[LarryNYC]

Hello, 
 
  Could people give me some recommendations for a high quality DAP that has a line out that I can use with my two channel rig? I thought about the Sony ZX2 , looks like a great portable player, but no line out as far as I now. What about some of the AK models? 

  I have a full two channel stereo system with a prep that has balanced and single ended inputs as well as an Accuphase CD player that has an input for its DAC, should I use that? I believe the Accuphase has a Toslink input.

  I need to finally get a handle on my hundreds of CDs that don't get played because they're in a drawer. It would be cool to have a great portable solution for all my CDs and one I can use with my home stereo, which I listen to a lot. 
 
 
  Thanks,
 
  Larry 

 

[ProtegeManiac]

 
  Could people give me some recommendations for a high quality DAP that has a line out that I can use with my two channel rig? I thought about the Sony ZX2 , looks like a great portable player, but no line out as far as I now. What about some of the AK models? 

  I have a full two channel stereo system with a prep that has balanced and single ended inputs as well as an Accuphase CD player that has an input for its DAC, should I use that? I believe the Accuphase has a Toslink input.

  I need to finally get a handle on my hundreds of CDs that don't get played because they're in a drawer. It would be cool to have a great portable solution for all my CDs and one I can use with m home stereo, which I listen to a lot. 

 
Fiio X7 or X5III, and get the DK1 dock.
http://store.treoo.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1200x/3fa7a729f8b04aac82dd2b0c4100b1f4/f/i/fiio_dk1_4.jpg
http://www.head-fi.org/content/type/61/id/1656500/

 

[LarryNYC]

  Thanks for the recommendation. I'll read up on that model.

  I'm thinking of ripping everything to FLAC. Does that change things at all? I probably have 500-700 CDs to rip. I hope I can fit them all on whatever memory the player has plus a 200GB SD card. 
 
 Thoughts?
 
  Larry

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I'm thinking of ripping everything to FLAC. Does that change things at all? I probably have 500-700 CDs to rip. I hope I can fit them all on whatever memory the player has plus a 200GB SD card. 
 
 Thoughts?

 
Not really, FLAC is lossless, it just makes a smaller file than a WAV off a CD. 
 
As for storage, that might be enough for 700 CDs. At the highest compression* ratio FLACs would be 1/3 to 1/4 of a CD, so assume roughly 250mb per disc, roughly 140gb, plus another 700mb or so for album art. AFAIK both of those players have dual microSD slots so you can just use two of them.
 
 
*It won't sacrifice SQ, but it will take a bit longer to rip, especially with anything less than an i5 quad core or i7 mobile dual core. If you're using an Ultrabook on a Core M or Core Y processor and external optical drive working off USB 2.0 it will be even slower, but at the very least set it the power settings to Performance so the M/Y CPU will use up its turbo boost a lot more. 

 

[LarryNYC]

I know this will sound funny but I think the X7 is too cheap. I was expecting to spend up to a grand.

I like the dual sd card feature so what other DAPs suppport two cards?

I'll be upgrading my Etymotic ER-4P IEMs to their new ER4SR model, if that matters in terms of which DAP would do a good job of driving the phones.

I have an iMac 5k. I maxed it out at the end of last year, but I forget the processor. I'll look it up. It must be the i7 processor.

How do I get through ripping all these CDs without giving up hope? Will my little Apple CD player hold up? I want something with a spindle, LOL, so I can stack up twenty at a time. I know there are services that will do it but that is an extra cost.

 

[Beyakusenn]

How about the combination of Chord Mojo + Poly? Here is the Head-fi video with it's introduction: https://youtu.be/vT5tuMJ-DRs?t=8m35s

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I have an iMac 5k. I maxed it out at the end of last year, but I forget the processor. I'll look it up. It must be the i7 processor.

 

No need to look it up, that should do fine, although that might have the dual core i7. It won't be as fast as a custom PC running something like an i7-6900K octacore (that people usually pair with either an NVidia Quadro for purely pro rendering or dual GTX-(-)80 series graphics cards for those who will play on it as well), but the ripping work isn't exactly going to cost you time and money (or gaming frustration), so that machine's fine. Chances are you probably have not used such a PC anyway to know first hand how that kind of hardware gets these things done faster either.
 

How do I get through ripping all these CDs without giving up hope? Will my little Apple CD player hold up? I want something with a spindle, LOL, so I can stack up twenty at a time. I know there are services that will do it but that is an extra cost.

 

Well you don't have much of a choice. I don't know how a spindle helps here as all that does is change how you feed CDs into the machine for ripping or how many you can stack on the table without opening the cases one by one.

 

Note also that you shouldn't use iTunes for this as it has a very different organizational logic not to mention that some non-mainstream players have trouble with ALAC.
 

I know this will sound funny but I think the X7 is too cheap. I was expecting to spend up to a grand.

