PC Server setup

[shaitan667]

Hi all, new member here.

I have a spare PC that I'm looking to use as music server.
It's a small form factor Acer Aspire X3900 -
i3 560 CPU
14GB DDR3
Have a few different HDDs I could use, 500gb, 1tb, or 2tb
Has optical audio out

I'm going to be hooking it up to a Yamaha HT-6030 receiver - 5.1 speaker setup in the living room on one zone, 2 speaker setup outside on the other zone (zone may not be the right word - it has A and B speaker outputs.)

I'm looking at running either Snakeoil OS or Daphile. Anyone that has used these, could you please let me know how your experience has been?
Are there other things I should look at? I was thinking Volumio, but I think the Android app isn't free.

It seems like the preferred method is to use a USB DAC, but this isn't an option for me - I'm limited to using what I have on hand.
Using optical to the receiver, will the onboard audio chipset process the music? Or can it be bitstreamed?

Most of my music is FLAC, 44kHz/16bit - 192kHz/24bit, with some SACD rips as well - some ISO, and some DSF.

Any suggestions on setup would be much appreciated.

 

[bigx5murf]

If you're going to be using it in the living room, and I assume a tv hooked up to it. Have you considered Openelec, so that it's a full fledged media device and not audio only?

 

[shaitan667]

Won't be for anything but music. The theatre room is fine as is.
By living room, I probably meant more kitchen, dining room.

I gave it a go with Daphile, and I like it, but it's a bit limited behind the scenes for my liking.

Have installed Snakeoil OS and its running pretty well. I wanted more flexibility on the Linux side of things, as I'd like to add a docker container for Airsonic for streaming to my mobile when out and about - being Ubuntu based I should be able to get this done.

Previously I had just been feeding the amp music from an Android phone or tablet via 3.5mm.

So far I'm pretty impressed with the sound quality and especially the soundstage - it's considerably wider.
This is just just LMS - haven't tried the MPD side of things yet.

Only thing I'm really struggling with is my SACD rips. I have some ISO, which I knew wouldn't play, and also DSF/DFF that I'm having issues playing. The receiver doesn't support DSD.
Would it be better to try and transcode them to PCM/WAV when playing? They are 2822.4kHz/1bit.
Or just convert them all? The amp does support 96kHz/24bit via optical. Not sure about 192kHz off the top of my head.