Streamers + local flac confused about solution

[Longfellow78]

Hi.
Having used Spotify for years and missing my old cd collection (plus the poor quality of Spotify) , I've bought a fiio dap and have been ripping my hundreds of 1990s to mid 00's cds to flac.

I planned to store these on the dap sdcard for mobile playing, and to store them on my newish qnap NAS for network streaming (or my PC hard drive if needs be as the PC will be my main source to my headphone dac/amp.

I intended to get tidal or qobuz for my cd quality streaming needs and planned to use "some kind" of software which would manage both sets of music in one. I heard about Roon and thought that's the solution but naively assumed it was free.

I am not intending to pay for this convinience, and wondered what free or very cheap solution there may be to stream cd quality files from tidal or qobuz, to be combined with my locally stored flacs in one piece of software.

I saw mention of logitech media server with plugins somewhere? I want this to work with my PC and my fiio m11s dap.

Can anyone please advise on any solution or is roon the only one

Thanks!

 

[staticV3]

Here's a thread about Roon alternatives:

Alternative to Roon....

There is one killer feature Roon that I liked a lot when I gave Roon a try for a few months. Link Roon with Tidal, and you have a whole new way to access music that is very useful when you listen a lot to classical music. You can select a composer, a piece and then you get a list of all the...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[sergeauckland]

Yes, Logitech Media Server with Squeezeplay as the player will do what you want for free. You can also use a 'phone or tablet as a remote control using free or very cheap software. It's worked perfectly for me for many years.

S

 

[Jimbob54]

Hi.
Having used Spotify for years and missing my old cd collection (plus the poor quality of Spotify) , I've bought a fiio dap and have been ripping my hundreds of 1990s to mid 00's cds to flac.

I planned to store these on the dap sdcard for mobile playing, and to store them on my newish qnap NAS for network streaming (or my PC hard drive if needs be as the PC will be my main source to my headphone dac/amp.

I intended to get tidal or qobuz for my cd quality streaming needs and planned to use "some kind" of software which would manage both sets of music in one. I heard about Roon and thought that's the solution but naively assumed it was free.

I am not intending to pay for this convinience, and wondered what free or very cheap solution there may be to stream cd quality files from tidal or qobuz, to be combined with my locally stored flacs in one piece of software.

I saw mention of logitech media server with plugins somewhere? I want this to work with my PC and my fiio m11s dap.

Can anyone please advise on any solution or is roon the only one

Thanks!

Its not pretty but Amazon Music on the desktop app will allow you to merge local files with online library of their content played through their desktop app.

Actually- Spotify will allow you to play local files through their app but wont merge the 2 sets of files - you can either play local or your spotify library- not shuffle the 2 together like Amazon allows.

 

[Matias]

Get a WiiM and you get the software to stream local files and internet music to your system.

 

[Longfellow78]

Here's a thread about Roon alternatives:

Alternative to Roon....

There is one killer feature Roon that I liked a lot when I gave Roon a try for a few months. Link Roon with Tidal, and you have a whole new way to access music that is very useful when you listen a lot to classical music. You can select a composer, a piece and then you get a list of all the...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Thanks that's useful I'll take a look.

 

[Longfellow78]

Get a WiiM and you get the software to stream local files and internet music to your system.

I did think about that but I don't really want to spend another £150 right now when I've just bought the a £400 dap and a £400 dac/amp. If I can't find a workaround I may get the WiiM. I did look at the mini one but the review I saw showed the sound was too compromised even with an off board dac.

Also I was hoping for something which would run on the dap as well as the PC. Thanks I will consider this.

 

[Longfellow78]

Its not pretty but Amazon Music on the desktop app will allow you to merge local files with online library of their content played through their desktop app.

Actually- Spotify will allow you to play local files through their app but wont merge the 2 sets of files - you can either play local or your spotify library- not shuffle the 2 together like Amazon allows.

I didn't think of amazon music. Thanks. Is the quality as good as tidal. I think it does cd quality right?

Do you know of the android app will do the same or only desktop?
Thanks.

 

[sergeauckland]

Its not pretty but Amazon Music on the desktop app will allow you to merge local files with online library of their content played through their desktop app.

Actually- Spotify will allow you to play local files through their app but wont merge the 2 sets of files - you can either play local or your spotify library- not shuffle the 2 together like Amazon allows.

LMS does merge local and Spotify files transparently to the user. It's a great facility, especially for long playlists or just random play.

S

 

[Longfellow78]

Yes, Logitech Media Server with Squeezeplay as the player will do what you want for free. You can also use a 'phone or tablet as a remote control using free or very cheap software. It's worked perfectly for me for many years.

S

Thanks I will take a look at that. Will this also work on my dap do you know or is it strictly desktop only? