Where Do I Start?

Here's a reference site for SACDs (and Pure Audio Blu-ray): http://www.sa-cd.net/titles (Update: It appears there is a new version of this site: https://www.hraudio.net/ )

I purchase SACD and Blu-ray discs from Amazon.

I've downloaded a number of 24bit/192kHz or 24bit/96kHz FLAC music files from http://www.hdtracks.com/

Here's some other download sites that offer hi-res music. (I have no experience with most of these.)

http://www.linnrecords.com/catalogue.aspx

https://referencerecordings.com/

http://store.acousticsounds.com/c/380/Blu-ray

https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical

http://dsd-guide.com/where-can-you-find-dsd-music-downloads

https://www.nativedsd.com/

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/AlbumGroup?album_group=4

https://www.channelclassics.com/catalogue/

http://www.eclassical.com/24bit/
I haven't bought any of their downloads, but I have a few Channel Classics SACDs. Quality stuff.
 
Well, well......this thread has it all, mystery, intrigue, conflict. Awesome! I'm an ancient audiophile who has never ventured past vinyl and the occasional CD. I'm very computer literate - I've been networking systems for over 30 years. Although I have been on AK for a couple of years dealing with hardware things, this is my first trip to the Digital Sources forum. My intent was to ask about digital basics and where to start. This thread was at the top and it is loaded with great info. Someone should make it sticky for digital noobs like me and the OP. I would like to narrow the question a bit for me as I want to dip my toe in the digital water, but expect vinyl will be my main source of listening for a good while. But.....I would like to find an entry level that is decent but not too expensive - maybe $300-400 total. I have a laptop I can dedicate to this, and I don't think I need the ability to play a physical disc at this time (blu-ray, etc). I just want to have some music files on my laptop that I can feed through a decent DAC into an analog preamp and the rest of my system. I would like to be able to see my music and organize it with a GUI of some sort. So, if I already have the laptop (Windows 10) and a terabyte drive, what are some recommendations for a DAC or other device that includes a DAC and music management software that would keep me under about $400? And what are a few good sources of downloadable digital music? The Oppo drive looks like a great do-everything unit, but I just don't want to spend a grand or more until I find out if I really will use the digital world of music enough to make it worthwhile. Thanks to the OP for plowing this ground for other noobs like me!

How do you intend getting the files to the HDD? Will they be downloaded files or from your CD's? In order to get files from a CD to an HDD you'll need some sort of optical drive for your laptop. As for a DAC that's within your budget, that depends on what type of files you'll be playing. Most DAC's will do FLAC (my suggestion to use), WAV, MP3, AIFF and a couple of others. However if you plan on using DSD (SACD) or MQA (very controversial) files you'll need a DAC that specifically says it can decode those file types. If you don't want/need DSD and MQA capability I suggest you take a look at the Schiit line.
 
OK, the OP has no idea of how to integrate digital audio into his/hers world ... I did not either a while ago. And I did not want to build a network, or become a systems integrator. I purposefully left complex computer stuff behind when I retired. So what to do?

1.) Start building your digital library. RIP tunes from existing CDs to high rate MP3 (256K~320K) and store in some organized manor on your computer. Make a back-up in case the PC dies for some reason... It will someday and you do not want to have to do most of this twice ... Get some helpful programs like Audacity, MusicBrainz, ID3 tag editor, and MP3Gain.

You will find that you need to "Normalize" all your track volumes, or you will be constantly playing with the volume knob :( I use MP3Gain and it has worked just fine :)

I set my track nominal volume to 89dB in MP3Gain which is very slightly up for old traditional CD's from the early days, but not much - and way down from the idiotic loudness wars of modern CD's. You can see what sorts of gross insults have been done to our music in Audacity. But it's all manageable with the right tools :)

MusicBrainz is especially helpful in tagging unknown or poorly tagged tracks (it'll audio sample and look-up for you :) ). I use it to check questionable tracks and thin tags, or for filling in complex tags (file metadata) - works real good on classical :)

2.) Look and see if your DVD player will play MP3 CD's or DVD's (data discs). If it will, you can arrange many, many, hours of listening on a single disc just using that simple system. It's great for party music or Christmas music, what have you. Pop it in and it'll play as much as 8+ hours without touching anything. Just burn the MP3 files to a data disc and away you go :)

3.) If you want to listen in the car/truck/boat/RV, get a Satechi Sound-Fly Aux and plug it into the power port or cigarette lighter socket. Put an SD card in it with up to 32 GB of your MP3's and let it run on random. Tune it, and your car radio, to an unused channel and you have stereo of you mini-library as you travel w/o commercials :) I have tried many local FM broadcasters and the Satechi is far and away the best. I tossed the others as junk ...

