Bit of a rookie in this area, so thought I'd see if anyone here could give pointer or two.

I want to get my home audio sorted so that...

* I can upload my CD collection in lossless (or near enough) quality to the cloud
* stream to multiple devices around my home

Is this even practial with a standard UK domestic broadband connection?

If so, what sort of kit should I be looking at?

TBH, streaming Lossless files from the cloud would kill your bandwidth and cause speed issues due to the FLAC file sizes.

The only viable method I would feel comfortable with is to use a physical home file server and then stream from that to the audio players around the house.

A typical setup would consist of say a QNAP NAS (plenty to choose from) and either squeeze boxes dotted around the house  or a nice Snos music system, you could also stream to an xbox or PS3 if needs be

You can then store the music on the QNAP, and if you get a QNAP with a eSATA port (for speed) you can get an external hard drive enclosure with an eSATA port e.g. ICY BOX to keep a backup of all your precious music files off site.

Quote from: Adam C on May 31, 2012, 12:50:32 PM
Bit of a rookie in this area, so thought I'd see if anyone here could give pointer or two.

I want to get my home audio sorted so that...

* I can upload my CD collection in lossless (or near enough) quality to the cloud
* stream to multiple devices around my home

Is this even practial with a standard UK domestic broadband connection?

If so, what sort of kit should I be looking at?

I presume you're looking to rip as MP3's rather than WAV files? Have been quite impressed by the quality if you rip to higher quality (ie, in Windows Media Player edit the rip option to 3/4 best quality).

That should help reduce streaming and bandwidth issues if uploading to the cloud.

I've already ripped my entire music collection to mp3 at higher quality, but not tried streaming - do music systems offer this??

I think an Apple TV kit can do this for a HDTV but have never used it, and that's just one item. Putting it all on an iPod and connecting to an audio separates system might make more sense.

How many devices were you thinking of??

I'd do it differently, but the best answer that does exactly what you asked for is http://www.mp3tunes.com/

It's very good at what it does, although as I said above I'd do it differently

If you fancy playing with my account to see if it does what you want before buying it then let me know

MP3's are lossy not lossless

If he wanted lossy compression then the worlds his oyster

Chunkford

> MP3's are lossy not lossless

Yes I know that, thanks

>* I can upload my CD collection in lossless (or near enough) quality to the cloud

what's the issue with MP3s?

apologies, still finding my feet.

Dont apologise, you've done nothing wrong mate.

If you decide against cloud then definitely look in to sonos. Love mine.

I've got my CDs ripped to large size mp3 VBR files. I dread the idea of going through that process again if I wanted to go for lossless. Is FLAC the way to go for lossless?

For steaming I have played around with AudioGalaxy. It's free. You can run your own server. it worked good on my iPhone at bars if there was WiFi...hadn't tried 3G.

My set-up : Sonos play 3 + Bridge. Old NAS attached to my Virgin router. Rip to flac on my laptop and transfer to the NAS. I've opted for flac as I only intend to do this once! We use the phones as controllers, which works better than I expected.

I want another sonos now, so that there is one upstairs as well. If we do that we'll probably opt for a play 5 and put the 3 upstairs.  However overall I'm really pleased with the set up. The best bit is that there is now no CD slot for the kids to feed things in to.

Have you looked iTunes Match? http://www.apple.com/itunes/itunes-match/

All music you have on your PC it gives you access to in iTunes Match at 256kbps.  The great thing about it is that unlike with Amazon, Google and others offering, you don't need to upload your music because it is already there. 

You can then use iPod Touches in docks connected to most HiFi Systems.

Plenty of reading up to do here.  Thanks for the input.

>>If you decide against cloud then definitely look in to sonos. Love mine.

Actually, did have a quick look at sonus yesterday.

The cloud aspect is moreso for off-site storage.  I don't like the idea of relying on one storage device at home, but could always just back up to the cloud rather than attempt to stream.

With your set up, can you play only from Sonus devices around the home or could you, say, pick up music from your NAS with your iphone or other non-Sonus devices?

I hate iPhones and won't let them in the house, so using them is limited to the patio at best. However I can play from anything on the network. I use the same NAS for photo storage and a few other bits and bobs too.  It's just an old buffalo drive that had been sat in a cupboard at work for 2 years unused, although I might get something bigger and quieter soon.