Streamers Recommendations

[MrX]

First off, as a newbie, I was wondering if streamer will affect the sound quality? I thought the resolution is determined by dac and amp. I’m looking for a good streamer under 800USD to mate with my dac and amp. I am astounded by the huge price gap of various streamers and why?

[R1200CL]

Where is @MrX 😀

[stefano_mbp]

8 hours ago, nikolaos1969 said:

sms200 I can configure it as a NAS

That’s not actually true.

You can connect an usb hdd/ssd but it will not act as a nas, I think the best way is to configure sms200 with lms/sq and all your music file will be available to it.
You can use Minimserver at its best installing it on a nas (a real nas like Qnap or Synology) and using it as a upnp server (like mine setup)

To better understand SOtM sms200 services:

Roon is just the Bridge function, you must have a Roon Server (and pay for the license) installed somewhere on the network. Read here for details https://roonlabs.com/howroonworks

HQPlayer NAA is just the network adapter to be used with HQPlayer Desktop (or Embedded), you need to buy the HQPlayer Desktop/Embedded license. Read here for details https://www.signalyst.com/consumer.html

 

[R1200CL]

2 hours ago, stefano_mbp said:

You can use Minimserver at its best

My understanding is that the only difference between SOtM and The Sonore’s Rendus is that the SOtM can install a MinimServer. (Only). So it can operate by its own without any NAS or computer, as you can attach a HD to it. Am I wrong ?

 

This isn’t described very well in SOtM documentation. 
 

Also it’s not totally clear to me what player SW you are limited to on a phone, and what internet services is available. I think Qobuz isn’t working anymore with SOtM. 
 

I’m only talking about if a SMS-200 is used as stand alone. 

[stefano_mbp]

28 minutes ago, R1200CL said:

So it can operate by its own without any NAS or computer, as you can attach a HD to it. Am I wrong ?

You are right, but on my experience if you have a big library (mine is huge, 8TB +/-) MinimServer on sms200 will be very slow.

I’m using Lumin app as control point on iPad and iPhone and Bubbleupnpserver installed beside Minimserver, this configuration offer two pluses

- gives SOtM sms200 compatibility with OpenHome, this is necessary to use Lumin app

- overcomes Qobuz issues with SOtM as login and streaming is managed by Bubbleupnpserver (this can be done with Tidal too).

Bubbleupnpsever can be installed on SOtM as well, if you prefer.

My choice to install it beside Minimserver (on a NUC8i3) is due to the fact I have two more renderers, they are raspberry pi4 4GB running GentooPlayer.

There is no player sw installed on iPhone or iPad as with Lumin app (as well as Kazoo, Linn app, MConnect) they work as a remote control 

[nikolaos1969]

15 hours ago, stefano_mbp said:

That’s not actually true.

You can connect an usb hdd/ssd but it will not act as a nas, I think the best way is to configure sms200 with lms/sq and all your music file will be available to it.
You can use Minimserver at its best installing it on a nas (a real nas like Qnap or Synology) and using it as a upnp server (like mine setup)

To better understand SOtM sms200 services:

Roon is just the Bridge function, you must have a Roon Server (and pay for the license) installed somewhere on the network. Read here for details https://roonlabs.com/howroonworks

HQPlayer NAA is just the network adapter to be used with HQPlayer Desktop (or Embedded), you need to buy the HQPlayer Desktop/Embedded license. Read here for details https://www.signalyst.com/consumer.html

 

 

So, I think because my music library is under 1T I will attach an usb ssd to modem or at sotm usb port. At first, I will use lms/sq. Using lms/sq can I control my library via bubbleupnp app ? The other option is to download bubbleupnpserver and control it via lumin app. At a second phase I will use audirvana or Roon. Do you use a LPSU for sms200 ?

[stefano_mbp]

5 hours ago, nikolaos1969 said:

Using lms/sq can I control my library

In order to control LMS you need to connect with a browser to ip-address:9000 where ip-address is your sms200 IP address or you can use iPeng app.

Lumin app works if you enable MPD DLNA.

I don use any lpsu 

[nikolaos1969]

On 9/3/2020 at 7:46 AM, stefano_mbp said:

In order to control LMS you need to connect with a browser to ip-address:9000 where ip-address is your sms200 IP address or you can use iPeng app.

Lumin app works if you enable MPD DLNA.

I don use any lpsu 

Just to see if it works, I have downloaded on my laptop the LMS and the squeezelite x for windows. The library 500 GB on HDD attached to router does not run smoothly with a long delay for music search so I had to attach it to my pc. Installed spotify plugins to squeezelite. The ipeng app is for mac so I think I should go for Squeeze Ctrl app or anything else free?

Do u think it would be better to download MPD on my pc https://www.musicpd.org/ and operate it via MPD/DLNA of sms200 in order to use lumin app. My library on HDD it would be attached to router like as a NAS.

