hifi question – playing FLAC files from a USB drive

okay.. this is starting to get intriguing.

I have 250-odd CDs stored on a USB hard drive, as FLAC files (lossless). I want to buy a player than I can plug into a old-school stereo amp and play the goddamn music.

– I don’t want to stream anything.
– I don’t want to use a computer to control it
– I don’t want to network it or anything either
– and I certainly don’t want to use a smartphone in any of it

Now, I can get a PORTABLE digital audio player that will do the job, such as a digital walkman, or Cowon or Fiio player – just fit a 256kb SD card (or more) and use the line out – but I don’t need it to be portable.

As far as I can see there isn’t an obvious way to do this with a full width player, without spending silly money. Budget is maybe £350.

Any ideas?

The cheaper full width players usually have some sort of network / smartphone functionality i.e. https://www.richersounds.com/yamaha-network-stereo-pre-amplifier.html so probably no good to you.

You can get “network stereo receivers” that will play FLAC off a USB drive e.g. https://www.richersounds.com/yamaha-rn602-blk.html but you’ve already got an amp so seems a bit drastic to spend so much cash unnecessarily.

You say you don’t want to use a computer but that would be the best way in my opinion, primarily because it means you can browse through tracks visually on your TV. If you have a smart TV you may find that it will play FLAC (my mid-range Samsung from 2014 does so presuming that newer ones will too) which again helps with seeing what tracks you are listening to.

To be honest bunging on a Fiio (MK3 or something like that) is going to be the closest solution for you.

Got an old Android phone knocking around that you can stick a big SD card into?

I’ve got 600+ FLAC which originate from a Brennan B2 which I use to play music when at home. Accessed through the Web interface it works quite well.
I have also exported them to a USB drive which I then transferred to a Sony NW-A55L with a 512Gb micro SD card. The UI isn’t great (it’s a Sony product) and it won’t catalogue them for some reason, but either played through some old Etymotic wired headphones or Sony WH-1000M3 sounds great.

Raspberry pi and DAC?

cheers all.

I’m erring towards the Fiio player now, and maybe a charging dock so I can just leave it next to the stereo, propped up ready to use. I currently use an old X3 player for commuting duties so that could be re-positioned.

I looked into the raspberry pi/DAC/streamer thing but they all work via a smartphone/tablet interface which I don’t really want.

The network amp thing also works, as I have one in the garage (not the Yam 602, but a 402 I think) but as you say devash it’s a whole lot of amplification for just a FLAC playing source. Also the screen controls aren’t ideal – worse than the little Fiio player too. Shuffles of to see if there are any deals on ebay…

even more obscure… is there a DAB tuner which has a USB input to play FLACs. I doubt it but you never know.

If you want to go all-in-one, the Denon d40 will do it all. The d39 only does mp3 and wma, the d41 loses the USB port and goes bluetooth.

https://www.whathifi.com/denon/d-m40dab/review

Second hand Cambridge Audio NP30 would be ideal.

You can plug the USB drive in the back and play FLAC from it.

https://www.whathifi.com/cambridge-audio/np30/review

cheers!

Squeezebox touch if you can find one but they seem to fetch crazy prices. Why on earth Logitech dropped it is a mystery to me.

oh dear I’ve now started researching which portable player to get… what a minefield. I need to stop.

https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/audio_visual/hifi_components/cd-nt670d/index.html
Just got one of these.USB input,CD player,DAB/FM radio and if you ever change your mind it has bluetooth, Musicast, is network compatible and has all the streaming services and internet radio. It’s small and light too if that’s a requirement.
£339 at Peter Tyson

I’ve got one of the yamaha cd-nt670d players & yes it has a USB input but I don’t think you can play music from a hard drive just plugged in 🤔

USB input but I don’t think you can play music from a hard drive just plugged in

Think I misunderstood the OP.
Assumed USB hard drive was USB stick.USB sticks play fine on the Yamaha.Never tried connecting a USB hard drive so no idea if it would work.NAS hard drives connect fine to Yamaha and other network compatible gear. OP, surely just copy your files to some USB sticks and then find one of the many players with a USB input?

I don’t differentiate between USB stick and USB harddrive. They are the same thing to me, just one usually has more storage than the other. When I say USB HD I just mean a HD that contains FLAC files and connects using USB-A (standard) connector.

I’m not on about a NAS drive or anything.

The portable players do the job – you just load the FLAC files onto a microSD card and the player plays them. You run a line out from the player to your hifi amp and then select the track on the unit itself and hit play. It’s just that you need to add a power cable and stand for it to be a good sustainable, everyday solution. Hence the desire to get the same functionality with a full width box.

The Yamaha/Denon/Cambridge players/receivers et al will do the same thing but the screens on the units are more basic than the portable players. The portables show album art etc.