My neighbor is a movie buff and a computer enthusiast. He was explaining his film collection on a Plex server. It got me thinking about my digital music library which is gathering digital dust and some Mac centric solutions I saw over in the HiFi thread (I'm a PC guy).

What I imagine is uploading these obscure songs I have which can't be streamed online and don't exist on vinyl so that I can control playback on my phone, but stream over some device hooked up to my hi fi (something better than Bluetooth?). I would love to have a library that's organized like my Itunes was circa 2005.

Is this something commonly done with a few simple tools? Is this impossible?

I have a 1TB SD card in my handset, with my entire music library on it. Works fine.

One big question is : where will the files actually live?

If they're going to be stored on your phone, the easiest thing is to buy one of the cheaper of these kinds of things

https://www.crutchfield.com/g_459750/Bl ... l?tp=71627 and see how you like it.



A better (and much more expensive) solution is something like this https://www.crutchfield.com/p_813NODEBK ... Black.html which allows you files to be store on hard drives on your home network or plugged directly into the streamer (that's what these things are called, generally).

You can also look at free software like VLC which requires plugging your PC or phone into your amplifier (assuming it has an audio out jack, otherwise you need a DAC). I don't know of one that lets you use your phone as a remote control for the PC software, but they probably exist.



I guess it depends on how badly and how often you want to listen to the files in question and whether you'll be pursuing this any further.

Yeah, there are lots of ways to do it.

What I do is I have a Bluesound Node that I use to stream Tidal and different internet radio stations. On the same network router/hub I have a networkable hard drive attached. This hard drive has all my CDs that I have ripped on it. I play it through my Hifi with the Node. Works great.

Most streamers will also recognize a local drive and stream it as if it were coming over the internet. You could do a similar thing with a Rasberry Pi streamer/dac solution. And there are cheaper deals than the Node.

As far as streaming your local files over the internet - I don't know but I think Roon lets you do that.

recent Tech Room thread covers a lot of similar ground:

http://www.premierrockforum.com/viewtop ... 26&t=70319

is Bluetooth that bad? I use it all the time and sounds fine to me. I use a tiny little logitech bluetooth receiver plugged into my RCA jacks. Some nice soul here sent it to me.

enframed wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 9:19 am is Bluetooth that bad? I use it all the time and sounds fine to me. I use a tiny little logitech bluetooth receiver plugged into my RCA jacks. Some nice soul here sent it to me.

I guess it depends on how particular you are. My understanding is that Bluetooth doesn't have the bandwidth to stream uncompressed/lossless audio. If you're fine listening to MP3s and AACs, though, it should be plenty good enough.

Oh I see. Yeah I only use it for mp3s and Spotify, NPR, podcasts, and the like.

lotharsandwich wrote: Sun Jan 22, 2023 10:50 pm A better (and much more expensive) solution is something like this https://www.crutchfield.com/p_813NODEBK ... Black.html which allows you files to be store on hard drives on your home network or plugged directly into the streamer (that's what these things are called, generally).

I wonder how that (which looks better) compares to something less than half the price like this:

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-QksQmyNo1 ... ivEALw_wcB

penningtron wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 7:53 am recent Tech Room thread covers a lot of similar ground:

http://www.premierrockforum.com/viewtop ... 26&t=70319

Ah, thanks. Rereading that one. Now it's too late for Kerbling, I've started a sister thread!