4.) You can do the same at home with any number of FM local broadcaster boxes for background listening. Yeah, this is not pristine quality sound, but it's good enough for just listening while working around the house, etc. It's often as good as what you get over satellite or cable music channels :)

For more critical listening, you can often stream from a laptop to your stereo, or just use headphones. However many laptops and PC's have pretty bad sound cards or on-board sound systems, so you might want to invest in a higher end sound card or an external DAC to get your digital signal converted to something the old stereo will accept... That can be Phase II of your build-out :)

I happen to do my digital audio work on an older HP workstation, and it has a very nice sound sub-system, so I never needed to install my M-Audio board. You may get lucky too :)

Once you have done these things, you will be ready to look at more complex options. In the meantime, you have been able to enjoy your ever growing digital library. Speaking of which, many local public libraries have CD collections that you can check out from, and get more to listen to :D

The point is there is no need to jump into a digital server right away. You can get there in baby steps and learn all along the way. Learning to RIP from CD's or to record from YouTube will teach you a lot about the files and what works, and what does not ...

I'd rather put my efforts into the music files, clean & balanced, with good lead-in's and fade-outs, etc - than spend brain time building a network (again, for like the 20th time, which I used to get paid for - Novell ...).

And since I don't really trust Microsoft to do anything right, I work on isolated machines with only printer sharing via hardware. The box I'm typing this on still runs XP Pro, but you don't have to be a curmudgeon like me to do this. There are many pathways into digital music.

OH, and if you like having music while you do yard work or blow leaves, etc - a Sony Digital Walkman and some decent ear-buds will keep the engine noises at bay while letting you listen to recent RIP's and noting any edits needed :)
 
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How do you intend getting the files to the HDD? Will they be downloaded files or from your CD's? In order to get files from a CD to an HDD you'll need some sort of optical drive for your laptop. As for a DAC that's within your budget, that depends on what type of files you'll be playing. Most DAC's will do FLAC (my suggestion to use), WAV, MP3, AIFF and a couple of others. However if you plan on using DSD (SACD) or MQA (very controversial) files you'll need a DAC that specifically says it can decode those file types. If you don't want/need DSD and MQA capability I suggest you take a look at the Schiit line.
Thanks! That's the kind of info I need. I don't have a huge CD collection - maybe 50, and many of them would not be of interest to me to transfer to HDD. My main desire is to be able to download high quality files and play them from the HDD. I have done a lot of reading between this forum and the DAC forum and I'm pretty sure FLAC is where I want to be at this point. I have sort of homed in on the Schiit Bifrost at $399, It seems to be a cut above the $100 DAC's. Any opinions on that one?
Steve
 
So I decided long ago to bite the bullet and do my library in MP3. For a host of reasons, but easy file sharing was a big one. I give away modestly large compilations to friends and relatives now and then, and you do not know what equipment they have ... This last Christams I sent out some HDD's with a few tens of GB of music I thought they might enjoy.. Even a Data DVD with 2+GB of MP3's, even at 320K, is a few days of listening. But, I understand the desire for the other formats ...

I have a few thousand hound hours into building my library. But, I have not settled on my full home stereo topology yet. I'm just living with tunes in teh car and on my Walkman as I cruise around.

I used to record on reel2reel so I'm more into the recording an engineering side. I don't chase absolute file quality because I have found most of the arguments theoretical. The differences between Dwight Yoakam or Gary Clark Jr in high rate MP3 and FLAC is non-existant to me.

I do not have any SACD's as sources. Standard quality CD's are so messed with once the loudness wars started, that trying to build a super accurate file of over compressed music tracks seems odd ...

But, the DAC can make a difference. The Bifrost has an excellent reputation. I'm just trying to get there a different way - in Audacity by correcting what I can ...
 
Just thought I would drop by and describe my digital setup for you - its slightly different.

I have a dedicated laptop that runs Windows 10 and also runs Kodi. I also have a little program called Airfoil running on the machine. Airfoil converts any sound output from the laptop, digitally, to an Airplay compatible stream. I then feed this stream wirelessly to an Apple Airport Express, which uses its built-in DAC (which is very good) to link into the Aux of any device around the house.

I have a remote app for Kodi, which is called Kore. Using this on my phone, I can choose whatever file I wish to play on the server and then it plays wherever I am with the Airport - all done with wireless.

Kodi is free and the Airport was very cheap so its a great solution and sounds excellent.
 
No, I'm not saying that my MP3's will somehow be better (well unless I spend time in Audacity to rebalance, noise reduction, etc ...), but trying to put commercial recordings from mass generated high speed pressings into a theoretically somewhat better format may be a waste of time ... Plus the hundreds of recordings I have inherited as MP3's are what they are... I still play them and like them for yard work or car tunes.

I like the tune. I may tweak it a bit to make it more of what I like. But the 256~320 MP3 is good enough for my needs, especially if it came from YouTube as a live thing off their sound board with all that entails ...

