Wow.
Alas, I’m not at your level Brian. I’m just trying to have a clean chain to some old Guarneri Homages (!)
Brian,
I’m truly happy that I can be useful in your audiophile journey.
Yes, exactly. When you listen to Qobuz using the Mosaic app the music flows from the Qobuz server through your Rossini’s Mosaic board into the DAC. When you listen to music from the Synology it gets processed there to be sent through your local network to the Mosaic board.
Yes. Both Innuos Statement and Aurender N20 have internal storage options. For data migration it’s a good idea to use a specialized software. This type of application handles hiccups and conflicts better than file explorer or finder. Also, this is a good moment to update or adjust the data backup strategy. Pete @PAR has a good cloud service in Britain. I’m using one in the US - Backblaze. Their backups are reliable, but retrieving a backup from them is a pain.
Yes, that is the case - no impact in that scenario.
I would add a good power supply to your TrendNet Media Converter that is connected to your Rossini.
The above article mentions optical media converters and the issues with them. Hence my recommendation to get a good power supply for your converter. A number of other community members use these converters too and they work just fine for them. I would speculate dCS has seen too many support cases in their inbox that have led back to such devices. Also the article is dated 2018 - whatever that might say…
Just for the record I do not use a cloud service as my main backup. Relying upon a single source is not recommended as none are 100% reliable. I use USB HDDs to keep a minimum of 2 backup copies on site. I kept a third copy off-site should I suffer fire, flood or burglary. Eventually I replaced that off-site HDD copy with cloud storage. This has run into technical difficulties in maintaining it and I have temporarily reverted to another HDD copy which is held by a friend. I am currently reassessing my needs which may mean a change of cloud storage supplier.
BTW my existing cloud service is not in Britain, I use one elsewhere in Europe from Britain 
.
My two cents here, recognizing that Pete and others have far more expensive gear:
In my world view the goal of any music server or storage mechanism is to feed a file to my dCS box as quickly and cleanly as possible. That’s ostensibly, is why we are here, for dCS’s DSP.
For this same reason, I do not have any lossy music formats in my digital signal chain, like MQA. To me it makes no sense to serve a lossy file to $20k+ of highly resolving electronics.
As such, I also disagree with the need for expensive devices like the Innuos Statement, which, to my simple mind, is just a very expensive single purpose computer, to send files to dCS. I would much rather invest such $ in a better DAC, upsampler, or clock.
You can buy a Roon Nucleus or Nucleus+, with 4TB SSD for $2-3k, (or build your own for even less) connect this to any NAS or external music service and the Rossini via Ethernet, keep any DSP inside the Nucleus turned OFF, and thereby have a fine pipeline of unlimited music to cleanly feed your dCS device.
With respect to cloud storage, I recommend companies highly likely to be around for your lifetime. Google has some fine, and very cheap, cloud storage options and, call me crazy, I believe they will be here for a while.
Cheers
Marco, thanks for the recommendation to get a good power supply for my TrendNet mdeia converters. Is there a website that sells various audiophile-grade power supplies? Do I also need a good power supply for my Ubiquiti 8 port switch?
Thanks,
Brian …
Yes, @keiserrg the Roon Nucleus is a viable option. Just not for me. Among other reasons I stay away from things that nudge me into endless choice. It’s hard enough already to live a distraction free life. I prefer to find music by doing online research and reading paid music magazines (Uncut, Mojo, Gramophone).
I believe @PaleRider uses a Nucleus and sent other expensive servers he tried back. That rhymes with your observation but does not give us a universal rule. @glevethan mentioned above some friends of his use Innuos servers.
With all upgrade paths, they need to fit our individual listening dispositions and budgets. The Innuos fits into my overall system investment and I really enjoy listening to it. It opens up the music like it should with dCS. The Synology failed in this regard in my ears.
I tested an Aurender N20, an Antipodes K50, failed with a Pink Faun Ultra and then listened to the Innuos. It might well be that the less costly models from Innuos would have given me almost the same result. It was time to settle on a solution however. Enough time spent already.
Yes, Pete @PAR , I agree, three backups are the way to go.
If I may? A cloud solution for off-site backup can work in the background and needs no attention except for maybe an occasional consistency check. I have not used it in a while, but Acronis has been around a long time and their user interface looks up to date. They appear to have their own data storage centers for their customers’ backups.
Power supplies are a cottage industry. I am not aware of a dealer who has a greater selection. Some pointers to manufacturers:
Yes, the power supply for the switch made a large difference when I put it into my chain.
Just sharing, I am just like you in this regard : ) I use Roon but keep the recommendation engine off, and don’t (yet) stream, so it is just a music server of my own collection at this point.
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I desperately wanted to enter the Roon ecosystem but my Aurender N100H was never going to help. Toward the end of last winter, I bought dCS Network Bridge. I now have the use of Roon, the influence of the superb Network Bridge and use the Aurender as a high quality server. Lots of boxes but they collaborate to produce very fine music.
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@keiserrg Unless your local music server contains 40M tracks, you owe it yourself to try out Qubuz. I believe they still have a free 30-day trial. It’s the best $15/month investment I ever made. I haven’t purchased a CD in several years as Qobuz has so any titles in hi-rez that sound better than Redbook CD tracks I have ripped on my NAS. I also take Qobuz with me in my car and Bluetooth to my JBL car audio system. Hi-rez SQ in the car is amazing.
