Off grid digital music

I had some horrible internet issues here at the house.   Although we live in an urban area, the local DSL provider gave lousy service and was getting worse week by week.   Until we got a new service, I was able to get T-Mobile to setup my cell phone as a WiFi Hotspot and we had amazingly good internet service, although limited to wireless due my existing phone.   We had a good data plan so the add on cost was only $30 a month.   

The other option you have is satellite.   It's a bit pricey but if the satellite is not too close to the horizon, you should have excellent bandwidth.  The only drawback is an initial latency due to the time it takes to beam up to the satellite, back to earth, then repeat to get the data you want, as well as the time the server takes to stream out the data.   Once the data stream is flowing, it should be okay.   But that first latency is about a second or two.   Yeah, it travels at the speed of light but that satellite is way, way out there. 

For equipment, I have a Bluesound Vault2 and two Node2's.   I don't use the internal DACs - I have a Wyred4Sound DAC which is absolutely amazing.  It is by far the best digital sound device I have ever purchased.   The Vault does a bit perfect rip of the CD's, plus handles all the internet radio, and music sources, such as Tidal, etc.  

The Vault2, and now the 2i, both require a hardwire internet connection though, so if you use the phone approach, make sure that phone can take a direct internet hookup.  If you opt for other equipment, make sure they will work with your wireless setup or whatever you end up with for an internet service provider.  You may need to put the ISP modem in bridge mode and use a local wireless router to connect all  your equipment.   

Since you are building the house, personally I'd wire every room with hardwire internet connections, about as many as you have electrical outlets in the room as well as a WiFi router.

Hi OP!

DAC's in the last 10 years are SUPERB. I wouldn't worry so much about their quality / format as much as getting your new music

Access to a subscription / internet service is an amazing thing. Having Tidal for instance, i have access to ALL of Prince. Amazing.
Will you have that? If so you should look into a streamer. If not. time for a hard disk storage solution with a lot of music on it! :)

Off grid your local Roon core will preserve all metadata and play normally, but needs to periodically connect to the web to verify your license-- even if you are a lifetime member. The Roon community blog suggests that this must occur at least every couple of weeks.

The island that we are on is remote and roughly 40 minutes away from the mainland. so no internet access what so ever. No school, store, hospital or infrastructure nothing. But of course we pay property tax for what...........

Thanks spatialking, will look into satellite options.
All of the cell towers on the mainland are pointing inland and not towards the ocean. We are lucky to have cell phone service in case of emergency.

Looks like a larger hard disc will be the solution. Therefore will further investigate solutions mentioned above. Have about 2000 CD's and 100 SACD to put on the drive.


dgarretson used to have a SACD-1 which replaced my ML 30.6 & 31.5.Yours look's really tricked out, nice job.
Will contact Roon re the Nucleus  to see if it also has to connect back to the grid. Thanks for this.

Tjhe on bit of bad news is I don't know of any turnkey solutiosn for ripping SACDs.
You can buy DSD tracks online, but I don't know of any way to take a physical SACD and rip it5.

I am also a bit out-of-the way and have satellite internet from Viasat.  It works great for streaming music from TIDAL, PANDORA, etc.

As a point of reference, my Bluesound notes states a one TB hard drive will hold about 20,000 CD's in FLAC format.  I am using WAV files and I used about 4800 KB per CD.

Ripping SACD can be done via Sony play station and also on older OPPO's. I haven't done it my self but know of people that have done this.

I have Melco n1a and Exogal Power DAC (Comet & ION) and the combination produces a simply exquisite spud stage & SQ. A $200 Buffalo CD can be attached to the Melco and your CD collection can be ripped to the Melco.  An internet connection is needed for ripping to the Melco but not for playback.  If you get a chance to hear the Exogal with or with out the Melco it’s an exceptional all digital state of the art DAC/Amp combination that has a small footprint and generates very little heat even at high volume. Read Doug Schroeders Comet & Ion Dagogo reviews for more info.