Why do not use LPSU, do u think they create much more electric noise ?

thx

[stefano_mbp]

26 minutes ago, nikolaos1969 said:

HDD attached to router does not run smoothly

I think this is because routers are not the best way to share music files, they can be fine for document sharing .... a nas could be the way to go

Never tried to use MPD on my computer (MacBook Pro) thus cannot help you on this.

Lpsu .... quite skeptical it can give a night/day difference on a streamer, I use one TeddyPardo on my dac (M2TECH Young DSD MKII)

Don’t know apps like iPeng for Android, sorry (do not own any Android device)

[DavidL]

On 6/16/2020 at 3:00 PM, MrX said:

First off, as a newbie, I was wondering if streamer will affect the sound quality? I thought the resolution is determined by dac and amp. I’m looking for a good streamer under 800USD to mate with my dac and amp. I am astounded by the huge price gap of various streamers and why?

 

This subject can be very confusing to a newcomer because unfortunately there is no agreement on terminology by either users or manufacturers. While there is no general consensus on this it may be helpful to distinguish between capabilities/content of the boxes as follows:

SERVER - basically stores and serves digital music files as packets over an ethernet local area network. A cpu is required to do this e.g in a general purpose computer or a NAS. The music files can be on hard drive(s) attached to the computer or in the NAS.

RENDERER - input is music packets, either from a local server or from the internet, which is converted to a digital stream to feed a DAC.

STREAMER (Now this where confusion is rife) - seems to be used to denote a combination of 2 or more of SERVER, RENDERER and DAC.

 

For the best sound quality I'd suggest (as other have already stated) keeping the SERVER element, with all its digital noise, remote from the RENDERER and DAC. (I've found a wireless ethernet bridge gives good isolation of the SERVER.) For the same reason I'd also suggest that a RENDERER be chosen that has the optimum output to maximise the performance of the DAC to be used.

 

[nikolaos1969]

On 9/1/2020 at 6:39 PM, stefano_mbp said:

Hello Nikolaos,

I own the sms200 Neo, not Ultra, but the OS is the same ...

a) I never used librespot as I don’t have a Spotify account (nor Qobuz or Tidal)

b) I’ve seen that the Android app is available ... but I use iPhone and iPad ... I think it is just a little help, the eunhasu.local web address works fine and seems the app is just a “dress” for the web interface, then it should work just as the pc (or a tablet)

c) yes, Bubbleupnp is one of the apps you can use if MPD/DLNA is enabled, on Android you can use Kazoo too, not sure if MConnect is available on Android. If you want to stream from Qobuz Bubbleupnp is quite a must as eunhasu Qobuz interface is broken (on MPD/DLNA configuration) due to a Qobuz choice..... here some details 

https://www.lesbonscomptes.com/upmpdcli/upmpdcli-manual.html#upmpdcli.qobuznotes

 

Shairport is available too on eunhasu, it is a AirPlay emulator and I suppose it can be used with iDevices only (iPad or iPhone or Mac)

 

I use my SOtM sms200 configured with MPD/DLNA, my library is managed with Minimserver (on a NUC8i3 running Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS) and I control music playback with Lumïn app (available on Antroid too) installed on iPad and iPhone. Lumïn app needs Bubbleupnpserver (not Bubbleupnp) installed somewhere on the network (mine is running on the same NUC8i3) to make it OpenHome compatible

I thought that you are using MPD as OS player for Minimserver on NUC8i3 that is why I asked about MPD.

[nikolaos1969]

On 9/4/2020 at 5:02 PM, stefano_mbp said:

I think this is because routers are not the best way to share music files, they can be fine for document sharing .... a nas could be the way to go

Never tried to use MPD on my computer (MacBook Pro) thus cannot help you on this.

Lpsu .... quite skeptical it can give a night/day difference on a streamer, I use one TeddyPardo on my dac (M2TECH Young DSD MKII)

Don’t know apps like iPeng for Android, sorry (do not own any Android device)

Hi, a) I have installed squeezelite X on LMS. Do you know other trustworthy squeezelite players, b) I have been provided to listen to sms200 ultra but suddenly the sd card does not work and I have to burn it again. Do you encounter such problems.

thx

[stefano_mbp]

5 hours ago, nikolaos1969 said:

Hi, a) I have installed squeezelite X on LMS. Do you know other trustworthy squeezelite players, b) I have been provided to listen to sms200 ultra but suddenly the sd card does not work and I have to burn it again. Do you encounter such problems.

thx

Hi, I don’t know Squeezelite-x or other players on Windows (on my raspberry pi4 I use GentooPlayer with LMS/Squeezelite-R2).

Never had problems with sms200 sd card but read that someone had the issue. To avoid this issue you should always shut down sms200 via eunhasu, and use trustworthy sd cards, I always use SanDisk cards