Music collection in Flac. Great! PC player..too slow. Suggestions??

Looking for a head phone portable DAC like thing I ran across some new gizmos called portable digital music players and or portable Head Phone DAC.

The issues I’ve had with streaming files from my NAS are as previously said, lossless files are gonna have issues with drop outs, depending on distance,and the interface for thru put. Even on cellular it’s a dicey prospect. Compressd files? Not nearly as much.

These self contained needing only head phones or powered speakers. They are about the size of a SATA HDD. Open up to allow installation of an onboard 1 TB flash drive (user choice not included). They run on batteries with headphones. Some work as USB DACs too.

Do a Google Search for something like Portable HP DAC, or the like. You’ll start seeing results.

Aurender “Flow” is one model. Cord make some. Or is it Cort? There are many more all with varying degrees of ability.

I’d not foresee issues with std lossless file palyback. Some will do lots more formats including MQA, DSD, etc.

They have a LCD window for accessing the on board files. Of course, a personal confuser can send whatever to these thingys too.

Some I liked ran about a grand or a bit more. Although I did not care for how the files were accessed without a pc. That little bitty window and I would not get along at all.

Like anything else the SQ and functionality changes from model to model. On battery playback time is long. 8 – 12 hours before needing recharge, and they recharge from USB. Not sure if the DC power sup is proprietary or one can use std Lithium replacements.

Violin!  No PC needed!

Remember, Google is almost, your friend.

I would do this. Get a Bluesound Node 2. You can access all your music files with it at home without using your PC. Also, you will enter the world of streaming via Spotify, Pandora or whatever streaming service YOU like. If you pick a streaming service like Tidal, you can still enjoy digital streaming files wherever you are via a tablet or your smartphone and you can start to explore MQA, which is a really an expanding library. The library you build can match what you have in flac at home AND you can play your flac files at home. Now you have something to enjoy your current digital music library and really explore and grow your music library. That will cost you $500 and the cost of a monthly subscription. It’s a budget solution that, for music luvers, can be very rewarding.
If you are determined to play your files on the fly, I have done so with a Western Digital MyCloud NAS. With all my digital files loaded on the MyCloud, I can access them via my smartphone wherever I can get a phone signal , network or wireless connection. I am limited by the processor of my phone and my connections so I will not get hi-rez sound. Just one idea.....

Thank you. Maybe i'm not understanding the problem myself. I guess, i don't want to use my pc, because i perceive it as being too slow, and being the cause of "hiccups" in the playback. Ideally, i'm looking for advice on a good independent music player, that is portable and strong cpu that i feel won't interrupt the music playback. 

Hi Ronin,

Not sure I understand the problem really.

You travel, with your all-in-one PC, but it it not a laptop? What model?

What is slow about the PC? Playing music is not really a very demanding task.

Best,


Erik