[toddbagwell]

guys, to try to keep this circle free of ads, please PM or email HAL with questions.

I'm fine with links to the thread in which the server is described, but try to keep tech support and other questions on a more private level.

I know that HAL is a member who is just putting his personal experience to good use and isn't trying to take over the circle or anything drastic, and it makes things harder to moderate, but please try to keep in mind that if he sells you a server, that should be kept separate from all our non-manufacturer stuff here in this circle.

thanks,
todd

[adydula]

Hey Todd....

I understand, glad the links I provided in my quest for a discless music server are ok. not trying to sell anything, just wanted to share the 'stuff' i found that seems to work well with a discless server...a novice for sure will get easily lost and or confused etc...but its really important to think about what it is you really want to do and anything else in the future, so you can build or buy stuff that will accomodate all your needs or requirments...

It was a fun journey  for me!

Alex

[Quiet Earth]

I think part of the issue here is that people seem compelled to make things more complicated than they have to be. You will read that you "have" to do this, and "have" to do that.. before you know it everybody has been hoisted by their own petard - the compulsion to get it right first time around. In actual fact, you don't "have" to do any of those things. Just get something going. Then do the next thing. Then the next. etc.

This is great advice. This is about 99% of the problem in my case. Hoisted by my own petard. (I never heard that one before . . .  )

I bought a squeezebox duet. I followed the directions and hook it all up and it worked fine. I used the heck out of it until I started listening critically to it. I didn't think it sounded good enough so I screwed around with it until I made it into something it was not meant to be and I eventually blew up the receiver with my own variable power supply. (I have a good working remote if anyone needs an extra.)

I took my hard drive full of music and the old iMac and moved it into the same room as the stereo system. A few mouse clicks with iTunes audio/midi preferences and I was up and running again. A USB to spdif converter delivered the music to my non USB DAC. Once again, everything worked perfectly and smoothly. But then I started listening critically again. I started playing around with some of the online suggestions to make it into a perfect music server and the next thing I knew I was spending more time working for the computer than listening to music. This is all on me, I am the only one to blame for this.

I took the computer out of the system and now I listen to CDs, records, and tape like I used to. I listen to just as much music as I did when I was automated by the computer, maybe more. The only thing I miss is internet radio. If I can muster up the discipline I am going to find a simple way to get that back into the system and not mess with it. I promise I won't mess with it this time. 

Getting back to the empetus behind the original post, I think a CD player is a good solution for many of us. I also think that this is a good time to buy a really nice player since the technology is mature and the CDs are abundant. You can always get into computer audio later, when it looks more attractive to you.

[S Clark]

Back to looking at Windows 7..and a small HTPC. We decided on the ASUS mini-ITX board with an integrated graphics chipset, the board I decided on was the F1A75-I Delux. Based on an AMD chipset called A75. One of the criteria was the onboard sound chipset had to allow for HDMI bitstreaming..or passthru so the AVR would do the decoding of the high resolution audio for movies...without the need for a high end graphics card etc.

This board has 4 sata ports, 1 eSata port has USB 3.0 ports, HDMI out, Optical S/PDIF, etc...just about any connection needed as well as LAN, and wireless. Even DisplayPort connection.

The case I chose was a Lian Li small compact cube type with a large slow speed very quiet fan:
http://www.amazon.com/PC-Q08B-Black-Aluminum-Mini-ITX-Computer/dp/B003MRSRM6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341325001&sr=8-1&keywords=lian+li+pc-q08

The processor was a AMD A8 3870K Quad Core, running at 3 ghz, with a AMD Radeon HD 6550D APU for graphics.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106001

I replaced the fans in the case and upgraded the heatsink and fan on the cpu with a very efficient quite fan as well....the whole thing is quite inaudible even when overclocking it 10-15% up from 3.0 Ghz to 3.3 Ghz, which in reality is not needed.

I also chose a fanless 500 watt fullsize power supply, 2 ssd's and a 2 TB hard drive as well.

The OS is loaded on one of the SSDs, all the 6000+ flacs on the other SSD and the 2 tb hard drive has 100+ movies on it as an experiment.

The latest Jriver 17.X is loaded and setting up for bit perfect was easily done in a Win 7 environment. This use to be a real pain, but now its really not that hard at all...

...I have the HDMI going to my AVR for sound and video, as well as the USB out from the HTPC to the HRT Dac to my 2 ch stuff etc...I can easily compare the dac in the avr with the HRT dac.


Again the hard part would be to build the pc from parts, loading the OS and laoding the software and setting up bitperfect stuff...but again its not really that hard at all.


All the best!
Alex

Alex, I think I've heard this description before...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2hULhXf04

Scott

[adydula]

Haaaaa!

There ya go.....

Alex
 

[John Casler]

Hey Jeff,

Off the cuff suggestion:

Why not just get an OPPO BDP-93 and 1T USB HD.

The GUI is superclunky, but operable with a hand held remote, and you get the bonus of having a Universal Disc Player.  You would have to have a screen to see it.  If you make a good file structure it can be pretty simple.

