[rooze]

Hey folks,

I had a Pioneer Uni player up until recently, when it stopped reading discs. I'd been meaning to replace it anyway, so no big deal.

I've also dabbled a little with hard drive playback, and kinda like the results so I'm look to push forward with that.

On reading the specs for the Oppo 105, I see that is is able to read from a remote hard drive, either wirelessly or via USB. So I'm seeing an opportunity here to simplify things and use the Oppo as the server for my HD files and as the Uni disc spinner.

At this point I've reached the limits of my understanding and I need help designing the system architecture and spotting any errors in my reasoning before I get too far down the path.

So here goes.

I'm thinking of using my MacBook Pro to read the discs and rip to a remote HD. I would use iTunes and rip as WAV's, unless you tell me there's something better out there.
I would set the rip destination folder to point to the remote HD. I would try and set this up so that the HD is wired into my wireless router, and I would rip wirelessly from the Mac to the HD. The Oppo would then be wired into the router.

I would then (i think) be able to select tracks from the HD using the Oppo and playback through the Oppo. I would be able to use the analog outs on the Oppo into my preamp, but also the USB out on the Oppo into the USB on my Cambridge Audio 851C, which then automatically upsamples everything.

So my questions -

Will this setup work?
Will there be any restriction on sound quality and sampling rate if I go down this route?
In terms of SQ, would it be compatible with setting up a Mac Mini (basic model, no upgrades) as a music server, if not, why not?
What type of HD do I need to buy?
Is there a way to slave HD's so everything is automatically copied to the 2nd drive.
I'm assuming the Oppo will let me setup album art for the tracks? Is this so, or do I need to rip in AIFF or FLAC?

What other things should I be concerned about, if any (no politics or religion please).

I'd appreciate any help/insights before I blunder ahead oblivious to any anticipated outcome….

Many Thanks!!

[JRace]

Will this setup work?

YES! But don't use WAV, use either FLAC (for pc) or ALAC (for MAC) as you can do album art and tagging.
And the OPPO does not have a USB out, just use the analog outs.

Will there be any restriction on sound quality and sampling rate if I go down this route?

No. Although iTunes is not the preffered ripper by most.

In terms of SQ, would it be compatible with setting up a Mac Mini (basic model, no upgrades) as a music server, if not, why not?

I cannot comment on that as I have never used a Mac Mini, however repiorts form others indicate that there should be no quality loss with the Oppo.

What type of HD do I need to buy?

If you want the hard drive to only be accesed by the Oppo, then any old hard drive will do. If you want other devices on your network to access the hard drive then either a Network-Attached Harddrive (will have a network port) or a hard drive plugged into a router with a USB port. Direct connection to the Oppo is best unless you will want access by other devices.

Is there a way to slave HD's so everything is automatically copied to the 2nd drive.

Yes, not sure on macs, but I use DirSync Pro (I use windows) to mirror folders/drives. And other rippers will rip to mulitple drives at the same time.

I'm assuming the Oppo will let me setup album art for the tracks? Is this so, or do I need to rip in AIFF or FLAC?

The album art is done before the Oppo sees it, either in iTunes, with an alternative ripper, or with a 3rd party album art downloader. Rip as ALAC (if on a mac) or FLAC (if on a PC)

What other things should I be concerned about, if any (no politics or religion please).

I'd appreciate any help/insights before I blunder ahead oblivious to any anticipated outcome….

Many Thanks!!

You want your dir structure to be setup properly the first time.
i use:
C:\Music\Artist - Year - Album\Track # - Track Name.FLAC

For example:
C:\Music\Pink Floyd - 1975 - Wish You Were Here\01 - Shine on You Crazy Diamon Parts1-4.FLAC

[srb]

The album art is done before the Oppo sees it, either in iTunes, with an alternative ripper, or with a 3rd party album art downloader.

If you rip with iTunes the album art will only be contained within the file if you manually add it through the File > Get Info dialog.  If it is added automatically or with the Get Album Artwork command, it is stored in the iTunes database and will be unavailable to external players.

Steve

[JRace]

If you rip with iTunes the album art will only be contained within the file if you manually add it through the File > Get Info dialog.  If it is added automatically or with the Get Album Artwork command, it is stored in the iTunes database and will be unavailable to external players.

Steve

Thanks! Good to know.
I only use DB Poweramp to rip.
And for the ones missed by DB I use
Album Art Downloader
to do batch scanning.

[rooze]

Wow, thanks for the replies, guys!

So it looks feasible and I'm not completely crazy after all 

And I can feed into my 851 via coax at up to 192, which is nice, so I can compare the Oppo DAC to my 851 player, and if the Oppo is as good as or better, I can offload the Cambridge! Sweet.

