Dedicated MP3 player for Stereo System

K

Krozman

N00b
99
-2
Ok, so I have a 300 CD changer that just died on me in a bad way, so I decided it was time to join this century and buy a dedicated player where I can upload to an onboard hard drive, and it would play all the music I desire. I've had a really hard time finding any product that isn't $3,000 that even fits the description. It doesn't have to be that terribly nice. It just has to have a 250+ GB hard drive, and a simple enough user interface like any portable MP3 player with the appropriate sound outputs into a nice receiver I own.

Before you suggest just using a portable MP3 player and just using a 1/8" headphone jack converted to a stereo input directly into the receiver, the sound quality is complete shit doing it that way. Don't be that guy please. I want something that, after I go through the process of uploading everything, allows me to have a good audio experience.

Bonus points if you find a unit that can wirelessly connect to my PC so I can manage it from here, but not 100% essential.

Thank you in advance.
 
Zodiac

Zodiac

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Is it going to be hooked up to a home theater receiver / TV? If so just use something like an Amazon Fire with XBMC or plex / Roku or whatever and stream from your PC using your TV as the interface.
 
K

Krozman

N00b
99
-2
Zodiac_sl said:
Is it going to be hooked up to a home theater receiver / TV? If so just use something like an Amazon Fire with XBMC or plex / Roku or whatever and stream from your PC using your TV as the interface.
Click to expand...
Negative. The TV and the uber 7.1 system is all downstairs where movie theatres should be. This is merely an upstairs receiver and stereo speakers for listening to music that was previously used with the 300 changer. No TV on that floor at all. Computer is 45 feet away in another home office area. What I'm trying to avoid is setting up a simple cheap PC to sit there to manage it for me. Technically I could easily set up a PC or laptop that takes the same physical space as a 300 changer, but I don't want to have to keep a bright monitor, keyboard or mouse there because it sits in a very visible area in the living room and I have it all set up as a work of art (well, it blends in currently). Adding interface devices like a monitor is impossible. I thought about a slim laptop with a USB 1 TB external hard drive in the background, but man.....I can't be the only guy who wants to listen to music in this world anymore and doesn't want to have a shitty ipod be the interface.
 
K

Krozman

N00b
99
-2
Only other option I'm thinking of is moving the receiver into my home office and buying a higher end PC sound card with the correct outputs.

i.e.HT a built-in HI-FI Headphone Amplifier - Newegg.com

Only problem with that is that I want to be playing my PC games at the same time my wife wants to play music in the living room. Not sure that can be easily managed.
 
Lanx

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
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krozman_sl said:
Before you suggest just using a portable MP3 player and just using a 1/8" headphone jack converted to a stereo input directly into the receiver, the sound quality is complete shit doing it that way. Don't be that guy please. I want something that, after I go through the process of uploading everything, allows me to have a good audio experience.

Bonus points if you find a unit that can wirelessly connect to my PC so I can manage it from here, but not 100% essential.

Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
Amazon.com: Belkin SongStream Bluetooth HD Music Receiver: MP3 Players Accessories

it has a toslink, and other "real" connections to your hifi, whatever.

it streams music through BT, so it's still a digital connection, no analogue shit.

so yea, buy an ipod, use that belkin thing to piggyback with a digital connection.

otherwise i think you're gonna have to find something exotic.
 
R

Running Dog_sl

shitlord
1,199
3
krozman_sl said:
... I've had a really hard time finding any product that isn't $3,000 that even fits the description. It doesn't have to be that terribly nice. It just has to have a 250+ GB hard drive, and a simple enough user interface like any portable MP3 player with the appropriate sound outputs into a nice receiver I own.

Before you suggest just using a portable MP3 player and just using a 1/8" headphone jack converted to a stereo input directly into the receiver, the sound quality is complete shit doing it that way. Don't be that guy please. I want something that, after I go through the process of uploading everything, allows me to have a good audio experience.

Bonus points if you find a unit that can wirelessly connect to my PC so I can manage it from here, but not 100% essential.

Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
I don't think such an animal exists at that price range. There's something like this:

QED uPlay Stream review from the experts at whathifi.com

but it isn't exactly what you want and like the review says

...although it doesn't match the sound and build of more expensive music streamers, you'd have to double your spend (at least) for that luxury, though if you can stretch to something like, say, the Pioneer N-50 or the Marantz NA7004, we'd figure it would be worth it. At the moment, nothing masters the middle ground.
Click to expand...
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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Is getting a new receiver an option?

something like this:
Amazon.com: Yamaha RX-V675 7.2 Channel Network AV Receiver with Airplay: Electronics

Supports both Airplay for just streaming your ipod/ipad or from PC to the receiver, but also has USB ports if you want to plug in your ipod and go the wired route.

