Making a streamer with Intel Nuc/how

[Bliman]

First thanks for all the info.
I am not going to lie. It is super confusing for me.
Correct me if I am wrong but these are my options.
A fanless intel Nuc with maybe a terabyte storage. Easily 700€
A bluesound node 2i or a project ultra streamer with a nas. Easily 800-900€.
Or a solution with raspberry pi.
To me, it is all complicated.
If I go for the Nas then I need to connect it to the router downstairs to my router and computer. This would give the audio to the bluesound node 2i wirelessly upstairs which is connected by usb to the RME ADI dac. I don't know if this leads to sound loss.
If I go for the Intel Nuc I don't need a Nas and can connect it upstairs to the RME ADI dac. To me it seems like it leads to less quality loss.
I don't get why an intel Nuc would be overkill if I want to put my cd's to hard drive and want to play from there, with control from my smartphone. And with a possibility of later getting Tidal or spotify or such.
What am I missing?
And again I have a RME ADI DAC with USB connection but nothing bluetooth or wireless. Although I can receive the signal from my router downstairs just fine in my bedroom upstairs.

 

[SegaCD]

If I go for the Nas then I need to connect it to the router downstairs to my router and computer. This would give the audio to the bluesound node 2i wirelessly upstairs which is connected by usb to the RME ADI dac. I don't know if this leads to sound loss. If I go for the Intel Nuc I don't need a Nas and can connect it upstairs to the RME ADI dac. To me it seems like it leads to less quality loss.

Streaming audio over LAN will not incur any fidelity loss. Your device will buffer the audio stream and therefore will have as much "jitter" or whatever you're worried about as any other source.

A whole NAS system just for audio is a bit overkill but if you can buy a used one with a 1-2TB drives, you will get data redundancy which may save your audio collection in the case of power loss. It also makes accessing the data from other devices very easy. If you want to switch to Plex one day, for example, you can just point your Plex server to the NAS and you're done. You wont have to physically move a drive around.

I don't get why an intel Nuc would be overkill if I want to put my cd's to hard drive and want to play from there, with control from my smartphone. And with a possibility of later getting Tidal or spotify or such.

Intel NUCs are very expensive for just audio usage. Playing back audio requires very little processing power. If you were doing video and also video transcoding....and perhaps some gaming with a Thunderbolt connected video card, I'd say sure. A Rasp Pi with a Khadas Tone Board will perform just as well with greater power efficiency, less space, and for A LOT cheaper. If you're the tinkering type, you can also easily add a touchscreen or map to your own custom media controls, etc.

If you do go down the NUC route though, consider adding AirServer which will add Chromecast / AirPlay support.

 

[Costas EAR]

If you have a roon compatible nas server, you can install roon core server on the nas, and play tidal and your music by using your mobile phone.
You have to use a roon ready dac.

 

[Berwhale]

There are cheaper options than an Intel NUC with a similar form factor (e.g. Gigabyte BRIX, Acer Revo), you don't need anything powerful, a fairly recent Celeron or Pentium is fine. You should be able to put together a reasonable system running Daphile for uner 250€. I will have a go at assembling a parts list over the week-end.

 

[DWPress]

I have run a full Roon (audio)/Plex (video) server from a 2004 C2D digital signage machine with 4GB RAM running Win7 with no problems whatsoever. You don't need a brand new machine. Also, fans aren't really an issue unless you sit right next to the machine.

There's a really nice AOPEN MP67-D desktop - i5-2520M 2.5GHz 8GB RAM 250GB HDD Win10Pro with the same form factor as s NUC on eBay right now for $90 that would do everything you want and then some. I'm not the seller, I purchased one just like it from this seller a bit ago though.

Edited for more information

 

[Hayabusa]

If I go for the Intel Nuc I don't need a Nas and can connect it upstairs to the RME ADI dac. To me it seems like it leads to less quality loss.
I don't get why an intel Nuc would be overkill if I want to put my cd's to hard drive and want to play from there, with control from my smartphone. And with a possibility of later getting Tidal or spotify or such.
just fine in my bedroom upstairs.

