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Help for an Old School Audiophile

I'm 56 and I've been in this hobby since the early 80's and have a modest system and have amassed a collection of about 1500 LPs, 500 cds, and 400 cassettes.  Between two different older hard drive tower cases I have probably about 10,000+ songs on iTunes and I keep those tower cases around thinking one day I'd like to put those songs on a cloud - although I totally don't know what that entails.  I have the free Pandora on my iPhone and still regularly listen to FM radio and have an aversion to paying for satellite radio when there are good stations in the Philadelphia market that I listen to.

Last week, I went into a local hifi shop and listened to a bookshelf pair of powered Dynaudio speakers that you could hook a laptop up to but also had RCA outputs to hook up a phono preamp to and the salesman was playing music thru his phone.  He had Tidal and also mentioned other names that I forgot the name of.  When I saw what he could do thru his phone, it kind of made me feel a little foolish for having all of these albums, tapes, and cds.

I don't watch a lot of tv these days except for sports and I'm amazed at how my 24 year old daughter can watch all this stuff with Netflix and by streaming stuff and I'm still paying lots more each month for cable.

I'm not gonna go out and change it all tomorrow or the next day but I guess my questions are this:

1.  What's the best way to get educated about all of the different options that I have?
2.  With regard to all the music on iTunes that I have, is it better and more cost effective to put that music on a cloud or should I just subscribe to Spotify, Tidal or some other music format and just throw out the old tower cases?
3.  Can I assume that most people who have music servers are using that for music in lieu of actual music collections?  Or do most people have both?  
4.  If I were going to one day purge my collections but still wanted access to all the music I have now, what would be a good - modest - step by step game plan?  
5.  Is it better to get a USB turntable or analog to digital converter and start converting my LPs to computer files or is that a waste of time?

The actual collections and all the gear can take up a little room, but they are cool to look at too.... on the other hand, having the extra space and being a minimalist has it's own merits.  I'll never own a kindle either :)

BTW:  (My current system consists of:  Tandberg 3012 int amp, Thorens TD125 mk II turntable, Kyocera D-811 cassette deck, Harman Kardon TD302 cassette deck, Creek CAS3140 tuner, Oppo DV970 cd/dvd player, Fostex B-100 BH speakers, custom 45 SET tube int amp)

Thank you in advance for all of your kind comments and suggestions, 
Lou


128x128lou_setriodes
mattmiller's avatar
mattmiller
1,497 posts
 
Your plan should be to incorporate your collection into your system using a Music Server that will connect to your PC through your router using a Ethernet cable (this is called network audio storage aka NAS drive). A music server my or may not include a DAC, if you dont have a good DAC then you should purchase a Music server that has one built in or buy a external DAC. Companys like OPPO, Aurender, Aries, all make products that can streamline your digital music. Aurenders conductor app for tablets or smartphones is the best tool for catagorizing and searching for files. So ..copy all your tapes and albums to the Hard Drive and access them through a music server that connects to Tidal and allows you to purchase more music and stream to your hearts content, and of course it will decode MQA (master quality authentication developed by Meridian...acts like a zip file for music...Master quality sound file!) new technology that all the  main manufactures are on board with.

Matt M
erik_squires
16,138 posts
 
I agree with Matt.

Tidal has an amazing back-catalog in high fidelity formats.

Best,

E
2psyop's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
2psyop
1,600 posts
 
I cannot recommend the best way to digitize your record collection, with your Thorens turntable I would keep that as straight analog because I bet it sounds great. As far as the digital end you could invest in a streamer/DAC/ripper unit like the Bluesound Vault 2. With this you can rip all your CDs into the device as whatever files you want, AIFF or FLAC or another. Also you can have access to all your ITUNES files since these kind of streamers will allow integration with a HDD. After setting up the Vault 2, you can use a smart phone or tablet as your control device or remote control. You can also stream via Tidal, Spotify or another service. I have my Bluesound Node 2 accessing a Western Digital MyCloud Network Attached Storage (NAS) via my home network. This is where all my ripped music and ITunes files are located. I have over 16 thousand songs. It really sounds great. Lastly if you want to try MQA files (say via Tidal) the Vault will alllow you to play those too. There are other streamer/DAC/ripppers to choose from. It matters what your budget allows, the features and capabilities that interest you. If you have an input on one of your integrated preamp/amp units I would give the Vault serious consideration.
shadorne's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Get the free trial of both Roon and Tidal. You will be amazed. Roon will seamlessly play your iTunes stuff as well as FLAC and Tidal. You will need to burn your CD  collection to your hardrive.
bruce_philly
31 posts
 
I am about your age..... argh!

I agree with Matt about a NAS, network attached server.  Anywho... you are asking many questions all balled into one.  I can answer some of this by showing what I do..... but, a few questions.... do you still have a dedicated listening room with your chair in a sweet spot, or do you listen at a desk behind a monitor?  How close do you want to be to the controls for volume song selection, source selection etc....?  How important are old-school sources like a turntable and tuner?

I moved from my dedicated listening room into my office and sold off most of the big equipment I had... sold a pair of Magnepan 20.1!!! ooof that hurt.  For that big traditional system, I had a dedicated Windows laptop connected to an outboard DAC in the equipment rack as another source that was equal to the tuner, turntable etc, going to a CJ Preamp.  New school inserted into an old school system.  I had to get up to do any program changes.  The nice thing about a PC as a source, is that it can attach to the NAS and play your ripped library, or it can connect to any 'net streaming service.

Then I moved into my office.... my big desktop PC now is the primary source of control.... I purchased a Benchmark DAC1 that had a USB interface to the computer and a volume control.... I then fed the outs of the DAC directly to my big VTL Tube Amps..... In doing this, I maximized ease of use but eliminated my preamp and all the peripherals like my VPI turntable.  All my programing is from two sources, my huge bit-for-bit ripped CD collection on my NAS, and any web streaming service.  I have always used FOOBAR as my player software that will bypass any WIndows manipulation and passes pure, bit-for-bit, unmanipulated digital streams.  Nice, but you won't hear the computer beeps and farts when this software runs.  There are ways but it gets complex fast.... I have a set of cheapo logitek speakers plugged into the PC's soundcard and it passes the beeps and farts independent of the music bit stream.

I have since modded this desktop system.... I ditched the DAC1 and VTL Amps and purchased a PrimaLuna HP integrated amp.... kinda old school.  Now I can hook up old fashioned sources.  I pulled out my Accuphase CD player that has digital inputs so I can use his unit as a DAC or CD player, and hooked it to the computer using a MTEC interface device.  What old is new.

I can answer more questions but you have to be a bit more specific.  I will add that when you hook up a NAS to your home network, the music library becomes available to PCs all over your home.  BTW, my highest priority was pure bit-for-bit transfers from CD, and pure transfer through the system to an outboard DAC...... I will accept no sound degradation of source material.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

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