Streaming set up for a friend on a limited budget

One of my friends who loves his music and has a huge CD collection has recently moved to a smaller home and now has very limited space for his CDs. He has a rack filled with about 50 of his so called ‘Essentials’! He has ripped the rest of his CD collection (2000+) into iTunes and I’m thinking the best solution for him would be Home Sharing on iTunes and Airplay 2. But he would also want to play his ‘Essential CDs’ on a CD player. He has always been more interested in music than Hi-Fi and sound quality.

He is looking to buy a CD receiver either with built in or external speakers. There are some models with built in Airplay 2 but the choice at his budget is limited. Am I right that he could buy an inexpensive Airplay 2 adapter that would plug into any receiver’s AUX IN input which would give him a bigger choice of receivers? His iPad is also too old to be compatible with Airplay 2 but there are refurbished options selling for around £150. His budget is around £500-600 in total.

My own experiences with a similarly sized library using iTunes Home Sharing and Music on my iPad have not been great but from what I’ve read others find it works well. Does anybody have any other suggestions that would allow him to access his music collection?

Limited budget, but the Denon CEOL N11DAB seems to tick the boxes. Just need speakers but with the remaining £100 or so, may get something bookshelf style secondhand

Funnily enough, he had found the CEOL N10 and is very tempted. I had a look and agree with you it does seem to tick the boxes. Main difference as far as I can tell is the tuner.

Denon one box systems have always been very good VFM.

We’ve an older RCD M41-DAB which was pushed into service recently when SuperUniti was in lounge. Driving Monitor Audio Bronze standmount speakers. Adequate for the office, with RPI providing Tidal Connect (same solution as for SU).

Total cost (internet deals) for head unit, speakers and good stands was £475.

Used to use Bluetooth to send music from NAS via laptop or phone. Not the last word in sound quality, but very convenient for background music whilst working.

The iFi Zen streamer might be worth looking at their stuff gets great reviews and is well priced. The only problem is there’s limited services it’ll stream.

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