Noobie advice for local music server

[ManuCV]

Dear all,

I hope you can excuse my "noobiness", I am a long time reader but I still feel like I am not able to decide myself for a NUC, a Volumio device or some kind of Rapsberry/SBC. I have a mid-end setup (B&W 703, Rotel RA-1572) and I'd like to make good use of the USB audio from my amp. So far I've been using a Mac Mini with Foobar and does the job, but it's a bit cumbersome (given the placement of the Mac Mini) and I'd like to have some dedicated, headless USB transport. I intend to play files from a big (4TB) hard disk, and my first idea was using something like a Volumio Mini86. 

Since my home network is really slow I prefer to feed the files locally from this hard disk (I have smaller 1TB SSD units, too). Without getting too expensive, what could be the way to go if I'm not interested in streaming but playing locally? The DAC from my amp seems decent, so I'd prefer a single box without the need of an external DAC. 

Sorry if this thread is not very interesting - most threads here are very technical and for advanced users, but we all have to start somewhere I guess.

 

Thanks in advance!

[ManuCV]

Thanks for your reply Kal. Yes, that's in effect what I plan to do - send USB audio to the amp and use its built-in DAC. At first I would like to keep it as simple as possible. 

I would like to control it via mobile, as I currently do with a Foobar controller app for my Android mobile. I thought about Volumio for ease of use, considering also the Allo USBridge which seems like a good candidate as well. 

[ManuCV]

Thanks @DuckToller for the very insightful reply. Finally I have purchased an Allo USBridge, I was testing Volumio over the weekend (running from a pendrive in a laptop) and I was quite happy with it. I will check if this is good enough or if maybe I need an external DAC. Will also check the power supply, many thanks!

[ManuCV]

14 hours ago, bluesman said:

I can't imagine that you'll find better sound quality from an external DAC without a long search, a big hole in your wallet, and the aftershock that comes when you realize how truly tiny the improvement is. 

 

Thanks Bluesman! Yeah, I am very happy with my current setup and I guess there are some incredible DACs out there, but in order to have a noticeable improvement I should spend some sweet $$$ - not gonna happen. I don't have golden ears but I do appreciate what I have. Maybe in some time the GAS will kick in, but for the time being I will focus on enjoying this.

 

I will share my experience as soon as the USBridge arrives.

[ManuCV]

Hi all. I finally received the Allo USBridge earlier this week and it didn't take more than 5 mins to set it up, easy peasy. The sound quality is very good, no complaints there. I'd like to ask what is your favorite MPD client for Android. I have used so far MPDroid and M.A.L.P. (which is basically an updated MPDroid but it's more of a resking than anything else).

With both I haven't been able to control the volume, but I also noticed that I couldn't do it via volumio.local on both my computer or my mobile phone. I guess there is an option to allow that but haven't been able to find it. Also neither of these apps show the format or the bit rate...

Is the Volumio (Android) app any better? The reviews are not very enthusiastic either.

Thanks!

[ManuCV]

8 minutes ago, Boomboy said:

Hey there .. I use m.a.l.p on android . Great app .

You might need to find the .conf file in volumio as it might be set as hardware or disabled  . You might need to change that word to software Then you should have volume control with your app / phone .

It's been a while since I've used volumio .. anyway hope it helps 

 

Thanks a lot Boomboy, will try that. So you switched from Volumio to what app/OS? Just curious. So far Volumio is ok for me but its shortcomings are becoming quite apparent in a matter of days...