Hi! I´m very interested in the Id, already been a JRiver user since ver. 17 I think, I have a full license on my laptop. The way I plan to use it as follow:
1. My full library of about 1Tb would be placed on the Id, which includes a lot of flacs, and alac files and some few DSD files, most of the library has been riped from CD´s, there are some 96/24 and higher res downloads. This would be connected via USB to a Bifrost Multibit DAC.
2. The Id would be connected via ethernet to a router, the laptop via wi-fi the laptop only used to add either rips or downloaded music to the Id. There is no internet where the Id would reside (is there something as a ludite mode..? =P ).
3. In the future maybe I could try the Id Pi to provide music files to another DAC (for a headphone amp).
4. In the future I might be interested in using the hdmi to play videos or movies, but at present one of the features I like about the product is that a display is not needed.
5. I already have JRemote to control the laptop, so that would be used to control the Id.
6. For upgrades I guess I would have to take the Id to the city in order to access the internet... (it would be best If the upgrades can be done by an USB)
Now for the questions that still remain:
Looking to the future, will the current Id 202 be enough for say... 2 years? Would performance (specially with the dsd files) increase if I add say 8 GB of ram? Maybe at some point Id can play files from the ram?
I already read the whole forum, it seems that the current 202 is able to do what I want, only the specifics like compatibility with my DAC are unknowns to me. It seems that most of the issues are network related and making a lot of different devices interact; I wonder If the plugin-unpluging the Id from one network to another will eventually make me have issues with it, I don´t want sad days with the little thing dead and a library entombed in it... Anyways I appreciate any feedback you can provide.
best regards,
Antonio Rivas