2. digital
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Music server recommendations needed.

I have a large CD collection (4000 - 5000+) and so far I have only been managing my digital music files on my MacBook Pro through Apple Music only. (Partially digitized from my CD collection, partially commercially bought digital music files.) The music is largely an exhaustive jazz collection totaling some 6000 albums, by my estimate.

 

I need to digitize and collect all of my music on a music server. Ideally I would like to do this in just 2 components - a CD player and a Music Server, or a Music Server that comes equipped with a good CD player. The ability to effortlessly digitize the CDs, and then properly catalog, search and listen to my digitized music is the end goal. The CD player must be able to play SACD media. Would be nice if I can keep the DAC out of the music server. I'd like to keep the cost reasonable, but at some level I don't know what is reasonable either. Whatever I pick, I want it to stay for the long haul. What would you knowledgeable folks suggest as a solution?

I currently own a Jay's Audio CD player connected to a Benchmark Audio DAC3 HGC and Galion Audio TS120 SE integrated tube amp and Triangle Antal speakers.

 

Thanks,

Amit

 

amitb
russbutton's avatar
russbutton
429 posts
 

@mclinnguy You must be looking at a very old photo of my rig.  The Linn left me years ago.  Now running a Rega P5.  Iʻm soon to sell off the record collection and table.  Trying to simplify my life.  I do hear differences between vinyl and digital, but theyʻre not big enough for me to care anymore.

If I were starting over, Iʻd run a pair of the Dutch & Dutch 8c and my Linux PC.  No fooling with exotic cables, interconnects, etc.  But Iʻm fine with my Linkwitz Orions.  They still kill it on voices and piano.

mclinnguy's avatar
mclinnguy
432 posts
 

@russbutton 

Iʻd run a pair of the Dutch & Dutch 8c

Well I am in agreement with you there. There is something appealing and liberating about the Grimm MU1 & LS1 setup as well, I hope to hear it one day. 

russbutton's avatar
russbutton
429 posts
 

@mclinnguy

 

I was unfamiliar with Grimm.  Easy to find on Google. They are twice the price of the D &D 8c and 50% more than a fully built and delivered Linkwitz LX521 system.  If youʻre going to search out the Grimm,  you owe it to yourself to hear the D&D 8c and LX521 systems as well.

 

zuman
5 posts
 

"Expectations create reality.   If  you expect some thing to make a certain kind of change, then thatʻs what youʻre looking for and will likely get."

This is, of course, only partially true...we DON'T always get what we expect.

I recognize that I - like most Homo sapiens sapiens - am subject to expectation bias, but I am equally confident that the bias does not define my reality. I have owned a DAC, a tube buffer, a turntable, and a high-end EQ that I removed from my system due to sonic shortcomings within a few months of purchasing them. I certainly expected them to sound great or I wouldn't have purchased them. In two of those four examples, I returned to the previous piece of equipment I was using, and in the other two I just removed them from my chain, so I didn't replace them simply because I "expected" some new toy to sound even better.

So I was not "bound" to loving gear I owned just because I expected it to be great.

Nevertheless, as I mentioned several posts up, when I added the Pachanko Constellation Mini SE server with Stellar power supply to my system (running Roon as configured by Pachanko), I was thrilled by the improvement. It was far greater than I expected - probably the greatest single-component improvement I've ever made - and my delight has continued. 

While I have a physics background, I cannot explain with confidence why a server should deliver such sonic gains (especially as I was also running Roon with my previous components). However, my experience mirrors that of others who have installed high-end, purpose-built music servers: somehow, pre-DAC digital componentry does make a difference.

 

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