Hello Guys,
This is my first post here and I would like to get your ideas on this. Thank you in advance.
I have a collection of just under 1TB of music that I have collected from CDs (some Ripped in MP3s, some in FLACs) that came my way over years from my family - when they moved to the iPods. So.. though I have a huge collection of physical stuff (the CDs that survived), my vagabond lifestyle (work related mostly a year here a coupe there), doesn't allow me to keep physical works. I live in India, and though currently I have a full media 5.1 setup in my media room, I have a stereo set of Tannoy Mercury m5s and a Sansui AU217 MKII in my bedroom. Now, I shuffle through my entire music library almost daily and use a Sony Walkman NWZ A45 for playing music through the stereo setup. I would however like to have my entire library (instead of 128 GB odd on Sony) to be accessible at all times with the stereo setup. Now these are my ideas and my questions:
Number -1.
IDEA : I would like to hook up an NUC based PC or a MAC Mini with an option to connect a 1TB SSD via USB 3 (I have all of these).
Question: What do you think is better - NUC or Mac Mini? I have both. I can use both.
Number -2.
IDEA: In this case this is more of a need, I have no place to put a monitor, a keyboard & a mouse and I have no internet at home, where I stay. So I would like to be able to boot the PC/Mac display to an iPAD/ Android Phone.
Question : I have done this before with Mac Mini and Duet Display app - you can bypass the log-in requirement on the Mac and using the Duet App as start-up app, you can hard wire your iPAD to work as the monitor & the Keyboard/mouse straight on the boot - and you do not require any display or peripherals. Do we have any similar options if I want to use windows? Basically, I can't have additional peripherals except an iPAD pro & an Android phone & I have no internet.
Number -3.
IDEA: I am planning to attach the Schiit Modi MultiBit, to this setup - this I need to buy.
Question: Do I really have to? I have heard it and it certainly sounds pretty neat and seems to add to the overall sound. I am sure my budget Mini & NUC do not reproduce great sound due to the hardware limitations, but I do not even know if this will add much.
I have gone through the options of Standalone Servers like NAS boxes & Bluesound Vault 2, but most are an overkill in terms of price and value - this is just my opinion. I also understand that Mac has a limitation with FLACs but that can be taken care of with Elmedia.
So what do you guys suggest? Is there a way to achieve #2? I am really looking forward to some great ideas and inputs!
Thank you again!
This is my first post here and I would like to get your ideas on this. Thank you in advance.
I have a collection of just under 1TB of music that I have collected from CDs (some Ripped in MP3s, some in FLACs) that came my way over years from my family - when they moved to the iPods. So.. though I have a huge collection of physical stuff (the CDs that survived), my vagabond lifestyle (work related mostly a year here a coupe there), doesn't allow me to keep physical works. I live in India, and though currently I have a full media 5.1 setup in my media room, I have a stereo set of Tannoy Mercury m5s and a Sansui AU217 MKII in my bedroom. Now, I shuffle through my entire music library almost daily and use a Sony Walkman NWZ A45 for playing music through the stereo setup. I would however like to have my entire library (instead of 128 GB odd on Sony) to be accessible at all times with the stereo setup. Now these are my ideas and my questions:
Number -1.
IDEA : I would like to hook up an NUC based PC or a MAC Mini with an option to connect a 1TB SSD via USB 3 (I have all of these).
Question: What do you think is better - NUC or Mac Mini? I have both. I can use both.
Number -2.
IDEA: In this case this is more of a need, I have no place to put a monitor, a keyboard & a mouse and I have no internet at home, where I stay. So I would like to be able to boot the PC/Mac display to an iPAD/ Android Phone.
Question : I have done this before with Mac Mini and Duet Display app - you can bypass the log-in requirement on the Mac and using the Duet App as start-up app, you can hard wire your iPAD to work as the monitor & the Keyboard/mouse straight on the boot - and you do not require any display or peripherals. Do we have any similar options if I want to use windows? Basically, I can't have additional peripherals except an iPAD pro & an Android phone & I have no internet.
Number -3.
IDEA: I am planning to attach the Schiit Modi MultiBit, to this setup - this I need to buy.
Question: Do I really have to? I have heard it and it certainly sounds pretty neat and seems to add to the overall sound. I am sure my budget Mini & NUC do not reproduce great sound due to the hardware limitations, but I do not even know if this will add much.
I have gone through the options of Standalone Servers like NAS boxes & Bluesound Vault 2, but most are an overkill in terms of price and value - this is just my opinion. I also understand that Mac has a limitation with FLACs but that can be taken care of with Elmedia.
So what do you guys suggest? Is there a way to achieve #2? I am really looking forward to some great ideas and inputs!
Thank you again!