Absolutely. It would work as a stand-alone device. And it is MQA capable (decoder + renderer). It would sound quite good too!
No offence to OP ,but I fail to comprehend why someone with over 3000 CDs in his personal collection would want to make an investment in computer based audio
It’s like someone choosing to buy frozen vegetables despite having own backyard garden.
Playing and storing this number of CDs is still a hassle though not as much as vinyls and cassettes.
By ripping you will a backup of your collection which in time will get lost, stolen, gifted, borrowed and damaged.
Last but not least it is our human nature that we like to be seen always doing something with what we love.
@hyrdra thanks. The Element M is my back up option. The other option is to get a Gustard X16 (which I can get for about Rs. 45-50k) and a Streamer that can do MQA (I have my reasons and they have nothing to do with the quality of the sound on MQA), DSD512, and preferably can connect to the X16 via the I2S (LVDS) port (leaving the USB port free for my laptop).
I have considered building a streamer (that DIY itch still lives) using a USBbridge Signature and a Pi2AES (which will give me I2S) but I believe that the I2S output on the Pi2AES is limited to 192/24 (thanks to the WM8804/5 which is also what the DigiOne Signature uses). The USBridge is capable of DSD512 via its own USB "CLEAN" out and supports 384k on its GPIO.
The PI2AES was designed to be plug-and-play with all of the major Raspberry Pi media players and multimedia platforms (Volumio, Moode, Roon, OSMC, etc.).
www.pi2design.com
USBridge Sig - Ultra low noise RPI
www.allo.com
Do you know of any MQA complaint streamer under say Rs. 1L that can output DSD512 via I2S?
@Bloom@83 You are already aware of my experience with "shellac".
To be honest there are 3 reasons for me to consider streaming.
1. I would like to investigate Tidal / Qobuz anyway so adding a USB hard disk option is just one more "stream"
2. Getting my fat, lazy, butt off my armchair is getting more and more tiring as I get older. Besides, I already have all these CD ripped to Harddisk (EAC) with carefully chose album art too.
3. Because I can, it's fun to do new stuff. Just the intellectual challenge of ripping, streaming, learning about MQA and DSD and Volumio and Moode and Max2Play, LVDS, etc... is what keeps my mind active. I worry if I stop learning new stuff I'll die (of boredom), or at least get Alzheimer's. I know I am not the sharpest knife in the deck but I want to at least be relevant when listening to the under 50 bunch of audiophiles and follow what they are talking about.
I found one more thread on this topic that is pretty informative.
We are booting distros like Volumio/MoOde and other mpd based linux distros off SD card with digione and other raspberry pi based transports, with the music files residing on a separate drive. There have been issues of library management, crashing of library, slow rebuilding process etc. With...
www.hifivision.com
@rsjaurr Once I get this streamer/DAC thing licked, I hope to keep the silver disks as backup and use the hard disk as my primary source.
I don't know much about audio, especially not computer-based audio (streamers and servers etc.) so I am here to learn. Building or buying is incidental.