Indeed for only audio it would be too expensive, but I also use it to be my movie 4K streamer. These functions combined make it worthwhile for me.

 

[Bliman]

There are cheaper options than an Intel NUC with a similar form factor (e.g. Gigabyte BRIX, Acer Revo), you don't need anything powerful, a fairly recent Celeron or Pentium is fine. You should be able to put together a reasonable system running Daphile for uner 250€. I will have a go at assembling a parts list over the week-end.

First thanks for chiming in with all your knowledge everyone.
Did you mean with " I will have a go at assembling a parts list over the week-end" that you would do that for me or do you mean that you will do it for yourself or another one? It would be great if you could give me a suggestion about the parts I need. If you want any information from me then just ask.
I didn't even know that something like Gigabyte Brix existed.
I am starting to lean to something like Gigabyte Brix with Daphile running on it. I guess then I also need an m2 ssd drive in it for storing the music. And for the little information, I found it also can work with Tidal I think.
To be honest I find it weird that I don't need something stronger in power. I thought that I read here on this forum that they were struggling to play DSD with an i5.
Thanks for helping me all.

 

[Zek]

I thought that I read here on this forum that they were struggling to play DSD with an i5.

If you only want to play DSD files, then you don't need a very strong processor - if you want to convert to DSD then you might also need an i7 processor.

 

[Bliman]

If you only want to play DSD files, then you don't need a very strong processor - if you want to convert to DSD then you might also need an i7 processor.

I think I would play the most in flac or wav. That's what I see they sell the most. Would that be a problem?

 

[DWPress]

I think I would play the most in flac or wav. That's what I see they sell the most. Would that be a problem?

Not at all. i3 or i5 would be just fine. 24/96 is the most "hi-def" material I have (and all I can hear) so honestly have no idea what it takes to convert to or from DSD.

 

[gvl]

I'll second Daphile, very nice package for PC hardware.

 

[Daverz]

The idea of a NAS is to have a cost-effective, low-power machine that can serve up tons of files 24/7. You probably don't want to keep a PC running 24/7 just to serve files whenever you need it.

NUCs typically don't have much space for storage and typically (I think) use more power than a NAS. Also, I think people use them because they want the security binky of running windows, but I could be wrong about that.

As for these dedicated streamer boxes that cost $800 and up, this strikes me as a need to have something expensive enough to be "audiophile approved".

 

[Bliman]

I am looking for a Gigabyte Brix and it looks like the same intake as a Intel Nuc but lower processor.
My question is. Would 4GB be enough ram or do you need 8GB. And also do I need a SSD Hard drive or is a Sata enough?
Because it makes a big difference in price. And is one Terabyte enough or is it better to have a small normal hard drive and have a NAS downstairs and wirelessly stream upstairs? Sorry for all the questions.

 

[BillG]

1. Install the operating system of choice on the NUC.

2. Install the media server package of choice. My favorite is Emby as even the freeware version as sufficient for most home users, the UX/UI (User eXperience/User Interface) is clean, attractive, and easy to use, and it's remote controllable.



Emby (Android) running on my phone.

3. Install the client/remote apps on whatever mobile device(s) you have.

4. Enjoy

Running two computers and linear power supplies is unnecessary for optimum sound quality, and not cost effective. Yeah, I'm aware that a number of people over at Computer Audiophile recommend that, but I suspect that some dealer, or person without a proper understanding of computer science, conned/misinformed them into believing it.

"Oh, but this is audio! Everything matters!" they'll probably exclaim. It's not until the input is converted by the DAC. Prior to that view it as computer science, because it is...

 

[Berwhale]

Daphile's minimum hardware requirements are very low (i486 and 512MB RAM).

One of the Celeron based BRIX will be suitable for Daphile, e.g. Gigabyte Brix GB-BACE-3150. 4GB of RAM is fine, you don't need 8GB.

