I've effectively 'dumbed down' my setup as I prefer the simplicity of having my main source on a USB drive connected directly to the Pi via USB3.* I can access the USB drive via my Macbook as and when I want to update or add media (it's not that difficult) and use JRiver Media Centre to manage the library and ripping of CDs.

Most of the time though, I'm just using the Pi in 'headless' mode, accessing Volumio via my smart phone or running Spotify via Volumio from the phone.

I have run it from a NAS before but I prefer this setup in terms of simplifying the chain.*

The setup I run is an RPi/ALLO BOSS DAC with a USB3 drive connected directly, powered by rechargeable smartphone battery charger.

Now looking to upgrade this to a Katana + Isolator using the same setup. Also looking at using Solid State Drive for the source.




*yes, I do keep backups of my media library on a separate hard drive (using RAID 0)