I think an excellent-sounding and elegant option would be the Innuos Zen Mk3 server streamer. You can load all your CDs into it, and as a streamer your best sound quality would come from running an Ethernet cable direct from your router into the Zen. It costs about $2800 but will deliver excellent sound quality for all your music in one neat package. And yes, you can still control your music with your phone and no USB dongle needed. Best of luck.
Offline Music Storage & Playback Options
Really a 2 Question Post. Hoping for some good advise....and hoping I placed this in the right category... Cross posted here and in "Misc"
I live in a very rural area, cell phone coverage is spotty, and my Wi-Fi is bleak (very bleak as in 2-4 mbps) when it works, so I have built a dedicated audio room (20' by 30') and have a nice "mid-fi" system. I have a Tidal account and have 5-6000 tracks downloaded to my phone which I can play in "offline" mode through my system as well as a large CD collection I often enjoy. So my system and listening environment is basically an offline system. (photos / gear all listed in my profile)
Question 1) Recommendations for a very nice Music Storage component that I could burn all my CD's into which does not require wi-fi to operate. Something like the Naim Uniti Core Music Server? It would be OK to have something that operated through an app?, but lack of wi-fi is the issue.
Question 2) Currently I play a lot of music from my Tidal downloads on my phone, and I simply Bluetooth from my phone to my Marantz 8006 source then from the digital coax out through my Pontus II and out to the Luxman 509X My question is if I would see a significant SQ improvement running from my phone through a nice USB cable (Audioquest Coffee?) and going directly into the DAC vs Bluetooth??
Any Advise is appreciated!
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Hi @carzmaguy88 Curious why your WiFi is so bleak? Even if your internet service is painfully slow, you should be able to set up your local network to be fast and responsive between local devices. Wondering what I’m missing here… |
Rockrider: When the internet service (local wireless company) is working its actually OK, issue is it does not work even 70% of the time at all. and it will go on and off multiple times in any given evening. Its just very unreliable and none of the wireless carriers offer wifi in my area (verizon, T-Mobile, etc) I am on the Star link waiting list so that should be a great option for us in the future, so eventually I will enjoy the full benefits of an Internet connected signal, but for now, after a week or two of frustration, have decided to live with an offline setup for now. |
When I said “local” I meant in your living space. You can have your very own network, WiFi and/or Ethernet, to be able to play your music library with a multitude of different hardware options. @soix suggestion is excellent if the Zen has an internal drive to store your music. But you still need a household WiFi router to use your phone or tablet to control the Zen. There are many devices like the Zen. I have Aurender. Ethernet and even household WiFi should allow much better sound quality than Bluetooth. Good luck to you! |