I seem to have accumulated rather too many portable amps and am wanting to get a bedside rig together. But I also have 700+ cd's that still need ripping, so I thought I could rip them to an external hard drive. But how to play them?
 
I have a Fiio X5 which is rumoured to be able to utilise a hard drive in a future software update, but I have little patience and need something now! My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will drive a HDD, but I can then only connect an amp via the headphone out. Given that I will be using the phone as a phone shortly, I was looking for something as a more permanent fixture at my bedside.
 
Any ideas? Thanks.

johnfy said:

  I seem to have accumulated rather too many portable amps and am wanting to get a bedside rig together. But I also have 700+ cd's that still need ripping, so I thought I could rip them to an external hard drive. But how to play them?
 
I have a Fiio X5 which is rumoured to be able to utilise a hard drive in a future software update, but I have little patience and need something now! My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will drive a HDD, but I can then only connect an amp via the headphone out. Given that I will be using the phone as a phone shortly, I was looking for something as a more permanent fixture at my bedside.
 
Any ideas? Thanks.

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As you have the X5, i'm guessing the best you can do is to get Micro-SDHC memory cards.
I'm guessing there are no DAPs that can drive an external add-on hard drive. I'm guessing the external hard drive is too much of a power drain on a DAP's battery.

johnfy said:

  I seem to have accumulated rather too many portable amps and am wanting to get a bedside rig together. But I also have 700+ cd's that still need ripping, so I thought I could rip them to an external hard drive. But how to play them?
 
I have a Fiio X5 which is rumoured to be able to utilise a hard drive in a future software update, but I have little patience and need something now! My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will drive a HDD, but I can then only connect an amp via the headphone out. Given that I will be using the phone as a phone shortly, I was looking for something as a more permanent fixture at my bedside.
 
Any ideas? Thanks.

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The best option that I know of is the Ibasso DX50 with a 128gb thumb drive, so along with the microSDHC in it, you potentially have just under 256gb.
 

 
That said, considering you need it for a bedside rig and you already have the Fiio X5 that has two microSDHC slots, why use a DAP to power a hard drive? Why not just get a desktop music server that can remain plugged in and have many more options for hooking up a harddrive to it?
 
Thie Cocktail Audio X10 has its own CD transport, but also has an internal HDD (depends on the daler you buy it from what they include in it, or you install it yourself). Also a lot cheaper than the Olive servers, and it has its own speaker amp that I've heard driving low sensitivity Duevel Planets. You can also set it up to integrate with your home network if you get the WiFi dongle (local dealer here has a package for that, including a 2tb drive and Castle mini monitors), and an Android or iOS device as a remote control. Navigation is easy enough through its own screen and remote, provided you're close enough, so that's not really necessary unless you're using this with a speaker system. Pair this with a good DAC-HPamp combo and you're good to go.

 
I haven't used the Aune S1 as no one over here ordered it yet, but I'm guessing it won't be as user-friendly as the X10, as it has buttons for navigation and only hooks up to your home network using a LAN cable (no word if a generic USB WiFi dongle works). No internal drives but it can take HDDs through those USB ports, plus an SD card. No internal speaker amp either but it has a premium DAC circuit built around an AKM4396.

 
 
Here's a couple more mainstream music servers, not much more expensive than the S1 and likely just as user-friendly as the X10, although they use full-size chassis (the Marantz uses the same chassis as the CD600x CDP).

 

 
 
 
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If you want to go really cheap, you'll have to work for it - you can get an Android miniPC that has an optical output and USB-A ports + WLAN for your HDDs and NAS, then set it up as a headless audio server (Google that, there are some tutorials on it online) where you only need a display for initial set-up, afterwards your Android device can work as a remote for it. Initially this was done with an iPod Touch and a Mac Mini, but now you can do this on Android.

I'm pretty sure you can buy external USB hard drive that have external power supplies. That should probably work well with a DX50. Ask in the DX50 thread: http://www.head-fi.org/t/679473/the-ibasso-dx50-thread-latest-firmware-1-5-0

Alternatively, why not setup a NAS and then you could wirelessly stream your media files to your Note 3? Or a DLNA server with your PC? That would be nice because then you could access your media files with a variety of network devices. Try this thread to get you started: http://www.avforums.com/threads/what-nas-for-streaming-music-video-to-android-phones-and-tablets.1831771/

Hey guys,
 
Thanks for that. The DX 50, or any DAP really, which is limited to just 256GB's is probably not going to better than what I have currently, as you say. The Audio X10 does sound like an option though. A good one at that given the price. I will go away and research. Any idea if I could connect an amp to it, given that they say the sound out of the X10 isn't the best? Sorry, I am being lazy; I will research that myself.
 
Yes, there must be portable hard drives that use external power to work with the DX 50. I will pose that question in the forum.
 
Having said that, the X10 really could be the solution as it has an internal hard drive (albeit limited to 1tb, whereas you can get 2tb portable drives), and if it would take an amp (which I already have), it would make a simple one purchase bedside rig. Whereas a separate portable hard drive would still require me to buy a DAP as well, but at least I know that I could use one of my amps. Decisions!
 
Again, thanks for your help and suggestions.

johnfy said:

  Having said that, the X10 really could be the solution as it has an internal hard drive (albeit limited to 1tb, whereas you can get 2tb portable drives)...

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That depends on which dealer you get it from - some dealers include 500gb, 1TB, or 2TB. The dealer here packs a 1TB drive in it, but it comes in a $600 package with Castle mini-monitors. I can buy the  X10 on its own and put a 2TB in there, although that comes out at the same price. It makes more sense to sell off or trade the speakers for the 2TB, then use the 1TB in an enclosure to back up my photos and documents.
 
In any case they told me that if you can put a PC gaming rig together, you can easily swap out the HDD on this one. They just don't tell customers it's like swapping out an HDD because it isn't anything like a hot-swap drive that you see on cases like Lian Li for example, which people using such a miniITX case for their HTPC-gaming rig might assume (and over here stores assemble stuff for people with only minimal fees for the tech's work, so there actually are a lot of desktop PC owners here who use assembled PCs that they didn't build themselves).
 
 

johnfy said:

  Any idea if I could connect an amp to it, given that they say the sound out of the X10 isn't the best? Sorry, I am being lazy; I will research that myself.

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There are outputs through 3.5mm analog, digital (can't remember if it's coax or toslink), and even speaker binding posts in the back. I've heard it driving Duevel Planets, which are low sensitivity speakers, and they totally did not suck. Of course, there was room for improvement when I hooked up my Meier Cantate.2 to it driving an HD600 though the SQ was somewhat behind the neutral, transparent USB DAC on that amp (I had my Android hooked up and I can switch easily), lacked bass energy and PRAT vs the Cantate's USB input (which doesn't overdo it, unlike some DACs and CDPs). So while its speaker amp was no slouch, if I did buy one, I'd very likely use a DAC-HPamp with it, but one with DAC or Preamp outputs so I can hook up a speaker amp if I needed to add speakers.