I purchased a Bluesound Vault 2i late last spring and at first it worked but was so complicated to operate that several times I needed telephone help from someone who I had take control of my computer and made a copy of the music library I had made on the Vault by ripping my collection of about 175 CDs into it. For purposes of ripping CDs, the error correction from the slow multiple passes over each CD and automatic internet connection to put cover art for each CD together is far more than any ripping software you can put into a computer. But the way it stored and indexes is designed for pop/rock songs and performers. It has a way to index music by composers but this process is as daunting as trying to put together a wardrobe for a hermaphroditic transvestite. In time the cable connection to the internet went bad and it took them about a month to eventually send me a replacement.
The Vault has a capacity of, is it one terabyte or two terabytes? Since all 175 of my CD's and several 24/96 downloads I purchased, which all sounded noticeably better using a vintage MSB Platinum external DAC into an 833A SET which I built myself, only consume about 30 GB, which easily fits onto a USB flash drive several times the size rather than in the hard drive you get with the new Vault. My library was easy to reassemble into a collection of folders on my laptop, one folder for each composer. I put each folder onto an external USB flash drive several time the size of my library. Since I will never rip another CD because I can download albums most of which are in higher resolution than 16/44 for the same price as a CD, I have no need to use the Vault's hard drive. I plug the flash drive into the back of the Vault, click on the USB icon and select from an alphabetical list of composers, open the file, and play it that vastly simpler way. Whenever I want to add to my library I download the work, CDs having rendered obsolete for anything but listening to in my old car, and I can place it in the composer's folder on the flash drive, and I do not have to spend hours updating a library in the Vault's hard drive. This has another possible advantage. I do not know if the Vault's hard drive has any moving parts to wear out but I don't have to worry about it because I am not using it.
I still would like to consider streaming music through the Vault, but I am not interested in taking out any paid subscription. Are there any free high resolution sources through which I can do so?
The other sources in my system are a vintage Magnum Dynalab FM tuner I connected with a homemade antenna selector switch for choosing different towered antennas each pointing towards a city which had a classical music station. These stations all play CDs or files of CD's in 16/44 and HD radio and listening over the internet offers less resolution, an OPPO blue ray player which is the only way I can play my 5 channel SACDs because copyright laws do not allow an external 5 channel DAC to decode them, not that I could afford such a thing at this time, and a turntable for vinyl.
The Vault has a capacity of, is it one terabyte or two terabytes? Since all 175 of my CD's and several 24/96 downloads I purchased, which all sounded noticeably better using a vintage MSB Platinum external DAC into an 833A SET which I built myself, only consume about 30 GB, which easily fits onto a USB flash drive several times the size rather than in the hard drive you get with the new Vault. My library was easy to reassemble into a collection of folders on my laptop, one folder for each composer. I put each folder onto an external USB flash drive several time the size of my library. Since I will never rip another CD because I can download albums most of which are in higher resolution than 16/44 for the same price as a CD, I have no need to use the Vault's hard drive. I plug the flash drive into the back of the Vault, click on the USB icon and select from an alphabetical list of composers, open the file, and play it that vastly simpler way. Whenever I want to add to my library I download the work, CDs having rendered obsolete for anything but listening to in my old car, and I can place it in the composer's folder on the flash drive, and I do not have to spend hours updating a library in the Vault's hard drive. This has another possible advantage. I do not know if the Vault's hard drive has any moving parts to wear out but I don't have to worry about it because I am not using it.
I still would like to consider streaming music through the Vault, but I am not interested in taking out any paid subscription. Are there any free high resolution sources through which I can do so?
The other sources in my system are a vintage Magnum Dynalab FM tuner I connected with a homemade antenna selector switch for choosing different towered antennas each pointing towards a city which had a classical music station. These stations all play CDs or files of CD's in 16/44 and HD radio and listening over the internet offers less resolution, an OPPO blue ray player which is the only way I can play my 5 channel SACDs because copyright laws do not allow an external 5 channel DAC to decode them, not that I could afford such a thing at this time, and a turntable for vinyl.