Help for an Old School Audiophile

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.

BTW, if you have a computer that you can hook up to your integrated amps via RCA (through a headphone out jack for starters), or via USB to an external DAC for better sound, I agree with shadorne that a demo of Roon and Tidal together is a great first step for you.  You can hang your iTunes hard drive off of the computer and then get a glimpse into what would be a great digital front-end solution for you, then upgrade the bits behind it later if you like it.  Really, just some computer speakers to your computer will allow you to play with the Roon software, see what music Tidal gives you, and get of a feel for the whole thing without much effort or commitment.  Any of us here would help you set it up, but it's not hard on your own.  I bet in less than an hour you could be playing around with it and get a real taste for it with little to no financial commitment (at least during the trial period!).

I mistakenly fought against using Roon for the first year or so in lieu of an Aurender unit (which was awesome in it's own right), but now that I have the current Roon configured with Tidal and their online Radio options, I wouldn't go back.

That's how I'd recommend getting started and you can figure out how it might fit into your listening goals.

Yes I agee with the suggestions here, good ones. To add to what has been mentioned if you get a Bluesound Node 2 and a Roon subscription you are well on your way to awesome sound for really budget prices. You will have all of your own files to choose from, many streaming options like Tidal or Spotify etc which will provide more music, and a great way to organize it. The sound quality should be great, not cutting edge, but enjoyable. Since I have a preamp (and optical switches) to link everything and choose  sources maybe someone here could help with advice on if your integrated(s) could do that. BTW the Bluesound iphone app allows you access to all your music as your phone becomes your controller!

First off, I want to thank everyone for all of their comments and advice. 

After seeing the powered DynAudio speakers played thru the salesman's phone, I was more curious than anything else and also knew that I knew very little about this kind of stuff.  My post was therefore more of a fact finding mission as the future is inevitable and I wanted to see what others were doing with their systems.  Truth be told, it doesn't sound as fun as watching the record spin or my cassette rewind.  So whatever I do, I'm going to take it in a slow progression.  The other thought in writing the post was that if, one day, I scrap it all for convenience and minimalism, or moved abroad but wanted to have lots of music, how would I go about doing that and the answers provided give me a very good starting point.

I do not have a desktop system and do enjoy my home system and listening to FM radio.  As a Lyft & Uber driver, I listen a lot more to Pandora in the car than I do at home.  When I want to listen to Pandora at home, I just run an RCA to mini plug into my phone and listen thru my system; however, at home, I usually find myself either listening to FM radio or one of my other sources (LP, cassette, or CD). 

Sound quality over convenience is a lot more important to me and at this time, I don't mind taking the time to change albums, cds, etc; however, I guess its all what you are used to.  For those used to the convenience of a music server and Tidal or Roon, you probably wouldn't want to take the time to change records, etc when you can instantly push a button and have music play instantaneously.

I'll re-read the entire thread as it's a lot for me to understand and digest and I thank you for your ideas, thoughts, and opinions.