bigjppop

Well, found a Chromecast Audio for 28 bucks and decided just to jump in and start playing with it. I went ahead and purchased the Topping D30 DAC which seems to get a lot of love at its price point. Now I guess it’s time to finish my amp construction and start my free trials with Qobuz and Tidal. Here goes nothing! https://www.amazon.com/Topping-Decoder-Coaxial-Optical-CS4398/dp/B07SS8NZCF/ref=gwm_tlc_pi?pf_rd_s=blackjack-personal-1&pf_rd_t=Gateway&pf_rd_i=mobile&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=QPB4N1DM88B6T26PTA79&pf_rd_p=1dfcfc84-3ad7-4be1-8cf4-d1dd1de5a0dc&pd_rd_i=B07SS8NZCF

Wow, just looked at my profile, joined in 2008. I’m a dinosaur!

It’s been years since I’ve been on this forum, back when a Mac mini or an Apple TV was where it was at! The world of digital audio has changed immensely and I’m trying to find my way back in. I need some newbie help just to make sure I’m even on the right path. I’d like to get my headphone station into the new world. I’ve been using a Darkvoice 337 tube amp I bought years ago driving some Sennheisser Hd-650’s. I normally feed that from an old school iPod that was modded into the iMod by Red Wine Audio. Most of my music is all Apple Lossless ripped CDs. I’m going to (finally) put together a Bottlehead Crack headphone amp I bought years ago. Where I need some help is the digital front end. I’d like to try out Tidal and Qobuz along with the Spotify account my wife keeps telling me to use. I’d like to be able to stream the music off my computer as well but honestly that is secondary at this point. I imagine the streaming services have everything I have. I’ve been looking at: Chromecast Audio Klipsch Gate Allo Digione Am I missing anything that would be a cheap and easy solution to get started? I’d love to find something with solid analog outputs but I’m also willing to grab a cheap DAC as well. Maybe something from Schiit Audio or something similar. I’d like to control the entire thing with my iPhone. My audio journey has been all over the map for 25 years now. Fancy car audio, then a nice 2-channel setup, then Home Theater, then headphones, then high end consumer gear, then pro gear, then room acoustics, then DIY, and back and forth and round and round. Sometime around 2005 I pretty much stopped buying music or listening to anything new and got caught up chasing gear. I need to fix that and these new streaming services seem like a good way to start. So, am I on the right track with the devices I mentioned or should I look elsewhere?

I think I started reading this site shortly after it went up (referred here from another forum) and I must admit that recently I've read less and less. This is mostly because it seems that many of the products mentioned/covered/reviewed are really pushing into high 4, low 5-figure territory which is pretty rough for me. After reading some of the above comments (as well as the reviews in this post) I was ready to say "Amen brother, this place is Stereophile by another name." Now, I still read Stereophile online but I think I read it for the same reason that my wife reads things like People/Cosmo... I have chosen to cancel my subscription to Stereophile as of a couple of years ago because I felt it didn't cover any of the gear I was interested in.<br /> <br /> So, after thinking that, I want back through the last few "pages" of CA and I must say, I still think there is a pretty good balance here on simple/cost effective solutions to getting the most out of a music server vs. reviews of multi-kilobuck products that "statistically speaking, no one is ever going to buy" (I love that line by the way!). I was shocked by 54K speakers, but absolutely blown away by a 12K sound card! Anyway...<br /> <br /> I still think CA is a great site and worth visiting from time to time, I just hope Chris is able to maintain a balance between information/products that are available to the majority of us vs. covering the state of the art. I think there's room for both here on CA; I just hope things don't go "off the rails" in pursuit of SOTA. I think there's still a lot of us out there looking for "the best $10 bottle of wine you've ever had!"

Yes, no Firewire but it does have eSATA which I believe offers much better performance than firewire (I'm not sure on this one). Also, as a music server do you really need to bump up the CPU/RAM/GPU? Not arguing here, but if I'm only planning on using it as a music server or an HTPC do I really need all that the Mini offers? I would love the digital output but I REALLY like having HDMI for HTPC duty. As of last night I had pretty much convinced myself that a hacked Apple TV was going to be pretty much exactly what I needed (starting out as an HTPC and then later moving over to a music server if I decided the Mini was more my cup of tea). I've always been the "buy the best you can afford" guy but I'm starting to find myself having the "best stuff" and not using much of the functionality I've paid for. Maybe I'm spending too much on the "what if I want to do ____ later?" Mind you, I'm saying all of this having never owned a music server or a HTPC; like everyone else, just trying to get the best bang for my buck.

So it looks like Dell's new Zino HD is ready for shipping and I'm a little surprised I didn't find a thread here already talking about it. The basic model kicks off at 229 (same price as an Apple TV and A LOT cheaper than a Mini). For my HTPC needs I'm really swayed to the Zino but I'm wondering from a purely music server stand point is the Mini (or even the Apple TV) a better option. http://www.dell.com/us/en/corp/desktops/inspiron-zino-hd/pd.aspx?refid=inspiron-zino-hd&s=corp I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts because I'm hoping to scoop up something (one of the three mentioned) on a good Black Friday deal.

Still the Quads!

I don't think you could do any better than the Quad 11L actives which can be had for very close to your budget if you pick them up used on Audiogon. I'm really pretty surprised that these little monitors don't get more "play" in the various internet forums (both the active and passive flavors). To my ears the bested some B&W 805's and some Sonus Faber monitors (by a wide margin) and did it for a fraction of the price of some of those more spendy options. I own a full surround setup of the passive L2 series for my home theater and couldn't be more pleased.

I used my Paypal account the first few times I purchased from them but for some reason I can't even get to a homepage anymore. I'm wondering if they've figured out a way to block international ISPs.

I appreciate the help. I'll see what I can get hammered out. Thanks!

That really sucks! I've purchased a couple of albums from them and never had a problem until recently. They don't even list an email address for contacting them with questions?

Anybody?

Does anyone know if they block international customers? I can't even get to a home page. I've downloaded stuff from them a couple of times but I've had problems all week. Can anyone send me an email address for customer service/tech support at HDTracks? Thanks for all your help!

Is anyone else having problems with HDtracks? I haven't been able to access there site for almost a week.

So I'm downloading more stuff from HDtracks and Linn and I'm wondering how I can make the most of what I'm getting. I don't currently have the ability to take advantage of the hi res material (playback is limited to 16/44.1) but I'm sure at some point I'll buy new gear (because I'm an addict) and I don't want to buy the same stuff twice. So, what's the easiest to download stuff as a hi-res file, convert it to something usuable for me right now, but retain the original hi res file for later use? I'm using Windows XP and do most of my listening in Apple Lossless. Any insight is appreciated!