Sonos, DAC's, NAS, etc

[BWLover]

Hi everyone. I've got a few (more) questions about computer based audio. I plan on buying Rotel's new DAC. What would be the best way of playing computer based audio through this DAC. I've heard a lot of people talking about Sonos and NAS. How would that all be set up? Let's say I have an external hard drive with all my music on it, uncompressed WAV or AIFF, or flac or something. Audio performance being top priority. I'd like to be able to control my library with my iPhone. Thanks in advance for your help!


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[Chris D]

BW, think of Sonos as wireless audio speakers. You could play any source on a Sonos network, just as you could play any source in a wired home theater. Something that Sonos adds is Apple Airplay, where you can wirelessly put your iPhone on the network, and play songs off it. That may be what you're thinking of.

So unless you need new speakers (particularly wireless) you probably don't need Sonos. It sounds like you're wanting to put the DAC in your media room equipment rack, and then wire connect it to your computer, a NAS, and/or server. If this is the case, I'll let the other fellas here talk about how best to do that. FWIW, I use a Drobo for a NAS on my network. Whole home system controlled by URC remotes, to include iPhone/iPad control. I have a high end DAC made by Parasound (for nowhere near a high end price) but don't have a stored digital library going through it yet.

[BWLover]

Thanks for the info. Can a NAS be just a hard drive connected to the DAC? Part of the reason I'd like the Sonos (or something like it) is so that my computer doesn't have to be in the same room as my stereo. Reason being I don't want to hear the fan noise. Another thing I'd like is to be able to control my digital library via my iPhone. Would I be able to do that if my computer was hooked up to the DAC via USB, or a hard drive connected to the DAC?


Bowers & Wilkins 683S1 Speakers
Rotel RB-1090 2 Channel Amp
Rotel RC-1082 Stereo Pre Amp
Rotel RCD-1072 CD Player
Pro-Ject Debut Carbon w/ Ortofon 2M Red (sitting on a piece of slate supported by 3 "solid tech feet of silence" isolation feet)
Rotel RLC-1040 Power Conditioner
Shynyata Research SR-Z1 Power Outlet & Venom 3 Power Cords x 4
Tara Labs RSC Vector 1 Speaker Cables & Interconnects
Primacoustic Room Treatments

[donkimizer]

As you may or may not know, NAS stands for Network Attached Storage. That means that your storage device is connected to network only via ethernet cable. That also means that device which will reproduce it has in some way (wired or wireless) be connected to your LAN in order to have access to a file which you want to reproduce.
Now, since you actually own iPhone, simplest way to reproduce music would probably be to add a player with airplay support to your current setup. I have no idea how to sharing music from storage and airplay works and how to set it up for iphone, but for normal PC its relatively easy to share a folder so everyone on network can see it and use it.

For example, I own Panasonic VT50, Popcorn Hour, Denon 1713 AVR and B&W 683 as mains. All three plus my NAS are wired to gigabit network via switch, and as long as my android phone is on wifi, I can use downloaded remote control apps to use any of those to reproduce files from NAS or Popcorn (which also has HDD so basically behaves like second NAS). I could also share folders from my computer if i wanted to. It could be more elegant though.

[aud19]

Yeah, as donkimizer pointed out, a NAS is basically a network accessible hard drives or collection of drives (though they can certainly also do other things).

If you're going to build or buy one it will largely just store your media and make it accessible to your home network and any devices capable of playing that media.

From there you'll need a device (computer, "smart" TV, dedicated media player etc) to actually playback the music and send that audio output to your music system. There's literally a WORLD of devices and software to do that so I think we'd need more information if you're hoping we can help narrow it down.

Starting with likely what digital audio format do you plan to save your music collection in? Do you also plan on watching video? If so, would you be more inclined to stream (Netflix, Vudu, Amazon etc) or to watch local files off of your NAS (ripped BluRays etc) or both?

[BWLover]

Yeah, as donkimizer pointed out, a NAS is basically a network accessible hard drives or collection of drives (though they can certainly also do other things).

If you're going to build or buy one it will largely just store your media and make it accessible to your home network and any devices capable of playing that media.

From there you'll need a device (computer, "smart" TV, dedicated media player etc) to actually playback the music and send that audio output to your music system. There's literally a WORLD of devices and software to do that so I think we'd need more information if you're hoping we can help narrow it down.

Starting with likely what digital audio format do you plan to save your music collection in? Do you also plan on watching video? If so, would you be more inclined to stream (Netflix, Vudu, Amazon etc) or to watch local files off of your NAS (ripped BluRays etc) or both?

Either in WAV or AIFF. To date I've always had my video and audio together in one room. Usually the living room. But I now have a 11 month old baby boy. So the stereo will go into its own (locked) room for strictly 2 channel audio, and the TV up on the living room wall out of reach. So ya to answer your question, I'm only interested in being able to play audio off a hard drive of some sort with my iPhone controlling the media. Thanks for all your help!


Bowers & Wilkins 683S1 Speakers
Rotel RB-1090 2 Channel Amp
Rotel RC-1082 Stereo Pre Amp
Rotel RCD-1072 CD Player
Pro-Ject Debut Carbon w/ Ortofon 2M Red (sitting on a piece of slate supported by 3 "solid tech feet of silence" isolation feet)
Rotel RLC-1040 Power Conditioner
Shynyata Research SR-Z1 Power Outlet & Venom 3 Power Cords x 4
Tara Labs RSC Vector 1 Speaker Cables & Interconnects
Primacoustic Room Treatments

[aud19]

Well then I would imagine an Apple product is probably your best bet (as much as I loath them/itunes :lol: ) as your player. If I were you I'd even look at an Apple computer of some variety with a USB DAC (which likely means no need for a Rotel DAC) but I'd imagine some of the guys running Apple products would be able to give better advice then.

[BWLover]

Sonos, DAC's, NAS, etc

Why is the Mac Mini so popular among audiophiles?


Bowers & Wilkins 683S1 Speakers
Rotel RB-1090 2 Channel Amp
Rotel RC-1082 Stereo Pre Amp
Rotel RCD-1072 CD Player
Pro-Ject Debut Carbon w/ Ortofon 2M Red (sitting on a piece of slate supported by 3 "solid tech feet of silence" isolation feet)
Rotel RLC-1040 Power Conditioner
Shynyata Research SR-Z1 Power Outlet & Venom 3 Power Cords x 4
Tara Labs RSC Vector 1 Speaker Cables & Interconnects
Primacoustic Room Treatments

[mjb]

Well, there's size...





And, it looks nice...

[gmckay]

Here is a typical digital audio topology for streaming audio:


A NAS will essentially be your storage device, accessible through a number of streaming media devices, be it a Sonos , BlueSound, Mac Mini, PC etc. Any of these streaming devices can be attached to your Rotel DAC and connected via optical or USB.

My setup is a Qnap NAS which stores my local audio library. A Bluesound NODE (Streaming media player) which can access my local library via ethernet or wifi , and controlled by iPhone, Mac or PC. The Bluesound is then connected via optical out to DAC, or direct analog out to my integrated amp.

The Bluesound device has up to 24/192 PCM out, and has access to a number of streaming services such as Tidal, Spotify, Deezer etc.