If you don't want to be tied into the Apple world, they also sell a wireless dongle that just lets you stream wirelessly from your PC or NAS to the receiver, without having to use airplay(it's shown towards the bottom of the Amazon page I linked above)
 
Melvin

Melvin

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I've been looking at doing something similar (I also want to use it as a backup drive on top of being an audio server) with a Raspberry Pi. The bad news is that I'm in the hospital for now and don't even have any of the good links for that project. The good news is that I'll have a couple weeks off of work to finally settle on which disto and finish setting up the software when I get home.
 
K

Krozman

N00b
99
-2
1. I love the idea of the wireless, except that every review I'm reading leads me to believe that the wireless connection is tenuous at best and will not be ideal music quality from my PC.
2. A new receiver may be something I look at if the price is low enough, but you're right about being tied to apple because apple can die a fiery death before I give them money.
3. My portable MP3 player is the Cowon S9, and while it's the superior portable device, it's completely inadequate as a large scale music HiFi player for the living room.

Great ideas though. When I can find a couple hours later today i'll do some searches for receivers that have expanded wireless capabilities.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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To be honest, I wouldn't worry about wireless connection/bandwidth issues with mp3s. You won't see any quality loss, your wireless connection would have to be unusually bad for that to become a factor. Even with the high quality 320kbps MP3s, the files are still so small that theres no issues streaming with any modern hardware at all.

Now if you actually want high-quality audio and deal in nothing but .flac files, then you might run into bandwidth issues on a sub-par connection, but even those files are fairly small by todays standards. If your wireless can stream standard-def video, you can stream high-quality audio no problem.
 
Srathor

Srathor

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I think a Boxee Box has quality audio out, a Tv interface and can wirelessly stream music no problem, I have one for my Mom hooked up through a powerline connection for HD and no impact on wireless bandwidth and it works wonderfully for that, I have not tried music but I am sure it would be fine as well.
 
Zodiac

Zodiac

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Tons of A/V receivers have Wi-fi / network streaming capabilities but most assume that you have a TV to use the interface.
 
K

Krozman

N00b
99
-2
Zodiac_sl said:
Tons of A/V receivers have Wi-fi / network streaming capabilities but most assume that you have a TV to use the interface.
Click to expand...
If it's networked with the PC, isn't there a PC application that you use on the PC that directs the output of the receiver though? It's an assumption I'm making on the receiver route so if I'm wrong please correct me.
 
Zodiac

Zodiac

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On all the ones I've seen you don't control from your computer but rather the receiver with a TV interface. Some of the higher end ones allow you to control some things from a iphone or ipad but you would have to research each model receiver to see if it will allow you to browse the network for your shared files and start playback with a mobile device.
 
K

Krozman

N00b
99
-2
Zodiac_sl said:
On all the ones I've seen you don't control from your computer but rather the receiver with a TV interface. Some of the higher end ones allow you to control some things from a iphone or ipad but you would have to research each model receiver to see if it will allow you to browse the network for your shared files and start playback with a mobile device.
Click to expand...
yikes, ok, thanks for the heads up. Before a purchase i'll talk with the techs in the know hopefully and make sure I'm doing the right thing.
 
Void

Void

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My Yamaha with the same functionality uses the TV interface as well. I think pretty much all of them will, because that's what everyone does with their receivers nowadays. Gone are the days of just hooking it up to a CD/tape/record player and some speakers.

Technically a little bit of it displays on the digital display on the receiver, but nowhere near enough to actually be useful for what you want.

However, if you want to be a little convoluted, you might be able to install PLEX on your computer, then put PLEX on a cheap tablet that sits near the receiver and connects via HDMI, and do it that way. You can tell PLEX what quality to output at, so you should be able to make it whatever fits your needs. It would wirelessly stream to the tablet, which would then output to the receiver, and you'd have full control via the tablet's interface as well.

An idea at least. Might be worth considering if you have a spare tablet laying around and don't mind it being connected. Buy yourself a dock that holds the tablet upright and keeps it charged, and also has an HDMI output, and you could just put it on a playlist or random and dim the screen, so it shouldn't be too annoying.

EDIT: That's assuming your current receiver has an HDMI input available. If not, you'd be stuck with the aux/headphone jack again, which you don't want.
 
Lusiphur

Lusiphur

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What he wants here is a small footprint server with Plex on it. Plex can be controlled from any Web browser that can access the local network so your phone, tablet or computer in any room can be the controller.
Personally I have an HP Home Server sitting under a pile of shit in a back room that has never had a screen etc attached to it since first install of the OS.
It cost me less than 400 bucks and I use it for all my media.
Management of the server is done using any Ssh client on the main page or, if you go Windows, RDP.
 
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