I like the dual sd card feature so what other DAPs suppport two cards?

 

Astel & Kern AK380 sounds like what you want - costs as much as an iMac so you really know it should sound the best, has two slots, but its ecosystem design isn't exactly as good as Fiio's, which has the K5 headphone amp that has a docking slot on top for their players as well as the DK1 dock (and a few other accessories). 
 
------

 

All that said, I'm kind of getting the idea that maybe you shouldn't get a player like any of these. They don't work in any way like iDevices synced to iTunes, and require a lot of manual checks on the tagging even though some apps can cross reference online. For example, at minimum you'd have to edit out something in the track tags, like the year the album was released, or have multi-disc albums get the same title with no "Disc 0x" suffix and then manually change the track numbers on the succeeding discs so everything plays as one album.

 

You probably should just use Spotify or Tidal on the go and then set up a MacMini music server.

 

[LarryNYC]

I make my living with the iMac 5k which is why I can justify spending that much on a computer.

I can't quite justify spending that much on a DAP but I'm willing to go to perhaps $1500 depending on the features. I do want to get a handle on all these CDs and I guess I'll just deal having to do some manual entry.

The 380 is $3500, LOL. That's to much. What about the 300 or 320? 240? Why no dual cards on those models?

It would be cool to not have to feed disks one at a time, it is just tedious work but I guess I will have to.

I'm just looking for more options, that's all.

 

[LarryNYC]

How about the combination of Chord Mojo + Poly? Here is the Head-fi video with it's introduction: https://youtu.be/vT5tuMJ-DRs?t=8m35s

That's intriguing, and I love the concept, but there is no line out, is there?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I make my living with the iMac 5k which is why I can justify spending that much on a computer.

 

I'm more of a custom PC dual-boot Hackintosh-Windows kind of guy when it comes to that though, especially now with those desktop virtualizer software allowing a single CPU to run two operating systems and running different graphics cards simultaneously on each (AMD FirePro on OSX since drivers are available, plus an RX 480 for gaming on the Windows boot), as I can design a cooling system that, if properly maintained, will make the components last longer. That would be a PITA to other people though as I would mount a gigantic cooling tower on the CPU and on the GPUs, effectively eating up a lot of space in the case (and will require a wider case to fit 2x120mm fans on the GPU coolers) or install a water cooling system that would need to be flushed every few months otherwise I'd get algae.
 

I can't quite justify spending that much on a DAP but I'm willing to go to perhaps $1500 depending on the features.

 

As you go up the ladder on DAPs chances are connectivity is the only thing that piles on, ie, some have WiFi so you can even tether to a phone and use streaming services on the go.
 

I do want to get a handle on all these CDs and I guess I'll just deal having to do some manual entry.

 

Well you could buy the digital copies, including 24/96. Question is if they're available anywhere, like on HDTracks.
 

The 380 is $3500, LOL. That's to much. What about the 300 or 320? 240? Why no dual cards on those models?

 

Older models? Double check, AFAIK only the 100II and 120II have single slots.

 

Also I mentioned the AK380 because you seem to base performance on price alone. In reality though the X7 has potentially more performance than even the AK380 sans the amplifier dock module since it has swappable amplifier modules - a zero amp for purely line out use (as on the DK1 dock); a low power, long battery life module; a high power module; and even a lower noise, higher current balanced drive module. The AK380 has balanced drive too but without using the external amplifier module that makes it bulky as hell, it can't match the output on the X7 modules.

 

It would be cool to not have to feed disks one at a time, it is just tedious work but I guess I will have to

 

Well, you only need to do it once, unless you lose the back up files.
 

I'm just looking for more options, that's all.

 

I really suggest you look into just using a MacMini music server (and even have it work Headless with an iPhone as interface), and then an iPhone using streaming services. We have enough Apple users enthusiastically buying devices specifically designed to not work like iTunes and Apple devices only to come back and type out a rant that goes along the lines of,

 

"I FOOKING HATE THIS PIECE OF SCHIIT IT CAN'T FIX EVERYTHING ON ITS OWN LIKE ITUNES DOES WHY DO I HAVE TO DO MANUAL TAGS WHAT THE HELL ARE FOLDERS DOESN'T THIS JUST AUTOMATICALLY SYNC LIBRARIES WHY DO YOU ALL WANT DRAG AND DROP OHHHHHH MY GOOOOOOOOOOD THIS IS NOT WHAT STEVE JOBS INTENDED!!! I'M RETURNING THIS PIECE OF SCHIIT LIKE RIGHT NOW BUT I ALSO WANT TO JUST PUT DYNAMITE ON IT AND BLOW IT UP GRRRRRRRRRR!!!"

