Making a streamer with Intel Nuc/how

[kaja69]

Thanks again! With Remote Desktop 8 on my Android I can control my NUC. But the sound is coming out through my phone, not the Dragonfly to my amp and I can't see that I can control the output. I'll try some more here...

 

[Foxenfurter]

IMHO you really don't need to spend much on a PC

If you want to save money, like me I recommend a PC like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08GHCD...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

< £200.

I bought a Beelink S1 (no longer available) and it is perfectly adequate.

If you do this I would recommend sticking with windows on the device as putting Linux on it is a faff. I have had a PC like this running for 2 years without issue. It replaced a vortexbox and is much smaller.

If you want to use it as a music server, i.e. with all your files on it then you will need to install a 2.5 inch drive. There are 2 types of drive Solid state which are faster dead silent but more expensive or mechanical which are not quite silent but cheaper. Do not get a mechanical Hard drive > 2 GB as it won't fit in the box. If you need a larger size then use an external USB drive. There are some no name chinese Solid State drives that are affordable now at 2 TB. e.g.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TCSUNBOW-S...nternal+ssd&qid=1604073687&s=computers&sr=1-8

It will be absolutely silent.

I run the PC without a monitor and have Squeezebox server installed as a service along with plex media server for videos etc. Running the application as a service means that it will re-start automatically if the server is restarted, without having to log in. I have set the server to reboot once a week to pickup windows updates. Squeezebox server is free and is easy to install on windows there is some effort to get it running as a service and occasionally it will bugger up e.g. the last windows update meant I had to upgrade the SB server version.

I use raspberry pi with picoreplayer installed for playback in my lounge, this allows me to have the pc in the study and the Pi's connected to my main stereo in the lounge. But this kind of setup is over-kill if you are just using the player in one room.

I also have squeezelite-X installed on the pc and run it with a monitor and output sound via my Motu USB DAC.

For remote control I either use the web interface with material skin enabled or orange squeeze on my phone.

You can also install Roon or Jriver if you choose or any number of DLNA services instead of Squeezebox server.

 

[tom_tom]

Thanks again! With Remote Desktop 8 on my Android I can control my NUC. But the sound is coming out through my phone, not the Dragonfly to my amp and I can't see that I can control the output. I'll try some more here...

In rd client click on desktop options and choose play sound on remote PC.

 

[kaja69]

Thanks tom_tom! Will try that today

 

[somebodyelse]

@Foxenfurter if you really want to save money a used thin client will be more than powerful enough and you can often pick one up for <£20. Pick carefully and you can mount an SATA or NVMe drive internally. Installing daphile is easy, and it comes with LMS, squeezelite and BruteFIR already configured. parkytowers.me.uk is a great resource for checking hardware details and linux compatibility - some of the older ones don't meet daphile minimum requirements, and there are a few that don't have x86 processors.

 

[Foxenfurter]

Thanks for the tip. I am really trying to point out to people that setting up a music server need not be too expensive as the hardware required is relatively low powered. Going down the route of speccing an i7 processor and then trying to make it run fanless and in some cases chucking in GPUs too is a total waste of money and power.

 

[tom_tom]

@Foxenfurter there is a lot of hardware that we have already or can be bought used that is more than capable of sending bitperfect audio signal without a sweat. I'm pretty happy with cheap Daphile setup.

 

[kaja69]

@tom_tom thanks for your help! I just wanted to let you and other people know that the following combination works fine:

1. Tidal Windows app runnning on my NUC
2. Dragonfly DAC (USB) to my AVR
3. Microsoft Remote Desktop 8 on my Android phone

With this simple setup I can stream Tidal HiFi (including MQA quality) and control it on my Android. Very nice.

The Tidal Windows app comes with settings for optimal sound procesing; Exclusive Mode (exclusive use of the DAC, eliminating interference), Force Volume (control volume from DAC/AVR) and Passthrough MQA (disables software decoding of MQA, the Dragonfly DAC handles it).

 

[tom_tom]

Great news @kaja69 ! Check also auto logon advice and autostart from post #240 , it makes life easier if You plan to turn it on and off from time to time

 

[Zensō]

Just yesterday I built a NUC server (i5, 8gb RAM, 250gb SSD) running Roon ROCK feeding 6 zones located throughout the house. The endpoints are various networked powered speakers and Macs feeding DAC/amps, the controllers are iPhones and iPads. The music source is Tidal HiFi. The setup was straightforward and so far I couldn’t be happier.

 

[milus]

Thanks again! With Remote Desktop 8 on my Android I can control my NUC. But the sound is coming out through my phone, not the Dragonfly to my amp and I can't see that I can control the output. I'll try some more here...

Hey! I didn't know about Remote Desktop 8.
As a side note, what was a problem to @kaja69 is a solution for streaming video from a NUC / Server to a TV set while listening via headphones attached to the mobile.

Nice!!

 

[Hov]

Another option is the Material Skin plugin for LMS combined with the browser's 'add to home screen' function - it's not strictly an app but the experience is more or less like one. It's mentioned in their docs which are surprisingly detailed for a skin plugin.

