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Making a streamer with Intel Nuc/how

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Bliman

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I am looking seriously to a Innuos (my power amplifier just came back but I haven't put together with the rest of the system) mini zen mk3. I like that it is plug and play and looks very simple to use.
I find it curious that there are so little streamers out there. Yes we have the bluesound. But besides that we have many very expensive stuff or else something like a raspberry pi. I had hoped there would be something like an RME DAC where the product is well regarded everywhere, where the price was right and everything is just right. I can't find such a thing. The Innuos seems very good according to many as well as the Lumin. But the Lumin is just to expensive.
 

testp

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yes i agree, rpi4 is cheap solution, bluesound in the middle with one of the good ones... minidsp shd studio -for digital, and then the rest... Nuc is also in the middle somewhere.

What i would like to see in the near future around 500 euros... great performing power amp, maybe from Soncoz..? or Topping then.

Would want to see NC400 signal pureness, in more affordable price. At the moment i would need to settle with nc250 in that price range.

nc250 or nc252 isn't bad, power supply and signal at the same board.., it just needs more attention to signal purity i guess..
 

Nicolaas

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My 13 Y old Sony Vaio laptop died.

Today I built a new system with:
Intel NUC with Pentium processor 7PJYH
Dell 22 inch monitor
Microsoft wireless mouse and keyboard
1 TB Samsung SSD
8 GB of RAM
Linux Mint Xfce 19.3 with Audacious
1 WD elements 2 TB HDD 2.5" for 16b 44.1k FLAC files
1 WD elements 2 TB HDD 2.5" for 24b 96k FLAC files

Great sound system for E 390,- (Without SSD which came from my defective Sony laptop)
 

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tom_tom

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Hi All, I have similar situation. I'd like to have headless system with good remote app. I have miniPC ( Dell 7040 Micro i7-6700, 8GB RAM, 240 GB SSD) -> Topping D50s -> Atoll in100se -> Jamo C103. I'm looking for a OS or APP that would work with Spotify, Tidal and internal music. Audrivana is pretty nice but does not cooperate include Spotify. Volumio is okay-ish but Tidal implementation is not great and paid extra. Roon is too expensive and does not work with Spotify, same story with Euphony. Daphile is great for Spotify Connect but web interface is not great to use on mobile. Are there any others that I can try ? Alternatively I can add raspberry pi just for Spotify connect and Audrivana for Tidal but that increase cost. My Chromecast audio broke ( cannot connect to WiFi ) and is EOL.
 

tom_tom

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Thanks @Kuppenbender . I use Android devices. Mconnect lite app was working good with Tidal and Volumio but I would like to use my phone just as a remote, not upnp streamer.
 

ahofer

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Hi All, I have similar situation. I'd like to have headless system with good remote app. I have miniPC ( Dell 7040 Micro i7-6700, 8GB RAM, 240 GB SSD) -> Topping D50s -> Atoll in100se -> Jamo C103. I'm looking for a OS or APP that would work with Spotify, Tidal and internal music. Audrivana is pretty nice but does not cooperate include Spotify. Volumio is okay-ish but Tidal implementation is not great and paid extra. Roon is too expensive and does not work with Spotify, same story with Euphony. Daphile is great for Spotify Connect but web interface is not great to use on mobile. Are there any others that I can try ? Alternatively I can add raspberry pi just for Spotify connect and Audrivana for Tidal but that increase cost. My Chromecast audio broke ( cannot connect to WiFi ) and is EOL.

Have you tried Volumio or MoOde?
 

temps

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Will one of these NUCs work to stream Tidal from a phone? These are all such terrible hacks. Wrappers and whatnot, no. No no no.

Go to the Tidal app on my phone (not some random 3rd party nonsense), select destination device, select it -> stream in master quality, controlled from my phone. Why is this so hard to DIY?
 

ahofer

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Will one of these NUCs work to stream Tidal from a phone? These are all such terrible hacks. Wrappers and whatnot, no. No no no.

Go to the Tidal app on my phone (not some random 3rd party nonsense), select destination device, select it -> stream in master quality, controlled from my phone. Why is this so hard to DIY?

