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Help With Streamer - Aurender, Auralic, HIFI Rose, Eversolo A10, etc.

Happy New Year All,

Longtime reader and follower of Audiogon, but less than a handful of posts.

I’m done with Apple’s Music app.  It’s turned into a disaster.  Some people have no issues at all with it, but for countless others, it has become almost unusable.  I’m one of those.   With that, I’m looking to finally get a streamer.  Under $4,000.00 and much less than that preferably.   I don’t have a LAN to plug into one, so all of my music will be primarily stored on the internal SSD.  I  don’t necessarily need a DAC in a streamer, so a transport is fine, but I’m fine if it does have a DAC.  I definitely want a streamer with a screen on it.

My questions are, how do I rip my CD collection into a streamer?  Can I connect an external CD drive up to one and rip directly into a streamer’s SSD?  Who has the most user friendly streamer and app?  Can I connect my iPhone and iPad up to it and transfer the music over to those devices for “one the go”? Do any streamers have an I2S HDMI output, and does it matter, or should I just use a dedicated SACD player for that?


I’d probably use a streamer as a preamp as well, if it’s decent enough.  Or should it be a separate music source in the system with a dedicated preamp?  It’s really not that big of a deal to me, as I no longer have the hearing that I used to.

I’m in my 60’s now, so I’m just not interested in the “esoteric” stuff anymore, but I still want decent quality gear.

Much appreciation to any and all recommendations.

 

boltapuresource
boltapuresource OP
27 posts
 

Well, as I was typing everything out, my browser crashed and I lost everything, so this one will be shorter.

I don’t need an internal DAC in a streamer.  I currently use an Audiobyte Black Dragon DAC, coupled with a Cary/AES tube amp and preamp.  I’ll switch out an old ADCOM 5503 in two channel mode or a B&K 4420 amp.  I generally listen to Focal 1008be Electra’s.

I have a Cambridge CXUHD that is boxed up as I’ve only used it about two hours to check it out one time, but I’d like to use it as an SACD transport.  I guess I’d need a Geerfab B.O.B to fully utilize it though for SACD.  Yet another cost.

I don’t use streaming services and have no desire to.  I prefer to rip my CD  collection.  With that, I’m going to have to re-rip everything and I’m hoping I could connect a CD drive to a streamer and rip directly into onboard SSD storage.  I’m also hoping that a streamer has the capability to add album art work.

Apple’s music app/system was fine for me, until it decided to no longer work after their IOS 18 update some months back.  It has never been fixed.  I’m just tired of the never ending changes to Apple’s ecosystem as well.  So often, it seems as though it’s released “half baked”.

I’m just looking for simplicity and reliability in a streamer that I  hopefully could transfer the library off of and onto my phone or iPad for “on the go” music.  Maybe such a thing doesn’t exist.  I don’t know, that’s why I have reached out to all of you fine folks.

Thank you all for your help!

 

curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
4,852 posts
 

Check out the Bluesound Node Vault.  It’s well within your budget and has plenty of storage.

boltapuresource OP
27 posts
 

@curiousjim 

Thank you, Sir!

koestner
673 posts
 

You should consider ripping your CD' to your computer through DB Poweramp. Then copy them over to an external SSD. That way you always have a backup depending on how often you make the copy.

boltapuresource OP
27 posts
 

@koestner Thank you.  

That sounds like a good idea.  I’ll have to check and see if DB Poweramp will automatically pull album artwork.

Thank you again.

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