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Laptop vs. Hi-fi Streamer

Barbapapa said:
Buying a simple laptop or computer just means you are building your own streamer. Hence that is not a different option.
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Well yes and no as I see it. Firstly I would not go so far as having a dedicated laptop for music streaming. I know there are good reasons for doing this, but I'm really not that fussy. I'm not chasing 'cutting edge' performance. I would use our usual 'general purpose' laptop, which is soon to be replaced with something more up-to-date. This approach appeals to me as I like the idea of pieces of kit performing multiple functions rather than having lots of bits and pieces to do different things.

Nevertheless, if I was convinced that a dedicated hi-fi streamer, as opposed to one self-built from a laptop, offered vastly improved usability and convenience then I might opt for that.

I suppose that whilst I'm basically very happy using a laptop I wonder 'am I missing something really obvious and important here?' I like the idea of keeping things as simple and streamlined as possible and I accept that often this is incompatible with achieving the best performance.

Pete
 
i've always believed in 'the right tool for the job'.
As a streamer has one job only, it should be much better at doing that than a bit of software loaded on top of all the other bloat found on most laptops these days.
 
I've got a MacBook Pro, a Moode Pi and a CCA on the main system.

Moode gets the most use, but it needs a very snappy device for the UI to work smoothly. Spotify interoperability is also not great - I suspect the third party spotify plugin for moode is buffering entire tracks before play can commence. I think this only happens when using ALSA for bit perfect playback on toslink/spdif hats. And the only way of playing spotify stuff once playback has started is to physically add material to the play queue.

I have Plex server running on the office PC and this with Chromecasts on the TVs throughout the rest of the house with the Plexpass and the Plex Tablet/phone app is by far the best UI for this sort of thing, although I suspect slight reduction in SQ due to transcoding.
 
I've been involved with computer audio for over 10yrs now, and by far the most non-obtrusive (and best-sounding) solution for me is by running a Raspberry Pi "headless" (controlled via a phone) with a good digital out HAT. Am running Volumio, and as most apps (like TIDAL & BBC Sounds) support Airplay, I just use native apps to stream to the Pi at CD quality. No setup really, just plonk it into the system and it's recognised on the network.

Edit: when I look inside "HiFI" streamers, which I see are the same sort of fanless mini-ITX setups that I used to use when building computer servers. Maybe there's a linear supply or three added in, or a USB filter / reclocker, but at the end of the day, a HiFi streamer is generally a PC in a nice case, running some sort of stripped down Linux.
 
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Barbapapa said:
The OP suggests the choice would be between using an existing laptop for dual purposes, or using a dedicated streamer. For that I'd also vote for dedicated streamer, as almost everyone here does.

Buying a simple laptop or computer just means you are building your own streamer. Hence that is not a different option. If that was intended, the question was stated somewhat opaque.

.
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Installing music server SW (such as LMS, J River, VLC etc) on a PC, then pointing it at your stored music and/or streaming services, then putting it away and not touching it, rather controlling with an app - does not really constitute building a streamer IME. Most SW are wizard-driven setup, install then forget.

Again IME, most challenges i see with PC passed music servers, comes when the same PC is also used for other stuff. That's when conflicts and other user fiddling errors can upset things for the initiated.
 
Mini 2012 with 2 SSDs. A small 250G one for the OS and a 2Tb for the music. OS is stripped to only run what I need it to for music. Controlled via iPhone or a Rii Remote. Plugged into the DAC on my B440xs. Sounds great and easy to use/admin.
 
Pete L said:
Well yes and no as I see it. Firstly I would not go so far as having a dedicated laptop for music streaming. I know there are good reasons for doing this, but I'm really not that fussy. I'm not chasing 'cutting edge' performance. I would use our usual 'general purpose' laptop, which is soon to be replaced with something more up-to-date. This approach appeals to me as I like the idea of pieces of kit performing multiple functions rather than having lots of bits and pieces to do different things.

Nevertheless, if I was convinced that a dedicated hi-fi streamer, as opposed to one self-built from a laptop, offered vastly improved usability and convenience then I might opt for that.

I suppose that whilst I'm basically very happy using a laptop I wonder 'am I missing something really obvious and important here?' I like the idea of keeping things as simple and streamlined as possible and I accept that often this is incompatible with achieving the best performance.

Pete
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Convenience to me is about the quality of the interface. I like using my iPad to control my music, though my iPhone will also do the job. So for me it was important to find music playing software that had a good remote control app. Back in the day, when LMS was the bees knees I put a little Squeezebox Touch next to my hifi, ran LMS on whatever laptop or pc suited me at the time, and controlled it using the superb iPad app called iPeng. Then I got into J River, so I used a laptop connected to my hifi and again controlled the whole lot from my iPad, this time using the JRemote app. Again, excellent. And J River would also talk to my Touch so I could still use optical when HiFi neuroticism got the better of me. The laptop failed, so I got the machine I mentioned earlier. Then Qobuz came out, which drove me nuts because it didn’t have a remote app. So I go into Roon, which runs fine, and integrates Qobuz with my own music and again has an excellent remote app. I or my mrs can control it from our iPads or iPhones, or if it happens to suit, from the touch screen on my netbook. My Squeezebox Touch still works as a Roon endpoint (a remarkable tribute to its design). If you are worried that your DAC will pick up coronavirus via USB them you can get any number of USB cleaners to clean up whatever bad karma you worry might be on USB. If you don’t want to go down the pc route, you have very little to lose buying a Squeezebox Touch - £100 or so second hand and works out the box. If you are computery inclined you can mess about and get a raspberry pi to do a similar job. Both have options for optical output which can’t possibly introduce any RFI type noise into your DAC, should it be sensitive to it. But spending big money on a fancy server is, IMO, the last thing to do.
 
