New Streaming Set Up - But What?

[bob4333]

Background

As the hard drive on my Lenovo Ideacentre Mini PC has now failed (and I have no inclination to fix it), I have the opportunity to start again with a non PC based streaming installation.



The Lenovo, (left stack in pic, middle row) running Windows 7, was dedicated to retrieving music from a USB connected hard drive, pushing the signal into a Leema DAC / Musical Fidelity Pre amp and thenceforth into the rest of the system. It had no other duties apart from running iTunes and MediaMonkey. The pre amp has been replaced since the pic with an Audio Research LS27.

As it was all computer based it meant that I also needed a screen on the wall, keyboard and mouse. It all ran fine until the HD failed. So, I’m now looking for a dedicated streamer.

Wants and Assumptions

Top priority is sound quality, closely followed by user interface. The PC derived stuff provided convenience rather than astounding SQ and was third in the ranking after CD (Leema Antilla IIs) with the top spot going to Vinyl. Give me a streamer that equals Vinyl SQ and I’ll junk everything else....

The new player will be app / tablet controlled so that I can lose the touch screen off the wall. Under this approach my DAC will also be surplus and therefore sold.

I am assuming the HD will not plug straight into a network player so I guess I’ll need to invest in a NAS UPnP device. There’s no interest in streaming around the house so I assume I can connect this directly into the back of the new player with an Ethernet cable. Correct?

Looking at.....

Pioneer N-50A discounted to £369
Pioneer N-70A around £900
Cambridge CXN £699
Cyrus Stream Xa around £1200

But - I’ve not heard any of these and am not overly sure the subtleties will be immediately apparent during an auditioning session, in a different room with different downstream kit, so I’m looking to narrow the field.

Expectation

It’s going to sound better than the mini PC derived sound and I can reduce my box count. Playing my iPod via a Pure i20 dock sounds better than the PC.

Questions?

1. Of the units listed, is there any single “stand out” player? My instinct and reading of reviews leads me to the Cyrus player – but the cash is still in pocket so I have choices.
2. Are there any players not listed that I should be considering? If there's a compelling reason to do so I'm prepared to spend more than the Cyrus, but SQ had better be good.
3. As I’m going to have to start again and rip my entire CD collection to files what format should I use? Assumption this time around is FLAC.
4. Any recommendations for a NAS storage device? Western Digital has served me well over the years. 3TB should easily future proof me.
5. Anything I’ve missed or should be aware of.........?

I'm not precious about any of this and am more than prepared to listen to views - so give me what you've got.

[Simon_LDT]

If it's just for music, what about a Raspberry Pi? I recently got one for streaming and playing all my hi-res files and it works a treat. Lots of members here have set up NAS storage to work with these and you should be able to hook it up to your existing DAC and then onto the rest of the system. Can be controlled using a phone/tablet/laptop, etc and there are plenty of easy to install Linux based operating systems you can try.

[bob4333]

Well it's a thought, but I'm not overly looking to rekindle my love of computer based systems.

I definitely don't want a screen on the wall again so I'd need to look closer into this to see what's required. I have a feeling at the back of my mind that the PC processed audio wasn't giving me the best option in terms of sound - or maybe it was just the way it ran iTunes? Don't know.

[Kit1cat]

Another vote for the Raspberry pi, I went from a Logitech Touch feeding a Bushmaster dac to a pi/Iqaudio dac combo and never looked back, for very little cost it's well worth a shout.

[Simon_LDT]

If you had a mini-pc I assume it had a fan/s? That doesn't help, plus the Power supply noise, etc are not friendly with SQ.

The Pi is linux based, which runs smoothly without any bloat of typical PC systems, no fans either. I'm no expert on this as I've only just recently got mine set-up and running, but I know there are others on here that are running all kinds of storage based systems off it, either by wired or wireless ethernet.

I was in a similar situation as you, albeit I was running my laptop into my DAC and yes it sounded pretty good but it was cumbersome and I had to use a pretty long cable to the DAC which I didn't like. I was looking at building a mini-pc but decided against it after finding out about the Pi.

Hopefully others will chime in soon.