For that, a $50 chromecast audio off of eBay is your best bet.

oh-wait - you want MQA? I don’t think you can do that thru Chromecast, but you aren’t giving up anything. Some would say you are gaining something.
 
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tom_tom

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There are apps for Android too - Squeezer, Squeeze Ctrl and probably others.

Thanks @somebodyelse Finally I've set up Daphile with Spotify Connect and Tidal ( LMS ). I've installed Squeezer and it works like a charm. I don't like interface on App but except that it is pretty neat solution.

Have you tried Volumio or MoOde?

Yes. I don't mind Volumio and even paid few months for MyVolumio account to have Tidal native. Problem is that on x86 PC ( I didn't had that problem on Raspberry Pi + Allo Digione Signature) sound from Tidal brakes few times daily. Also build in Wi-Fi is not working. I don't have this issues with Daphile.

Thanks all for help and advice.
 

somebodyelse

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Thanks @somebodyelse Finally I've set up Daphile with Spotify Connect and Tidal ( LMS ). I've installed Squeezer and it works like a charm. I don't like interface on App but except that it is pretty neat solution.
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.
 

bbarreira

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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.

Note that there is another way by instaling the material skin as a real app. Instal f-droid and search for lms material. Select install.
 

bbarreira

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Just to add something. With the last Daphile/LMS update is now possible to have Tidal library integrated with local library. So if you have a album saved on Tidal it shows on the Daphile library with all other local albums but with a little Tidal ícon (you can disable the ícon if you want). The integration with Tidal is really great now.
 

bbarreira

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@bbarreira awesome tip ! Is works great, thank You
You're welcome:)

First sorry for my "below average" English.

I tried many possible configurations on the past for streaming or PC based players.
Ex: Audirvana and Amarra with Mac;
On PC: Roon; Roon with HQPlayer; Roon on a NUC streaming to a Raspberry Pi (ropieee, DietPi), Raspberry Pi with Volumio (with and without Tidal) Raspberry Pi with Moode, Raspberry Pi with PiCorePlayer; even tried Roon on a NUC streaming to a mini PC with Daphile (yes its possible), just to name a few.

-I finally settled on a NUC type Mini PC (gigabyte brix) running Daphile directly connected to a DAC via USB. The brix is connected via ethernet and my music is stored on a NAS (Raspberry Pi running OpenMediaVault with a USB hdd attached) plus Tidal. To control everything i simply use the material skin app (just enable Material Skin plugin on Daphile) on Android devices or on any PC via web brower. Flawless! Sound quality is just perfect. Daphile is a very well polished solution and its free. You just have to learn some pretty easy stuff. Not Roon easy but very worthy.

P.S. The Brix has a Intel Core i5 but i underpower it on the Daphile settings. Daphile demands so little resoucers tha almost any PC will do. Unless you enter the resampling road.

Since i'm quite familiar with these streaming stuff if you guys need any help i'll be happy to do so.
 

kaja69

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I am running Tidal with a HiFi subscription on my Win10 NUC. A USB connected Dragonfly DAC is the connection to my amp. Sound is great but I would like simple control of Tidal from my Android phone. Sounds like ROON is coll but also expensive. Is there any freeware solving my problem?
 

tom_tom

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Hi @kaja69,

You can use free OS like Daphile if this PC is dedicated for music. If You would like to stay with Windows 10 and have nice polished app but Roon is to expensive ( for me too ), then try Audirvana https://audirvana.com/ 30 days trial for free. It looks really nice and have apps for Apple and Android devices. I like it very much. Lifetime license costs 96 USD. Are You using screen with this NUC or is it "headless "?
 

kaja69

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Thanks for your reply! I have a screen now but would like to use it headless.

Audirvana looks nice (like ROON) but I was hoping for a freeware remote desktop app where I would be able to control the Tidal Win10 app.

The Tidal Win10 app comes with all the functionality for BEST sound including Exclusive Mode (exclusive use of the DAC, eliminating interference), Force Volume (control volume from DAC/amp) and Passthrough MQA (disables software decoding of MQA, the Dragonfly DAC handles it).
 
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