I will get there Brian : )
I’ve heard mixed reports on the provenance of the files. Do you believe that been sorted?
Do you use HDtracks?
There is no provenance problem with tracks on Qobuz. All tracks are as supplied by the record label. Qobuz does not interfere with them in any way beyond loading them to its servers.
The only substantive issue was the appearance of a very limited number of files encoded with MQA some time ago. Qobuz was unaware of them until some users with MQA equipped DACs spotted the green or blue tell tales illuminating. This seems to have been a case of the record label sending Qobuz the same files as Tidal in error. These have been corrected and the full hi-res file uploaded. Yes, with such a vast repertoire such things will happen from time to time. I came across one new release album where the label had allowed Qobuz an MP3 copy pre-release as a taster. On the day of release the MP3 version was replaced by a 24/96 one. Well , that was the intention but the record label sent them a file where only track 1 had been changed to 24/96 and all of the rest were still MP3. Qobuz had this fixed within 24 hours.
Of course when you are talking about hi-res in any setting there always was and always will be a problem over the ultimate provenance. Just like with SACD you cannot usually tell from the disc or a file or accompanying booklet or .pdf whether that e.g 24/96 was drawn from an original 24/96 master or is a 16/44.1 master that has been upsampled. That will affect you wherever you access the file as it is the record label or the production studio on instruction from the label that has carried out the sample rate conversion. Bluntly I am sure that with a repertoire of ( now) 60 million tracks and adding < 10,000 a month Qobuz hasn’t the time or resources to be involved in such things. No, should anyone imagine this, there isn’t a room full of people ripping CDs or SACDs ( some people on other audio forums seem to think that there is 
). In fact you would be amazed at how few employees Qobuz has worldwide.
Oh, there was a fair amount of ill-informed speculation about this on the forums at what used to be Computer Audiophile in the earliest days of Qobuz coming to the USA.
As you mention HD Tracks and as that means download purchases it is worth pointing out that if you get a Qobuz Sublime+ account you are entitled to what are often significant discounts on most downloads.
I am now into my 6th year of membership and would in no way want to get rid of it.
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Thanks for these details Pete. I’ve heard great things about Qobuz and look forward to checking it out.
Separately, and very randomly, in going digital I wasn’t able to rip one of my most treasured SACDs: Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms. To my ears that recording is just magical. Does anyone know a good source for DSD download/purchase?
To add to the value of Qobuz that Pete mentions; there are 2 personal positive experiences I’ve had with Qobuz.
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One of my long standing ‘go to’ albums is Andreas Vollenweider’s ‘Book of Roses’. The variety of songs are terrific and unique and the recording quality is very good. I’ve had the Redbook CD for over 25 years and recently discovered it on Qubuz in hi-rez format. Wow, not sure if it’s an upsampked Redbook like Pete points out can happen but it sounds noticeably better than my ripped Redbook CD.
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Every Qobuz subscriber receives a weekly email from Sebastien at Qobuz. He keeps us informed about new hi-rez titles and provides best practice tips on ways to enhance Qobuz listening experience. Last year I sent Sebastien an email about adding some Lyle Lovett titles. Some of Lovett’s releases are very well recorded, even in Redbook CD quality which I believe are the only available format for streaming. A few days later Sebastien replied to let me know Qobuz was working on my request. About a week later Sebastien let me know that the releases I requested were online. I also noticed that within a month the complete collection of Lyle Lovett titles were available.
Like Pete, I’ll not get rid of Qobuz.
I used HDTracks for several years before subscribing to TIDAL and now Qobuz. I purchased many so called Hi-rez titles from HDTracks only to find out by their own admission they were upsampled from Redbook CD (44.1kHz/16 bit) files. In some cases the Redbook CD version sounded better.
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They’ve started putting the provenance on HD tracks so I think you can see that now Brian.
The red book CDs should sound better, provided that dCS’s upsampling is better than the studio’s, which I suspect it is ; )
Interesting. I find the red book Dire Straits sounding just so great I never thought of seeking high res versions for them.
Trust me on this one… the SACD/DSD version is out of this world : )
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Thanks! 
Will keep an eye out for downloads.
Hi all,
I have been using Roon for a couple of years now. I find it a really solid solution for all my needs.
I have in internal SSD in my roon server which has all my cd’s that i ripped from DB power software into it. I also use it for all my streaming with , tidal, qbuz ,MQA and my own library of ripped disc’s in my Roon internal SSD. I like that i can access it on all my portable devices and I was able to move my roon core onto my MacBook when I traveled north to spent time with Family bringing all my music with me. They seem to update it regularly and more and more Roon ready devices are available.
I have my Nucleus on my network connected to my BARTOK and enjoy the sound, flexibility and options with my entire library.
PS. I’m not trying to do a commercial for Roon, just trying to provide my experience with it as a solution for me for a couple of years after try many things with numerous end point solutions
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Anthony-- have you tried connecting the nucleus directly to the Bartok? I am also a Nucleus + user and presently have it connected by switch to my Rossini dac. I am looking for anyone who has had their server connected directly to the dac by usb to let meknow how it sounds
mike