That's a funny way of putting it but I have seen some that are kind of like that. Just probably not in all caps and with more complete sentences as opposed to a total stream of consciousness rant. Point is though if ripping CDs and fixing tags seem daunting to you now, well, just know that the above has happened. Quite often in fact that now I always warn Apple users about it as they really work differently. Conversely, I was gifted an iPad, and I've never wanted to tear my hair out over software as when I had to deal with iTunes. Android/Linux/Windows and Apple users are inherently running on a different OS in their brains even before they pick either system, hence why they gravitate to either, and either group has people coming close to balding just by dealing with the other's file management style.

 

[Beyakusenn]

That's intriguing, and I love the concept, but there is no line out, is there?

There is a line out. By holding down both volume buttons when turning on the device, the headphone-out turns into a line-out.

 

[LarryNYC]

As Hemingway wrote: "Time is the least thing we have of."
 
I do appreciate you taking the time to write up that reply. I don't have time to devote to putting together the perfect digital music rig or to building custom computers not that those things are not valid uses of time. Everything is valid. I write software for a living. When I'm not doing that, I study the classical guitar. There are no SD cards in the thing, and no worries about obsolescence. 
 
I'm not looking to get into a religious debate about Apple versus anything else. I've used many different types of computers over the years, starting with a PDP-11 and DecWriter terminals, paper output, programming in LISP. All computers are flawed, LOL. I'm intrigued by the new Surface Studio with its 28" display, mainly because of the huge touchscreen, and because of StaffPad, which is the most amazing musical input software I have ever used. StaffPad turns my music scrawl into beautiful notation and plays it back to me. I run StaffPad on a little Surface Pro 4 and it's great.
 
I did look through the X7 system and it does seem intriguing, with all of its different add-on modules and docking station, but the 32GB base memory and one card slot seems like a non-starter to me. I'll never get around to swapping SD cards, and I'll probably lose the second card, LOL. Most of the newer AK models have only one slot and 128GB base, which has people complaining to no end. 
 
The AK240 has 256GB of memory and one slot and I can run a balanced line out to my preamplifier but it's a pretty fragile connection so I worry about that. The new 300 series have a better docking station but back to 128GB memory and one slot on all the models. Just leave off the 380, I'm not dropping three grand, LOL, but even that thing is 256GB with one slot!
 
No, I don't base performance on price alone but there is a correlation between price and performance. There must be some other solutions besides the X7 or AK models for $1500 or less. I loved the Chord MojoPoly setup because you can use your phone's screen for everything but no line out, wireless streaming only, AFAIK. I spent years putting together my two channel system at home snd I prefer it to any headphones. But, when I travel, it would be nice to have an excellent DAP with all my music to take along.
 
Has Sony not built a decent offering in this category that gives me what I want? No, I don't want the gold one.
 
It seems simple. 
 
I want a DAP with two card slots which has line out for my stereo. I don't want to build a music server on a Mac Mini. The fewer servers I have to maintain, the better. I want a portable rig with all of my music but I want it to effortlessly plug into my two channel system at home. 

P.S. Steve Jobs ripped off Alan Kay and his brilliant work at Xerox PARC when he was shown a demo of Alan's Smalltalk-based windowing system. Of course, Steve did not understand the software behind the windowing system so he just ripped off the windowing system. Steve admitted as much in a New York Times article a few years ago. I've never been that big a fan of Steve Jobs but he did lead Apple in building some beautiful computers, even if you do hate them, haha! 

 

[Beyakusenn]

 
No, I don't base performance on price alone but there is a correlation between price and performance. There must be some other solutions besides the X7 or AK models for $1500 or less. I loved the Chord MojoPoly setup because you can use your phone's screen for everything but no line out, wireless streaming only, AFAIK. I spent years putting together my two channel system at home snd I prefer it to any headphones. But, when I travel, it would be nice to have an excellent DAP with all my music to take along.

The Mojo can also be connected with USB and the Poly has space for a micro-SD card, so you can play your own music library through it. And as I said in my previous comment, line-out is possible.

 

[LarryNYC]

  There is a line out. By holding down both volume buttons when turning on the device, the headphone-out turns into a line-out.

Thanks, I missed that feature in the manual! Can you buy the thing yet? I see availability in April 2017.
 
I'll do some more research on it. Too bad it also has only one SD slot, and I see no mention of base memory, so, does that mean no base memory for music?

 

[Beyakusenn]

 
Thanks, I missed that feature in the manual! Can you buy the thing yet? I see availability in April 2017.
 
I'll do some more research on it. Too bad it also has only one SD slot, and I see no mention of base memory, so, does that mean no base memory for music?

It will indeed be available early next month. Only a few HiFi shops will have it, so if you are quite sure you want to buy it, you can have a look at the site of Chord Electronics which shops have their products and call them in advance, so they can have it ready in their shop.
 
It doesn't have base memory, but besides the SD card slot, it can also use all the music stored on your phone (base memory + expansion).