Schiit has been working on a CD transport and I think it might be released this year. I think it will also perform rips (they stated that it has a usb connection).
That might be something to look into.
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Interesting headphone amps from a company I’ve not seen before, anyone know anything?
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I’m gonna order a Holo RED, as my source upgrade, then try to figure out how to play stuff to/from/on it. . . Hopefully it will play right from my PC via ethernet, or off an SD card somehow, or controlled by my phone to play files off the SD card. With a RED, and a DAC like a May, I think a DDC in the middle would be entirely skippable. Thoughts? Maybe a PSU upgrade for the RED, if even necessary?
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Check these out. Rippers available in some models to store your CD’s
https://innuos.com/
Call my dealer at Arizona HiFiand tell him Nick sent you for a decent price if you want. Compare it to others of course first.
Just another option that maybe fits your needs. There are at least 2 lower priced models I think fit your needs.
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The ZENMini intrigues me. Could be a potential upgrade path for me after Pi2AES. I better start collecting CDs to rip. 
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Pi2AES sold already, but they are great little devices!
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Happy for you, now update your listing that it’s sold lol!
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Oops…done, haha. I updated elsewhere but missed it here
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The Red can be used off of USB input or ethernet. It cannot do local files at all. The SD card if just for the operating system. Also, just as a heads up, to switch the red from ethernet to USB requires unplugging the unused connection and restarting the device. Its probabaly not a great option if you plan to switch back and forth a lot. That said, if you plan to do ethernet into the red and then usb from the comp into the dac and switch inputs on teh dac I think it makes a lot of sense.
The RED is a DDC. Most people use a streamer or a DDC, not both. IMO its probably not worth stacking them until you are deep deep.
As for May, just IMO, if you are planning on may and dont need a streamer, I wouldnt bother with red and just run USB from the comp to the dac. The mays USB input is seriously incredible, so i personally feel the money would be better spent elsewhere in the chain.
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Hmmm… I was planning to use Red as the get-the-sound-out-of-my-PC device, to send to the DAC. And to provide maximal source quality, whatever the DAC. I wonder if the Red is a better DDC than the May & Spring have?
So it sounds like I can play songs directly off my PC to Red, via ethernet somehow? Is there a video showing how this all works?
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“Network Music Player”. Sounds like EXACTLY what I’m after lol. But still seemingly rather complicated…
Watch this, it’s a network bridge like the Red. It should clear things up a bit for you since you’re still confused. It will all make sense eventually.
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Hopefully this is the right place for this question. I don’t listen to IEMs much and only have a 2020 CFA Andromeda that I mostly use with my iPhone with just the Apple dongle during my not so long commute 3 times a week. I don’t usually listen to music while working unless I am doing some work that I don’t have to think too much about.
I had bought an A&K SR25 dap (still have it) but I just hate the usability of that thing over my phone so just never use it. But every morning, I do miss the quality of music from last night on my main chain. Now obviously I can’t recreate that but I was hoping to perhaps improve that a little by improving the source. I don’t really want to go down the rabbit hole of IEMs since that’s not really my preferred mode of listening and I do enjoy the SQ of Andros most of the time.
I guess what I’m asking is if there is a reasonably convenient dap with a good interface that would improve upon my current iPhone + Apple dongle + Andros?
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how about a dongle DAC/AMP and keep using your iphone to control maybe?
I forgot to mention I actually did try a Fiio BTR5 as well. Didn’t really feel it added that much improvement to SQ over just the iphone but made it more inconvenient to use my phone with the added weight of the dongle so I reverted to using the lightweight apple dongle. I could see the advantage in using the bluetooth functionality but at that point I didn’t think I was really getting much sound quality benefit from it. Perhaps there are better alternatives out there since this was just one data point.
I love my L&P W2 ACG. It’s a great little dongle, and it’s also balanced (4.4mm). There’s also a 3.5mm output. It’s definitely an upgrade to the Apple dongle and it’s not too spendy.
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Thanks, that looks like a nice option, I’ll check it out.
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I’m in a similar situation I have a couple sets of IEMs that I primarily only use when travelling. I ended up with for this use case, a Qudelix 5K that allows for a touch better SQ than straight out of the Apple dongle and also saves some on phone battery, but most important of all - since it is BlueTooth it is not directly tethered to my phone, allowing for normal operations etc. etc…
It’s not a replacement for a DAP and I’m not sure how battery life would be if trying to work a full size headphone such as my Radiance but still, for IEMs and Kph30i - it fits the bill nicely and has contributed to my laziness on selecting a DAP or some other portable solution.
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whats your budget and do you need streaming? If you dont need streaming the lotoo paw 6000 is a solid choice ~600 used. very snappy UI and synergizes well with andros IMO.
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That’s a plus and I had considered Qudelix but I assumed I’d lose any SQ benefits of the dongle if using over bluetooth. As you said, I’m not a fan of dongles getting stuck in pockets when commuting/traveling
Budget is flex for a good option. Streaming would be nice but I have noticed that I don’t do much “discovery” and tend to stick to a few favorite albums when on the move so I could put a bunch of music offline. A good UI and nice interface is more important which was really lacking with A&K SR25 which made it unusable for me. I’ll check out lotoo paw 6000.
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