Hallo, thanks to the advice here, I think I can define my network question better. I’ve checked the wiki and the examples and read the past few threads in Media Network which seem to cover related ground. And I found this article
https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/ca-academy/the-complete-guide-to-hifi-upnp-dlna-network-audio/ I’ve got a number of overlapping things I want to sort out. Basic issue is analogue hi-fi in the main room needs connecting to my music files. So I need a DMR (renderer), a DMS (server) and a connection. I have a Sony TV and a Humax STB, both of which can connect to the network and read the files on the UPNP server built-in to my NAS (Seagate) – but their browsing / GUI is not the best and they don’t do FLAC.
If I use my tablet as a CP (control point), I can play from the UPNP to the Humax but can’t use transcode.
I’ve not been able to find a DMR/DAC which I can put on the network, connect to the hi-fi and use MC (on tablet or laptop) to send audio to it. There are things like the microRendu (which needs an external DAC and it’s not exactly budget).
I have an Asus VivoPC (quiet but not fanless) which I got for testing stuff and I could get a 1TB SSD (to reduce noise), configure MC as a server and use that as the main music store. If I put this in the main room, could use the TV as display and add my Meridian Explorer DAC (should be better than in-built PC audio).
If that was too noisy, I could put it back in my workroom and use something I read about in Hi-Fi News, the wonderfully-named Nubert nuFunk (German site
https://www.nubert.de/nufunk-wireless/20/ ) which for about 150 Euro will get the data stream from the VivoPC/MC wirelessly to a receiver/DAC at the hi-fi. I could use JRiver remote on my phone as CP.
So in a nutshell:
- It seems sensible to use MC as the DMS instead of the UPNP on the Seagate
- That implies upgrading the Asus VivoPC to a bigger/quieter SSD
- The Meridian Explorer should be better than the TV, STB or PC built-in audio. Don’t know about the quality of the nuFunk but that reads as better than built-in.
I don’t know enough about the various JRiver Id options (and have no experience with Linux) – would a fully -baked IdPi do the trick as a DMR and would it use the Meridian DAC or does it already have good audio built-in or is it upgradeable (I’ve seen audio options
https://www.hifiberry.com/ )?
Be interested in your comments / experience. If there’s an article or thread / post I’ve missed, happy to take a look. Thanks.