Article: Computer Audiophile Pocket Server C.A.P.S. v4 Introduction

[wappinghigh]

I dont think everyone quite gets where music delivery is going...

 

It's going Streaming SERVICES people!!!\\

 

Their aint no going back...

 

So How does CAPS 4 fit in with streaming services?

 

We need a small silent CAPS renderer running Linux and we need to be able to be shown how to set this up with all the streaming services built in..

 

Spotify

Pandora

Tidal

Soundcloud

 

should just about do it..

 

(and maybe HQplayer upsampling these services or embedded delivering the odd difficult to source or "special" recording DSD/PCM track we might have)

 

That is *all* we need

 

We don;t need Jriver (no disrespect). We don't need massive big servers. And we definitely *don;t* need Windows servers!!!

 

Geeeezz Am I missing something here?

 

Is this like back to a 20C "future"?

[wappinghigh]

So I wish someone could just rip the guts out of a Sonos Zone player, unbrick it, mod all the CAPS4 like hardware into it...maybe even load on a different version of Linux, , find a Spotify connect and Pandora and Tidal app to load on as well.. but still keep it syncing with Sonosmesh... but allow it to play out dsd/24bit and be an NAA.... Kinda like a "Sonos" version of the Sonore MiniServer (rather than it using LMS).. with all the CAPS4 hardware built in.. LOL that would just about do it!

[wappinghigh]

Horses for courses people! This article is about Chris' recommendations for new CAPS computer builds--and based on Windows.

 

If you want to build or purchase different hardware/software solutions to handle your music playback and library management, then by all means do so--and start or join a discussionn thread about it. Linux, OS X, embedded SoC (system on chip), Aeries, Sonos, Squeezebox, renderers, etc.--the possibilities are endless. But complaining in this thread about how Chris' new CAPS designs are not meeting your desires for something else seems to me to be a pointless distraction.

 

Sure. But the problem is nobody in the industry wants to do this. It's all about software. Not hardware. Always has been. Hardware is the easy bit. JRiver is stuck in DLNA. And DLNA is a dog's breakfast.

[wappinghigh]

What a lot of the responders are describing is something very much like the AURLiC ARIES which would be a project beyond most home builders.

 

Sure. The problem is Aurlic (like everyone else) continue to ignore the software. And pretty much the only half decent software solution (Sonos) continue to ignore the hardware (so they can't provide the audiophile quality we want) and now Sonos also seem to be in a tiff/taff with the biggest streaming provider (spotify). So round and round in circles we go..