[Les Strat]

My earlier sense of getting back into vinyl was in no small part driven by a visit to the Boise Record Store a while back where a whole lifetime of memories came flooding back from my more youthful days. That, and the general notion that it would be just a cool experience to introduce my young grandchildren, who have only known Spotify, to the strange discs that you have to take out of a sleeve and put them on a machine that spins them around....

Of course, I won't deny the seductive draw of the equipment itself, especially the Sol, but I can see it is the prospect of starting out from zero that has become the kicker here, which while in no way represents a rejection of the value of vinyl, simply succumbs to practicality. I'll be retired for God's sake, and I still have to pay the yacht crew!

this has been a fun conversation!

Getting back into vinyl was a tempting proposition for me, as it is the way I discovered music. I spent all my spare cash in the '70s on albums when I was a teenager..
I recently spent some time at a friend's house who has a huge vinyl collection.
It was great to hear some classic albums on vinyl for the first time in over 20 years.
This wasn't a 'high end' vinyl system, but it sounded really good and although not 'better' than digital, it was a hugely enjoyable experience.
I've committed to digital now.
The end of an era!

 

[Les Strat]

Sadly the Gen 3 Apple TV


Personally I am suspicious of streaming services as a sole source of music. You don't know what going to happen to them, or how long they'll stay in business, or what will happen to the subscription fees. Yes, there's multiple choices out there, but if yours goes under its not as easy as switching to another - whatever time you've spent meticulously curating your playlists is gone, and not all services have the same music.

And if you retire somewhere with poor internet, you have a whole other set of problems.

Physical music you have on hand won't vanish into the cloud. CDs on the shelf will just sit there waiting for you to play them. Same with LPs. Same with music you've ripped to a local hard drive - provided you are meticulous and paranoid about backups.

Getting back into vinyl seems attractive, but none of the downsides have changed. They take up a lot of room, they're sensitive to proper storage, they wear out, and so does the player tech. Worse, they are now MORE expensive than CDs.

I would go for a blended approach. CDs are now where albums used to be - a sunset technology available for pennies on the dollar. They provide the joy of discovery when browsing through flea markets etc. the same way albums used to. Add to it a streaming service of your choice for new music discovery and convenience, Spotify is best for that or pick a lossless service if your nervosa or classical preferences demands. And rip what you like to a hard drive for good measure

Then get the Yggdrasil. It works with all of those.

It's good to have choices.

Good luck!
.

What a great post valiant66! I agree with everything you've said.

 

[David Aldrich]

So an Apple Mac mini would serve as the Roon core and in your model, you would also have it feed the DAC via USB; I thought the core and endpoint had to be separate units largely because the Mac can be electronically noisy?

A Mac Mini won't really be any worse than a high end streamer. Unless you buy into all the esoterically priced marketing.

I've run a Mac Mini (multiple generations) as Roon Servers with directly attached DACs and it works great.

 

[433521]

If you're into classical music, there might be space for recording small, live concerts where you can get permission (musicians have contracts, be careful and respect that). There's a plethora of live rock recordings that are decent, not sure if classical can be done in the same way (with permission, in other words). But if the musicians are game, creating new recordings sounds like more fun than lps, and can involve the loved ones too!

 

[438555]

So an Apple Mac mini would serve as the Roon core and in your model, you would also have it feed the DAC via USB; I thought the core and endpoint had to be separate units largely because the Mac can be electronically noisy?

I mean you could get a separate endpoint with BNC or AES output, but with the Gen5 or higher USB, putting the core right on the DAC is fine.

 

[Balthazar B]

For a Roon server, I tried existing Macs and Windows systems and was dissatisfied. I ended up with an Intel NUC, loaded ROCK onto it (not as trivial a task as it should be) and have been happy ever since. Less than the cost of a Mac mini and a really solid server.

On ripping to Flac, I used EAC and MP3tag to get to where I wanted to be, stored them on a NAS and these are backup up systematically to Backblaze's cloud storage.

Interesting approach using a NUC. Roon has a nice overview of that solution here. Arguably, with the possible exception of an OOTB Roon Core Server, this would be the optimal way to go.

 

[KoshNaranek]

I don't know if came up your radar with all the news coming out, but we have just received the first piece of real good news so far in the pandemic. Remdesivir, a drug originally developed to treat Ebola, but did not work very well, has been shown to reduce Length of Stay in COVID-19. It has not been shown to improve survival overall but I can tell you from personal experience that it does appear to at least work as well as Oseltamivir does in Influenza. the effect of this is threefold:

1. Reduction in Length of Stay effectively gives us 25% more ICU beds and ventilators as people will, hopefully, not need them as long.
2. There should be a significant reduction in the number of heartbreaking cases of younger people dying as they will most likely benefit the most from this therapy.
3. A reduction in the stress level in health care providers, knowing that is is at least a therapy available if they get sick.

