Home for audio files?

[Concordia]

I am thinking about pivoting to more virtual storage of music, especially now that car stereos are almost all without CD capability. For storage, there is always the option of a 4TB SSD, but something more portable and resilient has its virtues also. Probably also something that isn’t inclined to sync to a device, as any single device might be smaller than my collection if it doesn’t have an external drive.

So what works, for ease of use and economy? Dropbox? Any other obvious candidate?

 

[Fred G. Unn]

I use a Roon / Tidal combo. The Roon ARC app can easily stream ripped files from your server to any iOS device, so you could stream anything directly to your phone in order to play it through your car. You can have a dedicated Roon server to host ripped files too, although I just use my desktop. You can download Tidal albums directly to your phone to listen to offline through the Tidal app, or download anything you've ripped locally from the server on to your phone through the Roon ARC app.

It's a pretty useful configuration to be able to access anything, ripped or streaming, while online, and to be able to download it if you know you'll be offline. If you don't use a dedicated server, you'll need to make sure whatever computer you are using to host the Roon core is online and the Roon application is open.

 

[Oswald Cornelius]

There was a time I had an older iPhone I wasn't using any longer for cell service, but it still streamed, etc. I downloaded a bunch of albums from Tidal on it and left it plugged into my AUX jack in my truck on one of those dual camera adapter jacks so it would charge and play at the same time. Worked great until the battery bought the farm.

Not only CD players, but new cars are coming without AUX jacks, I understand. So, if you're going to stream from a portable player or phone, it's Bluetooth, unless there's another way I'm unfamiliar with.

And finally, another Roon/Tidal guy. I do very similar to Mr. Unn, although I have very few ripped files anymore--I'd say fewer than a couple dozen. There's just so much available on Tidal I haven't felt the need. A few live jazz albums, some CD-only era jazz that's not available on Tidal, a few esoteric Japanese jazz albums, stuff like that. I also use my desktop PC as my Roon server. I've never had an issue with it.

Honestly, I haven't even tried ARC. I keep a few playlists on my phone and change out several albums every once in a while. I don't need all my music with me all the time. Silence is golden, too.

 

[R.O. Thornhill]

I keep all my ripped CDs on an Aurender music server, which is plugged into my CH Precision DAC/amp. I also keep two sets of backups - on my Apple Mac hard drive and on a backup hard SSD

 

[Concordia]

Aurender looks to have a convenient, if expensive way to handle all of this. One model even has its own DAC, so a one-box solution.

And, I assume, it is easy to port out the files to use on another server or iPhone, etc.

 

[Oswald Cornelius]

The Aurenders are great but you started the topic talking about portability and cars....

Not a big deal at all but I'm just curious about what you're really trying to solve for.

 

[Concordia]

Totally non-expert. But they are one of the few sources of this kind offered by Goodwin’s High End, which makes an effort at carrying good stuff.