoluted and often suffered from drop outs and general cockups. I also needed a device (aka, a streamer) to read the files and send then via optical to the DAC1-HDR.

By simply moving all my music to a 2.5" 1TB drive which I installed into a dedicated laptop, I was able to bypass all the bullshit and also made my entire lossless music collection totally portable. The DAC1-HDR has USB and 1 analog input, which at the time suited me perfectly.

Benchmarks new DAC2-HGC has USB input up to 24/192 and IIRC, 3 analog inputs. Its fully featured and is a Sabre 9018 32bit design with a proper active pre amp, worth considering....

I know there's a good synergy between ATC and Benchmark, at the time I owned SCM50 ASL's.
 
Blzebub said:
That's what I think. What is the point of the Linn DS? Why is it better than a competent DAC plus a, what, a laptop? This is what I don't really understand.
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Certainly both a streamer and a DAC + computer are valid approaches and can yield good results.

Personally, I wouldn't want to have to connect my laptop to a DAC via a USB or a FireWire cable or whatever, as I like to move it around my apartment.

This is why some element of wireless connectivity is important to me - the music stored on my laptop gets to my HiFi using a squeezebox as a streamer.

Alternatively, I could dump my all music on a NAS, but that would still necessitate a streamer, SBT or Linn DS or otherwise.

IMO, a computer plus DAC only makes sense if you're using e.g. a desk top or a headless Mac Mini, not a laptop.
 
Blzebub said:
That's what I think. What is the point of the Linn DS? Why is it better than a competent DAC plus a, what, a laptop? This is what I don't really understand.
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I tend to agree: it's overpriced for what it is. A DAC very well implemented for USB writes you a much smaller cheque for the streamer or transport.
 
Cereal Killer said:
By simply moving all my music to a 2.5" 1TB drive which I installed into a dedicated laptop, I was able to bypass all the bullshit and also made my entire lossless music collection totally portable. The DAC1-HDR has USB and 1 analog input, which at the time suited me perfectly.
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How do you get the music stored on your laptop to the DAC?

Regarding the noise issues of a NAS, these days fanless SSD ones should take care of that.

BTW, the BM Dac2 only has 2 analogue inputs - would still be enough for bub though (I assume).
 
The only reason you might want a NAS is if you need to share the same library throughout the house to multiple devices - ie a bunch of Sonos or Squeezeboxes. If you're looking for something more like a CD player/jukebox, you may as well store the music within the player - and push it to the DAC with a program like JRiver Media Centre or Audirvana/iTunes for Mac.
 
The new DAC2 HGR ticks all the boxes.

I've no suggestion on the Whest, my Naim cards in a box don't buzz, but it took some effort and to avoid RFI I have to plug it into a separate spur...

Paul
 
vln said:
Certainly both a streamer and a DAC + computer are valid approaches and can yield good results.

Personally, I wouldn't want to have to connect my laptop to a DAC via a USB or a FireWire cable or whatever, as I like to move it around my apartment.

This is why some element of wireless connectivity is important to me - the music stored on my laptop gets to my HiFi using a squeezebox as a streamer.

Alternatively, I could dump my all music on a NAS, but that would still necessitate a streamer, SBT or Linn DS or otherwise.

IMO, a computer plus DAC only makes sense if you're using e.g. a desk top or a headless Mac Mini, not a laptop.
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BUt do you keep all of your lossless music on your laptop? Speace becomes a big issue if you just want to stream from laptop via Squeezebox. It's what I do, but I keep compressed files on the laptop, can't fit the ALACs.
 
vln said:
How do you get the music stored on your laptop to the DAC?

Regarding the noise issues of a NAS, these days fanless SSD ones should take care of that.

BTW, the BM Dac2 only has 2 analogue inputs - would still be enough for bub though (I assume).
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Building a fanless NAS is more expensive and still needs a streamer.
At the time I simply dedicated my old works laptop, did a fresh install of the OS, installed iTunes and hooked it up via USB. Made some power adjustments so when closing the lid, the computer didn't go to sleep and that was it for a few years. Since then I've built a fanless dedicated PC in the shape of a Shuttle XS36v which has 512GB of SSD local storage; this is still connected to my current DAC via USB and is controlled from a tablet interface, no different to what any of the linn DS's offer, but without all the network hastle.
 
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