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Giving up on Itunes! Alternatives? I want to run my hardrive with a dedicated tablet.

After having my archives completely disorganized by itunes once again i’m throwing in the towel. I want to know everything about setting up a Tablet as a player for my digital music on a remote hard drive so i can do it right the first time.
I want a simple player (not Itunes) that can handle all file types, I have everything from mp3’s to lossless cd rips, over a thousand albums, not looking to spend alot of money, I work on my own equipment.
Lots of newbie questions! Why a dac? is there any real benefit or is this just a way to get people to spend more money. seems like this is more for av equipment? Cables? What are the benefits in terms of fidelity, should i be using usb to run my system? I’m currently running my digital through .999 silver minijack to rca and it definitely picks up noise from a computer or phone power cord and case. Seems like a lot of newer digital equipment gets signals pretty dirty, but i don’t know anything about it.
What kind of tablet, any fidelity drawbacks as far as this goes? I use Macs but don’t care if It’s an Ipad or whatever, just want the best sound, least interference. Does the material of the cables connecting the tablet to the hardrive or dac have an effect on sound?My system; It’s a pretty crazy set up of whatever I could get my hands on, predominately set up for vinyl but I have a huge collection of rare albums on digital and would like to begin archiving from vinyl. I’m running a Dynaco St70 (tube) through a dynaco pat5 (ss), JBL’s, all plugs are rca, solid silver interconnects, no shielding, ferrite beads.
The sonic qualities that are important to me are imaging and range, don’t want to sacrifice the extreme highs and lows to rule out a little emf interference, my amp is ancient anyway. You know, the vinyl sound. Please give me all the help and advice you can, brutal honesty preffered! There are just too many opinions and too much unhelpful information out there to wade through, just want to get started with something simple that sounds good. Not into expensive toys just listening to great sounding music!
eviesevielevie
itsjustme
681 posts
 
you are asking a lot of questions (good, but real answers are complex and lengthy).
You got great input on Audirvahna and Roon. I use Roon.
This is a sacred cow, but IMO cables are vastly over rated and over priced - difference or not, the money can be better spent elsewhere. yes you need a quality cable, with good shielding and the proper impedance. And good dialectic material.  pretty much full stop. I will now be crucified. I'm in good company.
DAC are HUGE.  As noted, its a whole topic but DACs perform timing, decoding, its a preamp, its a filter, its a [power supply... and all matter. IMNSHO opinion a lot.  Full disclosure i design this stuff for money (but its a side gig mostly for fun).
OTOH the law of diminishing returns is alive and well.  You can get a DAC that will kick the crap out of your tablet/laptop/PC's internal DAC for $99 - and its Made in USA (Schiit modi 3). But step up to $500+ and you get substantially better. Can you spend $25K?  yes. Should you? Well, is  Porsche GT3RS a nice plaything?  yes, it is. Is it the best cost/comfort/benefit trade off for an occasional blast through the twisties, or an occasional Autocross? Nope.  But god bless you if the $250k is not enough to stop the purchase. get two and drop one off at my place.
Do some reading and listening.  Go to Youtube and watch some stuff by Hans Beekhuysen. He's really good.  Kooky like most hgih end audiophiles, myself included, but good. And he does not subscribe to magic, which endears him to me.
Enjoy.  Happy to answer specific questions, but i avoid the endless opinion and flame wars that seem to occur regularly.
G






rbstehno
1,432 posts
 
iTunes/Apple Music isn’t noted for its audio quality. If you want a good sounding player but a crappy interface, look into audirvana. If you want the best interface and as good as anything out there for sq, get roon. You can run the server on a cheap pi computer or a small used Apple Mac mini, then use your iPad/iPhone to control the playback
singintheblues
96 posts
 
DAC = Digital to Analog Converter.
Yes, it’s the same as your SoundCard.

For the Player Software, try Logitech Media Server (LMS).
It’s FREE & excellent.   
It’s browser based, so you can control it from your Tablet or PC.
For a small cost, get iPeng, which is a much nicer interface.

You say you have an external HDD.  Is it a NAS? (Network Attached Storage).

Depending on the IT skills & your budget, you have a few options.

1)  Buy a Raspberry Pi & install LMS & Squeezebox on it.
Pay the extra for a DAC HAT so you can connect directly to your Amp.
Or connect to your DAC if you already have one.
Attach your external HDD directly to the Pi.
Control from your iPad via LMS or iPeng.

Setting up LMS on a Pi needs some IT skills.   More than I have.
If you can stretch to a NAS 

2)  Buy a NAS & put all your music on there.
LMS comes Free to download onto the NAS.
Modern NAS will play the files too, so can be connected directly to a DAC.
Control from iPad.





woots's avatar
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woots
293 posts
 
A solution that might work for you is:

1) Roon Nucleus or Nucleus+ depending on how many zones you have
and
2) Synology DS918+ (you could go with a lower spec'd Synology depending on how much music you have)
3) Tidal or Qobuz for music

You will be able to control everything from your iPad as you requested.
headphonedreams
527 posts
 
I agree with many others, dacs make a difference. An easy solution if you are ok with using your computer as player is to get a usb dac. The Dragonfly Black, Red and Cobalt are all good. By the Cobalt if you can afford it. IFi also has a number of dacs.
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