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Streaming setup


The Surg

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Not sure if this is the correct area to post this, mods feel free to move as needed. 

 

Question for the group in regards to central playback. What is the better route for (preferably lossless) music playback into the system? Option A is one of the systems that's all in one box with NAS connectivity and fancy features. In a lot of my research these, good units start at $2k and up from there. The advantages here are proven performance, optimized connectivity etc. Option B would be to build my own computer and use some type of interface out into the AVR. I work in the pro audio field so I'm confident I can get good signal out of whatever box would end up getting built. Does anyone have any experience with building their own computer and how that would compare to more of these (seemingly) higher end playback/streaming devices?

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Option 2 is about where I'm at; easy, effective, and works quite well for my needs.  I use a SFF Dell PC with a SSD in it for the operating system and the FLAC files are stored on a Synology NAS on my network.  I use JRiver for accessing those files as it works well and I can also control it from my phone or tablet without having to power on the TV and switch to PC to see what's going on.  Unless I just want to, of course.  I take the USB output from the PC to an Onkyo P-3000R where it takes care of the DAC processing.  You could also accomplish this with an older laptop if you have that handy.  The Dell PC is an older i5 CPU (I think) with 8gb of memory and I've never had a hiccup with it.  I also use it for watching YouTube, playing Spotify, etc.

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Airplay is lossless up to CD quality.  Works great.  Some AVRs support it natively via WIFI.  To kick it up a few notches, check out Roon (roonlabs.com).  It's a streaming engine that can take almost any source and stream it to almost any destination, with a database and metadata that makes iTunes look like a Web browser from 1998.  If your AVR does not have built-in streaming of some sort, you can stream to a chromecast/airport end-point and pipe that into your AVR, or Roon supports various dedicated hardware endpoints.

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All of the high end systems are still based on linux and freely available software. All they've done is package up the hardware, dac, maybe optimize the software a bit, and throw their own GUI on top of it. And you pay dearly for it.

 

You can easily setup a cheap computer, even a raspberry pi, windows/linux, and a dac of your choosing (or go straight across HDMI if your pre/pro supports it) and reach the same results.

 

These days I use Plex as my server for all media and then a Nvidia Shield TV for playback of movies, shows, and music. Then the Spotify app for filler, but to be honest I haven't touched my curated FLAC library in a while, so Spotify has slowly become one of my primary music sources.

 

I've also played with the various raspberry pi software solutions, Roon, Audirvana on the Mac, Jriver, etc. All have their strengths and compromises, so it just takes some time to play around and tweak.

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I used rune (instead of roon) with a pi 3 and a knock-off hifiberry digi+. My NAS box is the music file storage location. Maybe $50 in it tops, no enclosure. Works fine to tinker with but I don’t care for the playlist only mentality of rune.

For clarification, roon is $119/yr or $499 lifetime, rune is free. Different software.

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Are you wanting lossless from local files only, and do you need higher than 16/44.1 resolution lossless?

 

Are you also looking for lossless from a streaming service?

 

For local 16/44.1 lossless files (flac rips from CDs, for example), a Chromecast Audio ($35), a UNnP/DNLA server on PC or NAS, and a mobile app (I use Hi-Fi Cast) can work very well.

 

For a combination of local 16/44.1 lossless files and lossless (or non-lossless) streaming in a one-box (and one-app) solution, the Sonos Connect ($350) works very well.  Sonos has simple set-up, very stable operation, and seamless integration of local files and streaming services in one app.  However, Sonos is limited to 16/44.1 local files, so higher-res local files won't work.

 

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