This is pass-around music, yard work music, travel music, airplane music - none of which is conducive to critical listening. For that I have a ton of vinyl, or some good tapes :D

And it's a way for the OP to get started. Tools abound. OK, maybe he wants to do his/her thing in FLAC, OK by me. But, I don't have access to DVD players that will play FLAC encoded tracks, and even if I did, I know my friends do not ... They are not anywhere close to this hobby as we are ... They just enjoy the tunes I send :)

If it's about sharing I dunno if you can beat MP3 ... If it's about absolute sonic quality, I dunno about digital at all ...
 
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RIP tunes from existing CDs to high rate MP3 (256K~320K)

My one piece of advice for anyone contemplating ripping their CD collection.

DO NOT RIP TO A LOSSY FORMAT LIKE MP3.

Ripping is a process you only want to do once. Rip once. Rip perfect. Rip lossless.

You can always get your computer to create a lossy version from your lossless rips, if you need smaller files for portable players. You can never recover the perfect file from a lossy format.
 
It can be done for less than two hundred. I will assume you have none of the necessary items except for a micro usb cord and need to buy everything else:

Raspberry Pi 3 Essential Kit - $69.99 - Amazon Prime
FiiO E10K USB DAC and Headphone Amplifier - $75.99
1TB portable hard drive - $50 - Amazon Prime

$195.98 Total. Just format the SD card with Daphile (free) and you can play from your personal library, streaming services and internet radio. Control it with a smartphone, tablet or computer.
Pi2 similar setup, except with the HiFiBerry Brown/Burr DAC. I run openelec with the "Chorus" add-on enabled,
album cover chart find/download, automatically categorizes music, playlists, artists, genres, etc.
and can easily control it from my phone/laptop/tablet.
 
Sonos has been doing exactly that for the past 15 years now. Logitech and others required software running on a server, which is why their Squeezebox hardware is long defunct. Sonos has always required nothing more than a NAS or even a thumb drive in the back of your router. It will index the files for you from the drive, no PC required.

However, well over 90% of digital music is now being streamed, with millions of tracks available, controlled via a phone, tablet or your voice. There are multiple options to stream without needing a PC, or needing to route the stream through your phone, including Sonos, Chromecast, and the upcoming Airplay 2. Even a $50 Echo Dot from Amazon can stream directly from several cloud providers to your stereo via voice command.

Lots of options, more being introduced constantly.

First of all, hello chicks!! Yes, we Squeezebox users have long been under the threat of losing the server access - and yet here we are all these years later. It would seem they have decided to do right by us, for now. That said, buying a used unit isn't advisable but I feel confident that if the server was shut down, a 3rd party would swoop in and solve the issue. The truth is, I absolutely love my Touch and couldn't live without it!!!
 
"DO NOT RIP TO A LOSSY FORMAT LIKE MP3."

Yeah, but we are talking about a newby just starting, and some of you are trying to up the process...

FLAC is good, but it does not play on a lot of devices ... Especially a lot of devices that a newby may own, or have access to ...

Just starting means start - Baby steps.

FLAC can come along as a newby gets used to handling digital files, editing and refining and playing them.

Yeah, it may mean doing it over (ripping) for some precious CD's - that is part of the process. As long as the CDs are still on the shelf, no biggie. Part of learning. Seeing the difference, learning the nuances :)
 
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ANY LOSSLESS IS better for storage than MP3, unless you are only using an iPod, phone, etc.

Huh? Why would use of "iPod, phone, etc." be OK with MP3 vs. lossless? Most cars will take a digital feed from an iPod (and control it via steering wheel/display system controls) in which case you'd really rather be pumping ALAC, no?
 
"DO NOT RIP TO A LOSSY FORMAT LIKE MP3."

Yeah, but we are talking about a newby just starting, and some of you are trying to up the process...

FLAC is good, but it does not play on a lot of devices ... Especially a lot of devices that a newby may own, or have access to ...

Just starting means start - Baby steps.

FLAC can come along as a newby gets used to handling digital files, editing and refining and playing them.

Yeah, it may mean doing it over (ripping) for some precious CD's - that is part of the process. As long as the CDs are still on the shelf, no biggie. Part of learning. Seeing the difference, learning the nuances :)
I guess it depends on how much time you want to waste.
MP3 vs lossless is a personal thing, but if you're going end up at something like FLAC anyway why use up time re-ripping stuff? Start out 'right', so to speak.
And if you need MP3 for devices that don't support lossless, just transcode from the lossless rips.
 
I guess it depends on how much time you want to waste.
MP3 vs lossless is a personal thing, but if you're going end up at something like FLAC anyway why use up time re-ripping stuff? Start out 'right', so to speak.
And if you need MP3 for devices that don't support lossless, just transcode from the lossless rips.

100%
 
Huh? Why would use of "iPod, phone, etc." be OK with MP3 vs. lossless? Most cars will take a digital feed from an iPod (and control it via steering wheel/display system controls) in which case you'd really rather be pumping ALAC, no?
I read it from the angle of storage space. A lot of them don't have a ton of space, so the MP3 argument could be made. I guess.

I don't store much music on my i-devices, but I play a TON of music through them. Even then I'm a FLAC man. It's just sooo universal where I roll.
 
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