Help for an Old School Audiophile

I agree with Matt.

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

Best,

E

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.

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.

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

Lou...there is some very good advice here, and this can be somewhat overwhelming even for those of us very committed to these solutions.  Many of us have tried many of these solutions, so the good news is there is lots of good advice available.

Some other feedback from you that could help narrow down some of these recommendations...

Is budget a consideration, and if so, what is your max to get you to a good solution?

Do you consider yourself kind of tech savvy or would you prefer more of a set and forget solution?

Do you have the time and patience to burn all your important source material to digital, or would you pay a service to do it, or would you just skip that and have your analog and digital (CD) sources still available when you wanted them?

How important is ultimate sound quality vs. convenient musical listening?

Do you like random music presentment like Pandora or FM radio, or do you prefer to either select and listen to the album straight through, or select individual tracks for a "mix"?

From those answers you will be able to get more specific solutions that might best meet your desired outcome and point you to some deeper investigation.