This DOES NOT mean that we can afford to slack off on sequestration. Since we have no herd immunity in this situation, the pandemic remains a disaster of biblical proportions. Additionally, there are only 170K doses available and Gilead is making plans to make millions of doses available by fall. This is by no means sufficient for everyone who needs a course to get one. I suspect that it will be necessary for Gilead to license their drug to other manufacturers to get the hundreds of millions of doses needed.

The above statements represent MY opinion and in no way represent my employer or the medical community at large.

Thank You

 

[Les Strat]

A Mac Mini won't really be any worse than a high end streamer. Unless you buy into all the esoterically priced marketing.

I've run a Mac Mini (multiple generations) as Roon Servers with directly attached DACs and it works great.

I was nearly taken in by the 'esoterically priced marketing' of high end streamers.
I am sure you are right about the MacMini.
I auditioned a couple of 'high end streamers', but certainly to my ears, they didn't sound any better than my 13 year old Logitech Transporter, hooked up to my Yggy using BNC.
I appreciate that Roon is probably the best music library management software available, but for my ripped CD library of about 1500 albums, and using Qobuz, LMS works brilliantly.

 

[shapeshifter44]

Trading ( some of) your vinyl for the Yggy was a brilliant strategy!
A turntable expert here in the UK told me that whilst he loves vinyl, many of the expensive, new releases sound terrible, and he buys used, mint originals instead, as they are far superior to the new pressings.
I really don't want to go down that path! Far too much hassle.
If you have ripped all your CDs, maybe, like me, you don't 'need' a CD transport. I don't currently play physical CDs, and have probably passed the point where I can justify even Mike Moffat's new transport when it does eventually become available
Many on this forum are big fans of Roon and from what I have read, it is excellent for managing libraries.
I have used LMS for over 12 years to manage my ripped CDs, and now, with the addition of the brilliant iPeng app and a Qobuz plug-in, I have instant access to all my ripped CDs and Qobuz library from my iPad.
It works brilliantly and although I was tempted with Roon, I now have no need for its additional complexity and ongoing expense thanks to the ingenuity of the iPeng and Qobuz app developers, which mean that LMS, has kept up with developments in streaming technology.
The thought of having to trawl through 1500 CDs, and get out of my chair, is less and less appealing!

I have ripped all my >2000 CDs but still I want a transport!

 

[macdonjh]

I keep a universal player for watching movies from NetFlix and listening to CDs to determine if they are worth ripping. I also have a small selection of DSD discs; I've ripped the two-channel Red Book layer, but someday I hope there's an easier way to rip the DSD three-channel layer than finding a Gen 1 Play Station and using some software from some random website.

 

[Les Strat]

I have ripped all my >2000 CDs but still I want a transport!

You are a bad influence!

 

[renault4]

As Yogi Berra once famously said, “when you come to a fork in the road, take it”

In anticipation of retirement, I have been working down the path of planning a two-channel speaker system, based mostly on Schiit products. I have reached the stage where I think I am settled on Maggie 1.7i, freya+ and Vidar monos, and this is where I hit the fork.

I have a moderate collection of CDs, about 500, mostly classical and a good Cambridge Audio transport, along with a Bifrost Multibit and a Valhalla 2. I have nothing left of my vinyl collection but fond memories.

Working to a budget cap I have worked out I could:

1. stick with CDs and upgrade my DAC to an Yggdrasil (probably drop from mono to stereo amp),
2. stay with my Bifrost, the CDs, and add a Sol/Mani to rekindle those old memories, or
3. retire all physical media and go digital with a streamer, like a Bluesound Node or better, and qobuz/tidal. Here I could squeeze in an Yggdrasil if I can sell my transport (truly burning my bridges!) as well as the Bifrost to help stay within budget.

If I had the resources, I would happily do all three and take pride in the sheer diversity of sources I would have managed to accrue—that truly would be doing a Yogi Berra!

But alas, I must and will choose, I’m curious as to what you would do?

By way of an update as well as acknowledgement of the thoughtful feedback:

With nearly 40 years of marriage under our belts, my lovely wife will readily admit that while she loves to listen to music, she is vastly less interested than am I in the particular means of delivery of said music. So the agreement we have struck as we prepare for retirement is for me to take the necessary steps to "get this out of my system" and yet stay within a particular budget we have set for this, or, to put it another way, go buy your darn speakers and amps, but don't come back looking for more stuff!

I’m good with this too, for surprisingly similar reasons; I want to be able to listen to music, using a good enough system so that I don’t have to dwell too much on further upgrades to the nature of the system past this set-up phase, or to put it another way, I want the system to be good enough to get out of the way of my desire to enjoy listening to music.

I can see the wry smiles out there; “bless his heart” as we say in the south, he's gonna be buying new stuff within months, but hey, one can dream!

