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What would you do? (Audio source)

mattski

mattski

pfm Member
Hi,

I've historically used a Mac Mini headlessly for my music source into various DACs which has worked ok. Then I got the urge to try a MacBook which worked fine as well, esp with the screen. My music library is itunes.

My grand plan with the MacBook was to use it as a bit of a development machine which it was ok for but only for light duties. I now need something with more horsepower and have the Mac Pro in the classifieds in my sights. I couldn't justify having the MacBook just as a source.

But that leaves the music source to sort out. The system at moment revolves around a Gato DIA 250S that has a variety of inputs including USB, optical and Bluetooth. The music is now backed up to a QNAP NAS. My iPhone has about 90Gb of music on it along with Spotify with access to my artists and albums from iTunes.

I'd like to get something cheap to serve the music to the Gato via USB but what? (I could always use Bluetooth for a bit I suppose). I'd like to be able to control it from my phone.

- phone - stream or plug it in
- another Mac Mini, but not that cheap
- a cheap windows 10 laptop, library issues? Driver issues?
- something with a raspberry pi?
- silent media pc thing, small form factor
- something straight from the NAS? (It's quite powerful and can run apps etc)
- something else?


What would you do and why?
Thanks
Matt
 
If I was looking to replace my Mac Mini I'd be looking at an intel NUC but they aren't that cheap.

I bought a Lenovo Ideacenter off ebay a while ago for around £70 which has an i3 & 8GB which ran Win10 and Roon without any problems.

Having tried a Pi in the past I wouldn't go back there again, also tried running apps on a NAS and a dedicated PC is just so much less hassle.
 
What about the new sotm sms-200 which has been getting very good reviews. You can plug in a external HD, connect to the network and control it via a tablet/phone etc. It's Roon ready and you can stream Tidal through the web browser interface. I think the RRP is around £450. I will be looking at this device next year!
 
Actually I've got a Aries Mini I'm not using so you are welcome to borrow that if you want to give a streamer a try (the hard disk ribbon is knackered so can't use an internal HDD)
 
Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 running Moode or Volumio. It sources from the NAS, but also is an Airplay end point. controlled by phone or tablet. Very cheap. Very excellent.
 
Matt

You say that you use(d) a Mac Mini and it was "ok". Why was it just ok? Have you managed to find a better solution. There are Mac Minis available pre-owned/second hand/used online to be had.

Am happily using a headless Mac Mini connected to my 55" Samsung via HDMI for all of my digital audio/video. For playback am using Audirvana + 1.5 because I prefer its interface to that of Audirivana + 2.0.

You can connect the QNAP to the Mac Mini directly or over the network.

To this day, I have not found anything as customizable, straightforward and headache-free (driverless) as a solution.
 
Werner said:
Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 running Moode or Volumio. It sources from the NAS, but also is an Airplay end point. controlled by phone or tablet. Very cheap. Very excellent.
Click to expand...

Do you get gapless playback with that setup? With Airplay?
 
I'd vote Pi too. I have a Squeezebox system around the house, and where I need an interface I use real SBTs, but in the bathroom and garden I just use Raspberry Pi and control from my phone. I'm also going to use a Pi for my LMS server as the windows box I'm running it on seems to have got a bit grumpy of late... the Pi is so cheap, its easier to just buy one than waste time re-installing windows etc.
 
AndyU said:
Do you get gapless playback with that setup? With Airplay?
Click to expand...

Moode and Volumio are perfectly gapless.

Don't know about their inbuilt Airplay endpoints. Never use them. We only ever use AP when targeting a Marantz receiver in the lounge.
 
Google Chromecast: very low-cost solution - for starters, at least. Reconditioned units sometimes on sale on ebay see other threads herein.
 
JemHayward said:
I'd vote Pi too. I have a Squeezebox system around the house, and where I need an interface I use real SBTs, but in the bathroom and garden I just use Raspberry Pi and control from my phone. I'm also going to use a Pi for my LMS server as the windows box I'm running it on seems to have got a bit grumpy of late... the Pi is so cheap, its easier to just buy one than waste time re-installing windows etc.
Click to expand...

+1, I have 2 SBT's, 2 radios, but migrating to Pi's in most rooms, so far I have 3 built into old radios and other suitable pieces of furniture.
 
Thanks for the suggestions folks, most appreciated.

@Ian - that looks @fab@ but I suspect it's a bit more than I'd want to spend :)

Re: the Pi's and Chromecast, they do appeal if the user experience is good. Are any of you using them with an iTunes library? (Mine is mostly cd rips with some hi-res and stuff bought from the Apple Store). What app are you using for the Pi?

Re: the Aries and sotm, they sound good but I wonder about the experience with them compared to the ease of, say, the iTunes remote or Spotify apps. How did you find the Aries and did you have to use their app? I may be interested in taking a look although I think I'd be tempted to go for a more general computer for the price of those.

The idea centre sounds like a decent option, I'll take a look on eBay.

@David - the Mac mini was good but I felt like a bit of a change, motivated after an Ethernet port failed on one. I'd have one again but wondered what other options there are.
 
Worth a look at Synology NAS. I use their DS216play with Sonos over wi-fi and it has been trouble-free. I think their latest ones support AirPlay, but I've not used that protocol myself.
 
Wandering slightly more off topic, but I have just installed a new Pi3 with Max2Play and attached a 2TB HDD to it, and it is now working as my Logitech Media Server, and as a Squeezebox client, playing music in the bathroom. This has now freed up my Pi2 which runs PiCorePlayer, and that is now playing 24/96 files beautifully through my MDAC. Its a ridiculously small investment in normal HiFi terms!
 
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