Just plugged a 1TB HD into mine, and the Audio Quality is indistinguishable from the Bryston BDP-1.

They were in abundance at THE HOME ENTERTAINMENT SHOW in Newport in June, being used just that way.  No Fan and No Noise.

[saeyedoc]

Hey Jeff,

Off the cuff suggestion:

Why not just get an OPPO BDP-93 and 1T USB HD.

The GUI is superclunky, but operable with a hand held remote, and you get the bonus of having a Universal Disc Player.  You would have to have a screen to see it.  If you make a good file structure it can be pretty simple.

Just plugged a 1TB HD into mine, and the Audio Quality is indistinguishable from the Bryston BDP-1.

They were in abundance at THE HOME ENTERTAINMENT SHOW in Newport in June, being used just that way.  No Fan and No Noise.

That's what I've been doing, but with a 2TB. Had a buddy of mine fill it with hi-res music, mostly Flac. It was ridiculous when I first got it a few weeks ago, there were almost 3,000 items. I took forever to go through it on the Oppo.  I rearranged things by artist and it's now a somewhat manageable 800. Some of the cover art even works. I've even run across a few treats on there like multi-channel recordings. It's played everything I've throw at it so far.
I have it connected with HDMI into my Anthem and it sounds great.
My next step will probably be a Squeezebox touch so I can use the ipad app to scroll through things easier.

[ted_b]

Hi Ted,

I am organizing myself to put together a server with the SOtM USB card.  I would like to get a separate power supply for the card.  What kind of supply did you get from Paul Hynes??  The SOtM card is spec'd to draw 2 amps at 12 volts on start-up. 

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,
The SOtM gets its power from the 12V directly in the Auraliti, so my power supply is a Hynes 12V.  I am using his SR3-12 (found used here on AC), but also had him build me a custom humongous SR7-18V5 for the Mac Mini, so I will try that one too, as Paul says it will be even better...regardless of overkill (Paul sending me new umbilical dc lead for it, and walking me through how to dial it down from 18v5 to 12v.)

[adydula]

I used my BD83SE via the ethernet cable to a pc using UPnp/DLNA etc..the flacs were on the pc, and were transcoded and the Oppo would see the stuff and play well. The only thing here it was slow and cludgy and no cover art etc...this i hear has been improved with the latest Oppo and yes you can attach a large drive to them now and navigate via the oppo interface...I still find that not ideal but it does work.

The JRiver theater view interface is the cats meow to me..the only other alternative to me would be an iPad or tablet with the appropriate app....

Alex

[ted_b]

The JRiver theater view interface is the cats meow to me..the only other alternative to me would be an iPad or tablet with the appropriate app....

Alex

Like Jremote
http://www.jremote.net/

[mdconnelly]

I like the comments about just using CDs if you're wanting simple.   CDs are not only simple but require no setup and little maintenance (OK, getting into the CD case can be a pain   Vinyl requires occasional cleaning & flipping the LP and is painful to cue up individual songs.   Cassettes were equally painful to access individual songs, occasionally jammed and sonics were less than ideal.  CDs are a piece of cake and with a good transport/DAC, sound excellent (or at least as good as the recording allows)!  Plus, it is so easy to buy more... new and used.  While the number of stores may be fewer, most all music is readily available on CD - new or used.  No local store?  Try Amazon.  CDUniverse.  Oldies.com, etc...

But, every one of us pursuing digital music servers and all the associated growing pains, headaches and tons of hours spent are doing so cuz we love this stuff.  Well, yes, hate it as well at times, but still.... We do it cuz we can!  Because there's a good chance that if we do and eventually get it right, it will be totally awesome!

Of course, I've now got well over 1000 albums stored in flac, all of which are easily and quickly accessed on any (or all) of three Squeezebox-integrated systems in my house.  Or I can just listen to any of it on my iphone. or iPad.  or laptop.  Or control it from the same.  Even remotely.  So, yes, once all is said and done, it has never been easier to play my music.  Totally awesome!  Well, except for all that ripping, tagging, and constant screwing around with the computer, software, networking, upgrades,  backups, etc...   But hey, we love this stuff, right?   

[Bob in St. Louis]

The JRiver theater view interface is the cats meow to me..the only other alternative to me would be an iPad or tablet with the appropriate app....

In addition to the Apple app Ted suggested (JRemote), JRiver comes with it's own free Andriod app called "Gizmo".
Also, if you've got an Andriod, there's an app that allows you to use your device as a touch screen mouse called "Unified Remote". It also has functionality for MediaMonkey, Chrome, Foobar, Pandora, Opera, WMC, and numerous other popular music thingies.

Alex, what are you using to control your JRiver theater view if you're not using an Apple/Andriod device?