With respect to storage, I have around 950 albums stored as FLAC files, mostly in CD quality, but some in Hi-Res, that take up 500GB on my server. If you want to keep the cost down, I would stick to an HDD. The SSD won't give you any benefit apart from being silent (2.5" HDDs are almost silent anyway).

You can use an application like Squeezer on your phone to control Daphile.

I don't know if you need to rip CDs, but Daphile can do that as well, you just need to plug on a USB CD-ROM drive (or more likely a DVD-ROM drive these days)

 

[Bliman]

Thank you all for the help.

 

[Bliman]

Daphile's minimum hardware requirements are very low (i486 and 512MB RAM).

One of the Celeron based BRIX will be suitable for Daphile, e.g. Gigabyte Brix GB-BACE-3150. 4GB of RAM is fine, you don't need 8GB.

With respect to storage, I have around 950 albums stored as FLAC files, mostly in CD quality, but some in Hi-Res, that take up 500GB on my server. If you want to keep the cost down, I would stick to an HDD. The SSD won't give you any benefit apart from being silent (2.5" HDDs are almost silent anyway).

You can use an application like Squeezer on your phone to control Daphile.

I don't know if you need to rip CDs, but Daphile can do that as well, you just need to plug on a USB CD-ROM drive (or more likely a DVD-ROM drive these days)

I have been looking how to best do this.
Would this set up be good?
Intel NUC7CJYH
with intel celeron J4005
4GB DDR4 jetram (2666Mhz)
240GB SSD RAM
and a
WD Elements 4 TB External Hard drive
Around 350€ all
or a
Gigabyte BRIX GB-BLPD-5005R
Intel Pentium J5005
same ram
same SSD
and a
WD Elements 4TB external hard drive
Around the same price.
My thinking is this.
I would use the SSD for the operating system and the external for the music. I have cd ripper software downstairs on my computer. So I would leave the intel NUC or Gigabyte upstairs and only take my hard drive downstairs and put the music on it. And then take it back upstairs. This way if I want to put new music on it. Then I only need to take the external hard drive downstairs.
Does this sound like a good plan? And I would have enough storage space.
Thanks for all the help by the way.

 

[ahofer]

Another option is a raspberry pi with volumio on it. You can find those pre-configured. Volumio is open source, but not perfect. You can use it as a DLNA endpoint, remotely use the app or a browser window, or even plug in a touch screen and select music at the device. Tidal and Qobuz can be streamed directly from within Volumio.

The android tablet version of the app is buggy-it wasn’t written natively but runs as a web simulator. It loses its connection when the device powers down regardless of the connection settings. The volumio guy denies this, but my son (who has multiple Linux commits) looked at the code and verified this is a problem. Hopefully they will write a native version now that Bryston is on board.

https://volumio.org/product-category/bundle/

 

[Puska]

I have been looking how to best do this.
Would this set up be good?
Intel NUC7CJYH
with intel celeron J4005
4GB DDR4 jetram (2666Mhz)
240GB SSD RAM
and a
WD Elements 4 TB External Hard drive
Around 350€ all
or a
Gigabyte BRIX GB-BLPD-5005R
Intel Pentium J5005
same ram
same SSD
and a
WD Elements 4TB external hard drive
Around the same price.
My thinking is this.
I would use the SSD for the operating system and the external for the music. I have cd ripper software downstairs on my computer. So I would leave the intel NUC or Gigabyte upstairs and only take my hard drive downstairs and put the music on it. And then take it back upstairs. This way if I want to put new music on it. Then I only need to take the external hard drive downstairs.
Does this sound like a good plan? And I would have enough storage space.
Thanks for all the help by the way.

All you need is nuc i3 with Windows 10 and audirvana, HDD 4 tb with your music, tablet or phone with audirvana remote app. Good luck!
.

 

[Bliman]

All you need is nuc i3 with Windows 10 and audirvana, HDD 4 tb with your music, tablet or phone with audirvana remote app. Good luck!
.

I don't get it anymore. I thought that you don't needed an i3, and that a Celeron was good enough for audio?