I think I'll be back for help when I get the Hard drives and I'm tying to do the config  But otherwise, great stuff and thanks!

Rooze

[JRace]

Feel free to post back your hard drive choices beofre puchase if you want feedback.

I have found that the 4TB Drives are a good buy at $150 CDN, and the 3TB drives are a good buy at $99 CDN.
2 TB are almost always at $99, so the 3Tb at $99 is a very good value.

In other words, if you see those sizes for those prices it is a good deal (and it is not rare to see those deals).

And for peace of mind always by twice as large of a hard drive as you need now, and buy 2 so you can backup your rips.

[rooze]

Howdy again!

OK I'm a little farther down the path.

I've decided that I can justify the cost of the backup HD's if I set it up so that my Mac backs-up to the drive also, using Time Machine. I figure I won't have more than 400 CD's ripped as WAV, so a 2TB drive ought to do everything and have around 40-50% spare capacity.

My router is wireless but doesn't have USB, so I need a NAS drive with Ethernet.

The unit I'm looking at is the WD My Cloud 2TB Personal Cloud Storage - NAS http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-2TB-Personal-Storage-WDBCTL0020HWT-NESN/dp/B00EVVGAFI/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1394385388&sr=8-7&keywords=nas+hard+drives

It's $149 for 2TB

On the Oppo specs I read something about the need to format the HD for FAT32 (whatever the heck that is) but I don't see that mentioned on the above NAS HD. Is that an issue or is FAT32 standard?

Also, if I went down the above route, I'm assuming I could buy a cheaper 'slave' for the 2nd backup that would connect to the above unit via the USB - so the slave wouldn't need to have ethernet ports - is this correct?

Thanks again for any pointers, this is new territory!

My other slight concern, nothing to do with HD's, is with maximizing sound quality. Reading up more I see that some of the ripping and playback software uses 'Memory' playback which I presume is some kind of buffer. That seems to be a key feature and people seem to suggest that it adds another layer of performance when it comes to audio quality.
My understanding is that the Oppo doesn't buffer the data coming from the HD, it's more of a direct stream. So am I missing out going via this route? Would it be better to just run everything from my Mac, ripping through the Mac to the NAS HD's, but using the Mac with memory playback software, and just let the Oppo handle disc spinning? I suppose I could just try it, but I wanted to know what others think who've perhaps already been there, done that.

Thanks again!

Rooze

[RaceDog]

I have an Oppo 103......

1 active 2TB HD and 1 Back-up HD, both within PC system. 1 external 2 TB HD that I leave at work and finally back-up to Crash Plan

I have my computer wired through my router to my Oppo 103 as well as my Yamaha A3030 via CAT6. I can use either device to play music from. I use Jriver on my PC and have Gizmo on my Kindle Fire to control Jriver. The Oppo and Yamaha sound identical to my ears (slightly better than from shiney discs).....neither support gapless playback over Ethernet (Oppo does over USB).

My Squeezebox Touch sounded pretty similar (no head to head test) when it was connected to that system (now in the basement, ethernet connected to another system)

Using Jriver allows for much better user experience than trying to control music through the Oppo's terrible network interface.

[JRace]

That drive would work well, and yes you can connect a second drive.
I would strongly recommend that you use ALAC and not wav.
This will allow for more compatible tagging, which is essential to organize and use your music.

Don't worry about FAT32 as the drive is not directly connected to the oppo.

I have found no difference between pc memory playback and oppo playback.

Whatever playback method you decide in the end the oppo, the hard drive and the music will be usable.
Same goes for the above comment re: the oppo user interace.
You can use the oppo even with 3rd party control apps to achieve a slicker ui.

[rooze]

Thanks all, I appreciate the input and your time.

I'm looking forward to getting this off the ground!

I'll have to play around with the different file formats and see what works best. I'd read somewhere that FLAC doesn't sound as good as WAV - something about unzipping the FLAC file on the fly versus the synchronous playing back of uncompressed WAV. I suspect the differences will be too small for me to worry about, but I suppose it's worth experimenting before I start bulk-ripping my CD's....

Cheers!

[jarcher]

Would also agree that it makes more sense to use ALAC or FLAC vs WAV both for tagging issue and because I doubt there is any noticeable sound quality difference.

I believe a Mac with music player software such as Pure Music in memory play mode will make a better sounding and more user friendly network media player than using an Oppp.  But as I use the former (Mac mini)  and don't have any significant experience with the Oppo in this capacity, take my comment with a grain of salt.

I suppose there might be advantages to having the media player + DAC in one chassis with presumably a good power supply (ie Oppo), but on the other hand a lot of time and expertise has been expended on Pure Music as player software, whereas for the Oppo the network media player might be a secondary consideration to its disc performance. Only way to know of course would be to try / compare the two or hear from people who've done so.