Bob

[trackball02]

I am using this wireless keyboard-mouse to control JRiver. I like its backlit keyboard and compact size.

http://compare.ebay.com/like/260877485002?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&_lwgsi=y&cbt=y

[gregroe]

Where can I find out about the Oppo setup? I just bought one and have over 3T of Apple Lossless and Flac hi-rez files

[adydula]

Bob,

I have tried (2) types of keyboards:
Both are wirless with a small USB dongle that goes into a USB port on the PC.
The first and my favorite is this Iomega one:

http://www.amazon.com/Multimedia-Keyboard-Trackball-Wireless-GKM561R/dp/B002H0BOBA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1341402032&sr=8-2&keywords=iomega+wirless+keyboard

Been using it for a year now and it fits my fingers, has  a trackball which is not the best mechanical device as far as high end quality but it works. I hae gotten used to it but it took awhile and I did learn how to adjust the sensitivity and made it much better.

I tried this one fom Logitech with a trackpad....
Same small USB dongle..its built more solid than the Iomega but I found after using the Iomega for so long my fingers and brain seem to be wired to the Iomega layout. Its more intutive to me. That said its still very nice and its worth a try etc...

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Keyboard-Multi-Touch-920-003070/dp/tags-on-product/B005DKZTMG

I tried to justify buying a iPad or tablet just to run the free Gizmo app, vs using the 58" plasma as a display. A less than $50 keyboard and a wonderfully huge and very visable display...The bad news is the display has to be on...a distraction to some? but in Theater Mode you can get internet pix of the band, group, singer off the net...this is kind of neat to me....and the performance wireless for me is not causing any issue as I listen to music while I type this note via wireless.

All the best
Alex

Note: I actually had both keyboards connected to the HTPC at the same time!!! To compare....both worked ok  this way as well. LOL

[adydula]

gregroe,

Which Oppo did you get? the older 83 or one of the newer ones? There are a few places on the net where this is discussed depending on how you do it....with the older 83 se which i have it works but is a pain via ethernet etc..and flacs are not supported  with a usb key or drive...so this forces you to have a pc with ethernet and some software on the pc to allow the oppo to see the files and software to transpose it from flac back to the orignal format on the original cd etc...

With the newer ones its much easier but the interface doenst come close to a Jriver etc...but its free and may work well for you. Maybe someone with one will chime in or PM you.

Alex

 

[HAL]

Bob,

I have tried (2) types of keyboards:
Both are wirless with a small USB dongle that goes into a USB port on the PC.
The first and my favorite is this Iomega one:

http://www.amazon.com/Multimedia-Keyboard-Trackball-Wireless-GKM561R/dp/B002H0BOBA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1341402032&sr=8-2&keywords=iomega+wirless+keyboard

Been using it for a year now and it fits my fingers, has  a trackball which is not the best mechanical device as far as high end quality but it works. I hae gotten used to it but it took awhile and I did learn how to adjust the sensitivity and made it much better.

I tried this one fom Logitech with a trackpad....
Same small USB dongle..its built more solid than the Iomega but I found after using the Iomega for so long my fingers and brain seem to be wired to the Iomega layout. Its more intutive to me. That said its still very nice and its worth a try etc...

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Keyboard-Multi-Touch-920-003070/dp/tags-on-product/B005DKZTMG

I tried to justify buying a iPad or tablet just to run the free Gizmo app, vs using the 58" plasma as a display. A less than $50 keyboard and a wonderfully huge and very visable display...The bad news is the display has to be on...a distraction to some? but in Theater Mode you can get internet pix of the band, group, singer off the net...this is kind of neat to me....and the performance wireless for me is not causing any issue as I listen to music while I type this note via wireless.

All the best
Alex

Note: I actually had both keyboards connected to the HTPC at the same time!!! To compare....both worked ok  this way as well. LOL

+1 for the Logitech wireless keyboard with trackpad.  Works very well here with my setup.  Battery lifetime is very good as well.

[JLM]

Where can I find out about the Oppo setup? I just bought one and have over 3T of Apple Lossless and Flac hi-rez files

For BDP-93 check out page 43 of manual (it comes with one SATA and two USB ports).  Thanks for the reminder John.     This is a good future proofing feature of the Oppo (which is a remarkably high quality and extremely flexible device as it connects to Pandora/Netflix/DivX/etc., if not totally convenient to use).

[rbbert]

remember the Oppo will not play gapless through the USB input.

[saeyedoc]

Where can I find out about the Oppo setup? I just bought one and have over 3T of Apple Lossless and Flac hi-rez files

The Oppo will support drives up to 2TB, they need to be formatted in FAT32 or NTFS. You can hook it up directly using USB or eSATA, or stream from a PC/Mac using a DLNA server. It won't play Apple Lossless, it will play just about any other codec. For Mac, Playback is a good, inexpensive DLNA server if you want to go that route. 
If hooked up directly, it shows up under Music on the home page. Streaming is under network.
You can use "GOTO" to navigate a little easier. If connected directly, you can set up a play list. The green button will put tracks in the playlist.
There's a huge thread on AVS with tons of information and the regulars there are very helpful.