guest said:
Installing music server SW (such as LMS, J River, VLC etc) on a PC, then pointing it at your stored music and/or streaming services, then putting it away and not touching it, rather controlling with an app - does not really constitute building a streamer IME. Most SW are wizard-driven setup, install then forget.

Again IME, most challenges i see with PC passed music servers, comes when the same PC is also used for other stuff. That's when conflicts and other user fiddling errors can upset things for the initiated.
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Actually, that is exactly what a streamer is: a dedicated computer with software installed to stream the music. The only question is whether you have to install it yourself (which is not per se difficult, as you rightly point out) or whether it is preinstalled. Building a streamer does not mean you have to break out the power tools or write your own software; many small form PCs already are well suited to set up as a streamer without further physical modification.
 
HP Elitebook laptop here. It is placed close to the hifi rack. I tried controlling the laptop with my phone for a while but ended up not doing it as I prefer taking few short steps to the laptop to change tracks if required.
 
A streamer is just setup and forget. Leave it on and it's ready whenever you need it.
To my way of thinking, a much better solution.
Unless, of course, you really want that big touchscreen display on the laptop.
 
My Pi is the Server and the player. I use IPeng on IPad to control. It’s a simple, discrete, effective and lovely sounding solution. I don’t think there is much that could beat it really as an elegant set up.
 
I find a streamer is more convenient to use and less hassle so I use one for me tv system, but find a laptop can be better EQ'd to suit my room for my main system. Ideally I'd like a streamer that sounds good, easy to use and has a proper EQ option other than just a treble or bass adjustment.
 
I use a Bluesound Vault 2 which has about half of it's capacity (1tb) filled with a mixture of CD rips and hi res downloads.I subscribe to Qobuz and I've just started a 4 month trial with Tidal and I like to listen to Radio Paradise from time to time.The Vault works seamlessly with all these different options and is connected to an external dac via toslink as I prefer it to coaxial.
For convenience and ease of usabilty I think the Bluesound is great BUT I still find myself quite often streaming from my laptop (Lenovo) via the Qobuz desktop app as I narrowly prefer the sound quality achieved using usb into my dac.
 
If you don’t care about sound quality stick with laptop. You can install software that will turn your laptop in to streamer, for example Roon or LMS. If you want better sound go for streamer based on Raspberry pi 3 + iQaudio digi hat + good linear power supply(for example sbooster) + Volumio. There is no need to pay big money for big name streamers, sound will be compare-able in most cases. Again if you don’t care about sound quality stick with laptop as experience and convenience will be the same with right software
 
Mentt said:
If you don’t care about sound quality stick with laptop. You can install software that will turn your laptop in to streamer, for example Roon or LMS. If you want better sound go for streamer based on Raspberry pi 3 + iQaudio digi hat + good linear power supply(for example sbooster) + Volumio. There is no need to pay big money for big name streamers, sound will be compare-able in most cases. Again if you don’t care about sound quality stick with laptop as experience and convenience will be the same with right software
Click to expand...

A laptop can certainly sound the same as an Rpi3 or other streamer.
 
Tw99 said:
A laptop can certainly sound the same as an Rpi3 or other streamer.
Click to expand...
Absolutely right - a streamer is more user friendly but unless you're prepared to spend big bucks I don't think the sound is going to be any better.
 
Big bucks doesn’t necessarily mean better sound in this particular area. A laptop and decent dac can challenge many supposed high end streamers and their often poorly developed controlling software. That’s what is exciting about CA.
 
I listen to music in my study, which is where the computers are. So files (mainly HD files bought from Qobuz) are stored on an external HD, connected to my Mac Pro, connected to a Cambridge DAC (via a long USB hidden between the skirting board and carpet, roughly four metre run), and from there into the amp and speakers. I use Audirvana to play the music and have no complaints. The Mac=>DAC connection also works well if I’m watching Netflix in the study.
The system works for me.
 
I use a Samsung laptop that is dedicated to the HiFi. It runs JRiver for music with the files stored on the resident 1TB SSD (I replaced the old HD). This connects to either my Arcam rDAC or Chord MOJO via USB. The rDAC has a dongle I can plug into the laptop to connect wirelessly if I choose to. As the PC is dedicated I don't need to, it is connected to my desktop if I want to streat audio from it whilst watchin something on YouTube. I also use Bubble on my tablet to connect and can then run Tidal or similar and also access the library on the SSD. For JRiver remote I have been using Gizmo.

As the laptop is "coasting'' the fan noise is not intrusive when listening.

I thought about a dedicated music streamer. I am not convinced the sound quality will be significantly better.
 
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