How to play Music from a USB drive in a DAC/Streamer

[Lyricman]

I am impressed with all the knowledge and experience you guys have and hopefully you could give me some advice.

I currently have an Audiolab 8200CDQ CD Player/DAC/Preamp with a Yamaha network streamer connected via the digital coax to the CDQ. I have a NAD Class D power amp that connects to the CDQ using XLR. I have a 64GB USB stick that has all my songs which I play using an Android app over bluetooth connected to the streamer. I can also stream from the PC or internet radio etc. All works great but after reading reviews of the SMSL U9Pro and Topping D70 Pro i feel that the DAC in the CDQ is now outdated (designed by John Weslake ) and it seems for £400 ish I could get the latest technology and improve my sound.
From what I have read it seems that these streamers do not support USB drives and the USB can only be driven from a PC. The beauty of what I currently have is that the drive is permanently connected and I just use a phone app to play the songs etc. Is there a streamer that has a USB drive interface or is there another solution.
Many thanks.

 

[ahofer]

A lot of streamers do, although often the navigation in the streamer app is pretty sub par. I have a Cambridge streamer that you can plug a USB drive into, but it just does basic file navigation. You could set up a pretty serviceable music server with a rasppberry pi, or an android tablet, then you'd have a lot of navigation apps to choose from to play albums, manage playlists, show album art, etc. (BubbleUpnP, Emby, etc.). There are also players from places like Fiio that can store, stream, and have DACs incorporated.

i think the Eversolo also has USB drive capability, but no idea what the app looks like.

 

[Lyricman]

A lot of streamers do, although often the navigation in the streamer app is pretty sub par. I have a Cambridge streamer that you can plug a USB drive into, but it just does basic file navigation. You could set up a pretty serviceable music server with a rasppberry pi, or an android tablet, then you'd have a lot of navigation apps to choose from to play albums, manage playlists, show album art, etc. (BubbleUpnP, Emby, etc.). There are also players from places like Fiio that can store, stream, and have DACs incorporated.

i think the Eversolo also has USB drive capability, but no idea what the app looks like.

Eversolo looks amazing especially the display unfortunately way above my budget, only got £400 to spend.

 

[linuxfan]

it seems for £400 ish I could get the latest technology and improve my sound.

Sure, a DAC upgrade might be worthwhile, and at your stated budget the Topping E70 possibly offers the best measured performance-per-dollar (the D70 is at a higher price-point). You will still need the Yamaha network streamer as source device, and if it's working well I see no need to replace it with any other product.
I just warn not to expect too much - audible differences between modern DAC's are subtle, at best.

 

[Lyricman]

Oh blinkin heck all the reviews of latest DACs say the latest chip sets are a massive improvement over older DACs. The Audiolab uses the ESS Sabre 9018 32-bit chip which is 12 years old so how would this compare to the ES9038PRO chip? The Yamaha NPS-303 is connected to the Audiolab using Dig out coax so I am not using the Yamaha DAC (unknown make).
I will look at the Toppings the Eversolo DMP-A6 looks awesome but too expensive.

 

[Lyricman]

I have managed to find a reasonable solution after doing some research. I have an Android TV Box with and Amlogic X4 processor which has 2 USB interfaces. I connected this to the Audiolab USB input with an A to B Usb cable. Downloaded a USB digital player which bypasses the Android driver with its own and outputs 24 bit music and allows bit perfect. Early stages but have a great visual player on the TV with great navigation and is sounding very good.