[rikardo1979]

depend on how much you want to spend. there are great streamers from Naim, Linn...
But if you have a time and you like to fiddle around than RPi is great stuff. I using 3 at home, each for different purpose

But I going to buy Naim Superuniti soon so that is going to be my main music solution

[Wayne Bull]

Raspberry Pi - iQAudio Pi-Dac+ = Superb

[mikeyb]

My issue with buying a streamer is the fact that they continually change models, meaning older ones lose support, they don't stream all providers, they are far too expensive for what they do. Why spend hundreds of £'s on something that's out of date in a year or so.

Operating systems on android and iOS change as well, this also makes some apps outdated and unsupported.

My advice would be to buy a Pi setup for under £100, try it, if no good for you then try a dedicated streamer.

With my Pi I can access my NAS drive thereby playing every format. I can stream Qobuz and Tidal at full resolution, I can Airplay Spotify or Apple Music ( airplay isn't my preferred method but Spot and Apple aren't supported in Bubble uPnP across app yet ).

I can't believe people spend £100's and even £1000's on streamers, when at the end of the day they aren't any better than a Pi. Look at Bryston, they are entering the streaming market with....... A box with a Pi in it, and I bet it's more than £100 lol.

Streamers live and die by how good their apps are, and you just need to read all the reviews whether it be Android or iOS to see that they are all generally fairly average.

I'll buy a dedicated streamer when I find one that can do all the streaming providers and have a reliable non crashing app and the hardware is still supported in 10 years time

[Wayne Bull]

My issue with buying a streamer is the fact that they continually change models, meaning older ones lose support, they don't stream all providers, they are far too expensive for what they do. Why spend hundreds of £'s on something that's out of date in a year or so.

Operating systems on android and iOS change as well, this also makes some apps outdated and unsupported.

My advice would be to buy a Pi setup for under £100, try it, if no good for you then try a dedicated streamer.



With my Pi I can access my NAS drive thereby playing every format. I can stream Qobuz and Tidal at full resolution, I can Airplay Spotify or Apple Music ( airplay isn't my preferred method but Spot and Apple aren't supported in Bubble uPnP across app yet ).

I can't believe people spend £100's and even £1000's on streamers, when at the end of the day they aren't any better than a Pi. Look at Bryston, they are entering the streaming market with....... A box with a Pi in it, and I bet it's more than £100 lol.

Streamers live and die by how good their apps are, and you just need to read all the reviews whether it be Android or iOS to see that they are all generally fairly average.

I'll buy a dedicated streamer when I find one that can do all the streaming providers and have a reliable non crashing app and the hardware is still supported in 10 years time

Superbly put Mikey

[rikardo1979]

My issue with buying a streamer is the fact that they continually change models, meaning older ones lose support, they don't stream all providers, they are far too expensive for what they do. Why spend hundreds of £'s on something that's out of date in a year or so.

Operating systems on android and iOS change as well, this also makes some apps outdated and unsupported.

My advice would be to buy a Pi setup for under £100, try it, if no good for you then try a dedicated streamer.

With my Pi I can access my NAS drive thereby playing every format. I can stream Qobuz and Tidal at full resolution, I can Airplay Spotify or Apple Music ( airplay isn't my preferred method but Spot and Apple aren't supported in Bubble uPnP across app yet ).

I can't believe people spend £100's and even £1000's on streamers, when at the end of the day they aren't any better than a Pi. Look at Bryston, they are entering the streaming market with....... A box with a Pi in it, and I bet it's more than £100 lol.

Streamers live and die by how good their apps are, and you just need to read all the reviews whether it be Android or iOS to see that they are all generally fairly average.

I'll buy a dedicated streamer when I find one that can do all the streaming providers and have a reliable non crashing app and the hardware is still supported in 10 years time

trouble is that RPi is not to everyone taste You need at least some computer background to be able to set this properly.
I do have 3 RPis, but again, I live with computers since 90's and I just love RPi.
But give it to the majority of people and I guarantee it is going to end up in drawers...I know it as I was setting up a lot of them for friends, friends of friends ... none of them is using it anymore.

I started with Raspberry the day they came out with 1st one and I still using them. One is my media server, one is main multimedia solution with Kodi, 3rd one is inside of old Roberts radio...

But is not made for masses...it was designed as an learning platform and is great for that purpose and more if you like to fiddle with it