Pi 2 Design Mercury Streamer

[orange5o]

So, I'm looking at a Mercury v2 to replace a Pi2AES Lite in my main system for a couple reasons (1. To use AES into an Yggrasil instead of BNC, 2. cut down on clutter of external ssd attached since I play local flac only and want to use the hd internally)

 

Couple questions, is there likely to be a benefit of using internal hard drive in mercury vs ssd via USB? 

 

And 

 

The instructions earlier seem difficult for coding- stupid person like me, is that the instructions to be able to access the internal hdd from a network computer? Is there an easy way to use an internal hdd and then unhook from system and hook directly up to my PC to update the music server? 

[orange5o]

Unfamiliar with gentooplayer, seems like more of a desktop control solution? I need a phone app/ui which it doesn't seem to do.

 

Other than the clutter, is there any downside to using an external sdd vs internal nvme?

[orange5o]

Agreed. Part of the draw of the Mercury is to take the guesswork and learning curve out of it for us who don't know code. I have enough trouble keeping volumio working on a pi streamer. I just wanted to explore internal hard drive in that scenario and gain aes out.

[orange5o]

Zack, I know from the Lite thread you were getting one of those also, did you end up doing a sound comparison? Thanks!

[orange5o]

Have the pl50 from fiio also, it is very good. Will say however they strongly suggest turning off the lps when not in use I.e. not leaving on all the time

[orange5o]

Not sure, but it was a strong recommendation from the manufacturer in a forum on another site...

[orange5o]

Was powering the Mercury, now I'm using it for my phono pre. Yes it is a step up, it's a linear power supply and good value. I changed from mercury to the pi2aes 2.0 so needed to find another use for it. 

[orange5o]

The pl50 is 12v or 15v I think, would not work for any pi2aes product outside of the Mercury I think.  On the forum you linked you can ask Mike Kelly, who designs the pi2aes