Digital music question - can't find that magic box!

[Salar]

What you need is a DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) plugged into the Computer/I Pad/Mp3_tablet then into the Aux on the Amp.

Yes, I think that's the way to go I'm thinking a refurbished tablet which I can transfer music to, an inline portable DAC connected to amps line in.

The only thing which I'm not sure about is a lot of tablets mp3 players etc only have a headphone jack to connect to, won't this reduce sound quality, I don't know ? but isn't the music in a digital format any way.

Thanks all

 

[Milkfloat]

Your cheapest solution would be a smart phone or a tablet and it offers so much more than music.

 

[icowden]

Another approach is to look at buying a SONOS - but you'll stlll need a Smartphone to act as the controller.

Your biggest problem seems to be the controller. You have an amp. You have the tracks - you need a way to link one to the other and to control what is playing.
I have a stack of music on my PC which I can play via my SONOS, but using my smartphone to control and choose what playlist or CD I want to listen to. That said, more often than not I just hit up Amazon music these days and play that over SONOS instead.

 

[Milkfloat]

Much cheaper than a Sonos is the Amazon Echo or even a Chromecast audio.

https://www.whathifi.com/google/chromecast-audio/review

 

[icowden]

Can the Echo or Chromecast hook up to a PC for local tracks though?

 

[Milkfloat]

Can the Echo or Chromecast hook up to a PC for local tracks though?

Over bluetooth/wifi yes.

 

[Venod]

Chromcast audio is a good piece of kit, I use it in the garage to play my music from the NAS and Spotify/digital radio from my phone to my old hifi.

 

[marzjennings]

How about something like a Pyle amp that could take a usb stick or an SD card. You could run it as a pre-amp into your existing set up.

 

[swee'pea99]

What I'm looking for is a box of tricks which I can connect to the line in on an amp and play back music

This is one of the ways I listen to music, with one of these

(Sony NW-A3000)

or these

(Philips HDD120)

or these

(Creative Zen Touch)

plugged directly into the amp through a 10m 3.5mm jack -> amp inputs lead.

You have fingertip control (keep the player on the sofa), and can skip, rewind, ff, adjust volume, whatever - and the sound quality is really very good.

the Philips one (the second, above) actually makes high quality recordings to MP3 as well!

All these players come up on ebay constantly, and can be had for as little as a tenner, including delivery. They're 20gb, and hold loads of music - certainly the kind of shopping list you describe would be no kind of challenge. I just checked the one I have here on my desk, and it reports 2,912 tracks.

Battery life tends to be poor - no more than two or three hours, typically - though you can buy and fit replacements, which push that up to 10-12 hours. But since they live on the sofa, that's not really any great hardship.

 

[MontyVeda]

Some DAB radios (Pure Evoke & Flow i think) can connect to your PC via wifi and allows you to browse your music files on the radio display and play what you want.

 

[Salar]

How about something like a Pyle amp that could take a usb stick or an SD card. You could run it as a pre-amp into your existing set up.

View attachment 541225

Yes, that type of thing caught my eye, I initially dismissed them, but it might be the neatest (and cheapest solution ) and easily incorporated into my system
Wonder if or how it displays what is playing, is it just bluetooth.

 

[Salar]

Thanks @swee'pea99

I'll check them out on fleabay.

 

[raleighnut]

Yes, I think that's the way to go I'm thinking a refurbished tablet which I can transfer music to, an inline portable DAC connected to amps line in.

The only thing which I'm not sure about is a lot of tablets mp3 players etc only have a headphone jack to connect to, won't this reduce sound quality, I don't know ? but isn't the music in a digital format any way.

Thanks all

The charge port is generally micro HDMI, they'll connect through that well Maz's I pad mini does into my CD player's HDMI input to the internal DAC in that, so does my mates 'smartphone' (he's got 'spotify' on that as a 2nd user from his daughters account)

 

[Salar]

Yes @raleighnut the charge port does work. I just plugged my mp3 player into pc and it played.

 

[accountantpete]

As I mentioned in another thread there is a slightly complicated answer to all your problems - all you need is a Raspberry Pi 3/4 with a HAT on.

The Rpi is then loaded with a music playing OS such as Moode or Volumino and connected to your router for internet based streaming/radio or you can plug in a USB flash drive loaded with flac music files and the os will happily play these.

The HAT can either be a spdif extractor like Hifiberry digi or the cheaper chinese PIFI which then connect to your dac or you can get a dac HAT which will do everything. Either way these plug into your amp and speaker setup.

The set up of the os is slightly complicated as most are headless and need to be addressed via http - so you need an old smartphone/tablet/laptop as a remote control.

The end result is you get to maximise the sound quality - if that is what you are after.