So here’s where I’m at now:

Speakers, set; Maggie 1.7i--being ordered
Power Amp, set; Vidar stereo, will order when ready
Pre-amp, set, Freya + -- will order when ready
DAC, now set, Yggy GS, will order soon
Interconnects, Blue Jeans, but I have a lot of what I need already (including some speaker cables from Paladin79!)
Source, in hand; CD collection and CA transport

Rationale; I was headed for mono Vidars and I haven’t given up, but I think its reasonable to start out with one and get acquainted with the setup—once its all bedded in, I can work on selling the Bifrost, the proceeds of which I can put toward the second Vidar and by my calculations still stay under budget. I think the Yggy GS is a good compromise of budget and sets up a quality foundation for the long haul.

My initial research forays into the digital world of Roon cores and endpoints, Tidal and Qobuz, etc., pretty much demonstrated that it is a configuration quagmire that will quickly become a distraction from the core principle—enjoy the music! So I will take my time to rip my CDs and build the disc-based collection first while further exploring and having a little fun with trialing the different systems before making any commitments.

 

[Les Strat]

By way of an update as well as acknowledgement of the thoughtful feedback:

With nearly 40 years of marriage under our belts, my lovely wife will readily admit that while she loves to listen to music, she is vastly less interested than am I in the particular means of delivery of said music. So the agreement we have struck as we prepare for retirement is for me to take the necessary steps to "get this out of my system" and yet stay within a particular budget we have set for this, or, to put it another way, go buy your darn speakers and amps, but don't come back looking for more stuff!

I’m good with this too, for surprisingly similar reasons; I want to be able to listen to music, using a good enough system so that I don’t have to dwell too much on further upgrades to the nature of the system past this set-up phase, or to put it another way, I want the system to be good enough to get out of the way of my desire to enjoy listening to music.

I can see the wry smiles out there; “bless his heart” as we say in the south, he's gonna be buying new stuff within months, but hey, one can dream!

So here’s where I’m at now:

Speakers, set; Maggie 1.7i--being ordered
Power Amp, set; Vidar stereo, will order when ready
Pre-amp, set, Freya + -- will order when ready
DAC, now set, Yggy GS, will order soon
Interconnects, Blue Jeans, but I have a lot of what I need already (including some speaker cables from Paladin79!)
Source, in hand; CD collection and CA transport

Rationale; I was headed for mono Vidars and I haven’t given up, but I think its reasonable to start out with one and get acquainted with the setup—once its all bedded in, I can work on selling the Bifrost, the proceeds of which I can put toward the second Vidar and by my calculations still stay under budget. I think the Yggy GS is a good compromise of budget and sets up a quality foundation for the long haul.

My initial research forays into the digital world of Roon cores and endpoints, Tidal and Qobuz, etc., pretty much demonstrated that it is a configuration quagmire that will quickly become a distraction from the core principle—enjoy the music! So I will take my time to rip my CDs and build the disc-based collection first while further exploring and having a little fun with trialing the different systems before making any commitments.

That looks like a great system!
I hope you, and your wife, enjoy it

 

[Roy G. Biv]

A Mac Mini won't really be any worse than a high end streamer. Unless you buy into all the esoterically priced marketing.
I've run a Mac Mini (multiple generations) as Roon Servers with directly attached DACs and it works great.

I had to replace the HDD in my MacMini and decided on a SSD, mainly because Roon suggests that the core live on a SSD. Based on some things I've read over the years I had a slight expectation of better sound quality with the SSD. I'll be darned if I could tell the difference.

{snip}
I appreciate that Roon is probably the best music library management software available, but for my ripped CD library of about 1500 albums, and using Qobuz, LMS works brilliantly.

Out of curiosity, what is LMS?

 

[Les Strat]

I had to replace the HDD in my MacMini and decided on a SSD, mainly because Roon suggests that the core live on a SSD. Based on some things I've read over the years I had a slight expectation of better sound quality with the SSD. I'll be darned if I could tell the difference.



Out of curiosity, what is LMS?

LMS is an abbreviation for Logitech Media Server, which was formerly known as Squeezebox Server.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logitech_Media_Server
It is open source software used to run the range of devices which were manufactured by Slim Devices, and which was subsequently acquired by Logitech.
I have five of these Logitech devices!
A Transporter for my main system, a Touch, a Boom, a Squeezebox Classic and a spare, boxed, Transporter which I bought used, as back up for when the current one expires, as I like it so much!
I can access my ripped CD music library, Qobuz and internet radio from any room in the house.
There is a community which still supports and develops enhancements for LMS such as the Qobuz plug in, which has meant I didn't need to buy a new streamer to enjoy Qobuz.
The original LMS system used a very basic remote, but the iPeng app, means that all devices can be controlled using an iPhone or iPod.
I am sure LMS is not as good as Roon, but it works brilliantly, and is very 'light' on a PC, unlike Roon.
Even the inexpensive 'Touch' produces surprisingly good results with a good DAC like the Yggy.
The Transporter is even better.