2. pc-audio
  3. 1375412772

Music on NAS-Recommendations to play on HIFI

I have nearly a terabyte of music (in many formats) on a PC based NAS that I would like to listen to on my Audio System. Each system (PC, Audio) is physically close but electrically separate, and I want to keep it that way.

Here's what I've tried in the past:
1. Soundblaster audio output to preamp input. The sound was pretty good but there was the potential for ground loop hum to develop as both systems (PC and Audio) were on their own dedicated branch circuits. Absolute downside was that the PC's cooling fans were audible. I disconnected this arrangement because my audio preamp would go into a muted protection mode whenever my PC re-booted. The protection mode would occur regardless of what input was selected on the preamp. Not sure what happens when the PC reboots to elicit this protection mode, but for this reason I would like to keep the PC electrically isolated from the audio preamp.

2. Wireless Music Bridge. This method was pretty safe but the Linksys Wireless Music Bridge didn't have the greatest audio quality.
I could leave the noisy PC tower off and use a quiet laptop on my home network to access the NAS and play the files using the laptop's media player. A driver was installed on the laptop adding the wireless music bridge to the list of output devices (PC Speakers/SPDIF/Wireless Music Bridge). Everything was handled wirelessly over the network keeping my PC and Audio systems electrically separate but the overall sound depended on the quality of the Wireless Music Bridge.

So how do people do it? I have all this music stored on a NAS that I'd like to play through a decent DAC while keeping the two systems electrically separate. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
heyraz

Showing 1 response by realremo

realremo
460 posts
 
this is how I would do it: connect a NAS to a wireless router via Cat6. All PCs should be able to see the NAS if they are on your network. set up a laptop that can see the NAS wirelessly, and use Jriver with Jplay plug-in installed to send music from the wirelessly connected NAS through a decent USB cable into a USB/SPDIF converter. Go from the converter to the DAC of your choice, then into the system. You can control the music selection on Jriver from an iPad using the Jremote app. Yes the laptop is tethered to the system, but you are mobile with the iPad.
Yes you can buy a DAC that has an integrated USB converter, but most of the affordable solutions for this IMHO are not as good as using a decent external converter. My converter/DAC combo cost me $600, not including the USB/SPDIF cable.
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