Dap vs streamer vs cd player

[spaace]

Hi,

Thanks for taking a look. I have just started to dip into hifi and wanted some suggestions on a good source

I currently have mp3 of random quality I have from college times. Iam in the process of procuring speakers and already have an amplifier

I would be mostly playing digital files.

I was thinking of a DAP like ak Jr playing flac (buy songs I like or cd and rip) initially but was not sure of the sound quality compared to cdplayer. Plus I was not sure if I could buy old/traditional Indian songs from the net ....

I would also like to listen to songs from any Indian music service like gaana if possible - Google audiocast ?

My priority is sound quality and usability. (Music lists) I feel its too cumbersome to open the laptop and connect the hdd everytime I need to hear music

My budget is around 25k-35k(stretchable) ...Please do give me your valuable suggestions. The existing threads do not have much comparisons with a DAP in them and hence this thread

Thanks
Arun

 

[kartikay]

DAP makes sense if you want your collection on the go with headphones, good options are Fiio X3ii or Fiio X5ii, both can also be used as external DAC with your existing PC. AK Jr is also good one but i feel Fiio gives better value for money.

For network streamer you can check out Acoustic Portrait Pi3 DAC. Here is the thread for the same, it is in your budget and initial reviews by FMs have been great.

http://www.hifivision.com/dac/64704-acoustic-portrait-launches-pi-3-dac-m2rpi.html

Regarding downloading music, you can try HDTracks, Bandcamp etc for hi-res music. For Indian music check out Saregama.com or even iTunes.

 

[spaace]

Do you have any suggestions wrt audio quality of any of the above Kartik?

Also it's just prescient that you mentioned the dac from ap - the thread talks about raspberry pi

That was something I wanted to ask too - the net is cvoke full of data on how pi can be used with something called the i2s dac, which basically is connecting digitally to the pis internal buses and does a better job of converting the music to be ready for the amp

.anyone has done that here as yet ?

Do let me know if you have ideas on the i2s dacs too Kartik

Rgds
Arun

 

[kartikay]

I have heard Fiio X3ii and its really good, I am currently using Fiio X1 and plan to upgrade in future.
Regarding Rpi I2S, there are lot of options available. You can either go for I2S DAC itself or get a SPDIF output board like HifiBerry Digi+ and use a external DAC with Rpi.

Here are some links:
https://www.hifiberry.com/products/digiplus/
https://www.hifiberry.com/products/dacplus/
https://audioberry.com/beginners-guide-raspberry-pi-i2s-audio/