Topic: Recommend budget USB DAC/Pre/Amp setup

[johnw]

I'll be putting my playback setup into storage for a few years and want to get something that can play flac from an external drive over USB. I'll also need something that can power a pair of speakers rated at sensitivity:94db, impedence:8ohm.

I was thinking something like a Squeezebox touch>T-amp

Budget around $300

[johnw]

 

[page]

So your need a dac, amp, and a storage facility or will that be your laptop?

[johnw]

After 6 months of daily EAC use, I finally have my entire collection on 2 hard drives of flac files. With our new baby finally here, my system and all discs have been relocated to storage 6 hours away!

Ideally, I'd like to connect my hard drive via USB to a preamp/DAC and then to an amp that would power my bookshelf speakers. I don't think there is an all in one that exists. I'm not opposed to using a laptop in place of the pre/DAC, but if there is something that would do what I want without using a laptop, that would be ideal.

I guess the biggest question is if a T-amp would power those speakers.

The next biggest question is if something like the Squeezebox touch or some other pre/DAC exists that would be able to directly read from a 2TB USB drive

EDIT: To clarify, the Squeezebox Touch does support drives over USB, but don't mention size limitations. I haven't found anything like the Touch that will read directly from a USB drive without the computer in the mix.

[page]

Ideally, I'd like to connect my hard drive via USB to a preamp/DAC and then to an amp that would power my bookshelf speakers. I don't think there is an all in one that exists. I'm not opposed to using a laptop in place of the pre/DAC, but if there is something that would do what I want without using a laptop, that would be ideal.

Ok, now I've got a better idea what you're doing.

The bad news, I concur that the squeezebox line is the only thing I've seen that removes the laptop from the equation. The good news is there are a bunch of dac/amps that have aux outs or at least can fufill that duty in your price range (assuming the squeezebox is out of a different budget which I sort of doubt and that you are using powered speakers/monitors instead of passive speakers), especially if you stick the laptop in the mix (the Fiio E9 being one of the cheapest that has line-out, but only usb in, the ibasso DB line will take optical/coax but at a slightly higher price).

[johnw]

Thanks Page. Specifically, I'm thinking of putting this T-amp after the squeezebox using the Touch's RCA outs and using it to drive a pair of 8 ohm, 94db bookshelf speakers

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-383

[it-goes-to-eleven]

The squeezebox RCA's sound great... And they sound even better when the preamp is eliminated and you drive the amp directly.  That requires fairly high impedance inputs on the amp.  It looks like the dta-100a input impedance may be too low for that.  I found a spec of 2K.

[johnw]

So rca out of the squeezebox into the rca in of the dta-100a would result in an impedence mismatch?

Or are you saying the preamp can be turned off as an option or bypassed from the squeezebox and this would cause the mismatch? If this is the case, how is the preamp bypassed? Or more importantly, how would you go about connecting the Touch to the DTA-100a if at all?

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Here are two great wiki pages that cover this.  A lot has been done since I tried this with my squeezebox and dna-125 and got lucky and found it worked Great.

Work through these and let us know what you come up with.   It's possible the impedance issues aren't a problem, or can be solved.  Though it's a bit too nice outside for this at the moment

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/ConnectToPowerAmp
http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/DIY_passive_attenuation

[rappard]

Ideally, I'd like to connect my hard drive via USB to a preamp/DAC and then to an amp that would power my bookshelf speakers. I don't think there is an all in one that exists.

No - the already mentioned Squeezebox might be your best option. But read on....

I'm not opposed to using a laptop in place of the pre/DAC, but if there is something that would do what I want without using a laptop, that would be ideal.

Again, the Squeezebox or a TEAC WAP-****. Also, the Cambridge NP30 and Olive range both allow USB-host, but might be above budget.

The next biggest question is if something like the Squeezebox touch or some other pre/DAC exists that would be able to directly read from a 2TB USB drive.

EDIT: To clarify, the Squeezebox Touch does support drives over USB, but don't mention size limitations. I haven't found anything like the Touch that will read directly from a USB drive without the computer in the mix.

Now this is where it gets wonky. The Squeezebox is really meant for wireless access - hooking up a USB drive directly is not the way to go. The problem is that for large(r) collections (> 300 GB), the Squeezebox takes a really loooong time to scan/catalog everything on the drive. Of course if
1) you leave your collection as-is (i.e., no file addition or deletion) for a long time and
2) you leave your setup powered on
this might not be a problem.

Otherwise, I think your best bet is to get a NAS or (since you already bought the drives) a Iomega iConnect Wireless.

As for pre-amp/DAC, it depends what your budget is - the Squeezebox's internal DAC is pretty decent, but a NuForce UDAC-2 is only $130 or so. FiiO's are pretty good value for money as well.

[johnw]

Thanks for the updated recs!

[aaronji]

Ideally, I'd like to connect my hard drive via USB to a preamp/DAC and then to an amp that would power my bookshelf speakers. I don't think there is an all in one that exists. I'm not opposed to using a laptop in place of the pre/DAC, but if there is something that would do what I want without using a laptop, that would be ideal.

It might be worth your while to check out the Marantz M-CR603 (or similar).  It's pricier than what you are looking for (about $600), but seems like it would do the trick.  It should easily power your speakers (60 W/channel into 6 ohms) and has a USB input that definitely works with an external drive.  I guess that it would be slow with such a large drive, but I am not sure (never tried anything larger than a half-full 250 GB).  It does say in the manual that, "If the number of files stored in a USB memory device exceeds 1,000, the access speed may become slower."  It also has an ethernet input, so you could use a laptop between the drive and the Marantz as a DLNA server and probably get better speed.

Plus it has some other nice features (CD, AM/FM/DAB, internet radio streaming, inputs for other components, etc.)...