Releases · CDrummond/lms-material-app

Android WebView wrapper for LMS Material Skin. Contribute to CDrummond/lms-material-app development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

There is a simple APK solution for the material LMS actual app on the device now as well, the biggest improvement being that it integrates with the system and you can use shortcuts and controls in the notification dropdown, lock screen, etc.

My big gripe is that there are little strange things that happen with LMS every now and again. A song will skip out of nowhere, a page is strangely slow to load so you have to go back to home, search is clanky, etc. This is all a "free" DIY solution and a way to circumvent many things, so it's wonderful that it's available. You just need to be able to tolerate the fact that it's not smooth and polished and that you will have little annoyances here and there, sometimes which can lead to disturbances enough to break immersion and bother you in the moment. Granted I must say that for the limited testing I did playing back local files, I didn't experience the same things, so perhaps it's more when it's used as a bridge for streaming services.

I've managed to get Tidal Connect working with a DietPi install but have not yet been brave enough to jump down the (very custom, build-necessary) DSP solutions just yet (CamillaDSP or the "dsp" option with plugin) as it seems quite involved. I think I'll get RPi4b 2GB to dedicate to music, throw moode OS on there and get Tidal Connect working there, then can use the built in CamillaDSP (much easier to manage and customize). Even just one always-on EQ setting would be okay for my headphones, though I'm hoping to be able to have at least a couple profiles, perhaps even a way to switch between them or turn of EQ easily. I'll be sure to document how it all went in a thread when I get the second Pi.

 

[bloodshoteyed]

hell nah, i gave up on LMS since it wouldn't even let me log into my Deezer account (support of which was about the only reason why i tried it at all)
with the nuc and three other usff format machines i got laying around i seriously thought i could cheap out in that regard but went with a bluesound node in the end

 

[Hov]

hell nah, i gave up on LMS since it wouldn't even let me log into my Deezer account (support of which was about the only reason why i tried it at all)
with the nuc and three other usff format machines i got laying around i seriously thought i could cheap out in that regard but went with a bluesound node in the end

A WiiM Mini Streamer could likely take the place of your Node and it's quite affordable and a great little piece of kit. I'm going to get a dedicated Pi to play with but I have a feeling that, soon enough, they'll release a 10-band PEQ update for the WiiM and it will all have been for naught. Let's see how it goes! We're certainly in a golden age of all of this stuff being possible all at once.

 

[bloodshoteyed]

A WiiM Mini Streamer could likely take the place of your Node and it's quite affordable and a great little piece of kit. I'm going to get a dedicated Pi to play with but I have a feeling that, soon enough, they'll release a 10-band PEQ update for the WiiM and it will all have been for naught. Let's see how it goes! We're certainly in a golden age of all of this stuff being possible all at once.

i tried making something out of things i already had and after sinking 20-30 hours in total unproductivity, if having to buy something else/new (especially with the current unavailability of pi's and other stuff in that area), i just went for an out-of-box solution

 

[ZeljkoS]

Isprobao sam neke od aplikacija, ali smatram da mi je najdraže uključivanje televizora i korištenje bežične tipkovnice i miša. Međutim, aplikacije dopuštaju bezglavi sustav. JRiver ima ugrađeno sučelje preglednika.

Vaša dva posta o preporučenim specifikacijama Mini PC-a za prijenos DSD datoteke na DAC ostaju iznimke, kao da ste izbačeni iz ove teme. Nisam našao pametan odgovor s kutijom sa specifikacijama za NUC što radi - što npr. radi ZIDOOZ9X. Zato sam i otišao na Aliexpress kupiti NUC i sad sam u nedoumici. Vaš odgovor mi daje za pravo da kupim nešto do 200 dolara, a vaši konkurenti kompliciraju stvari s puno, puno skupljim NUC-ovima. Ne mogu se riješiti ROON-a ili uzorkovanja na mreži - i samo bih slušao svoje datoteke s vanjskog tvrdog diska. U nedoumici sam - što sad. Koji procesor je minimum - recimo!

 

[Ron Texas]

Vaša dva posta o preporučenim specifikacijama Mini PC-a za prijenos DSD datoteke na DAC ostaju iznimke, kao da ste izbačeni iz ove teme. Nisam našao pametan odgovor s kutijom sa specifikacijama za NUC što radi - što npr. radi ZIDOOZ9X. Zato sam i otišao na Aliexpress kupiti NUC i sad sam u nedoumici. Vaš odgovor mi daje za pravo da kupim nešto do 200 dolara, a vaši konkurenti kompliciraju stvari s puno, puno skupljim NUC-ovima. Ne mogu se riješiti ROON-a ili uzorkovanja na mreži - i samo bih slušao svoje datoteke s vanjskog tvrdog diska. U nedoumici sam - što sad. Koji procesor je minimum - recimo!

Your response does not seen to match what you have quoted from my post and then translated into another language. Google translate does not do a great job on Croatian. I don't make or enforce the rules, but I was under the impression that this was an English language forum.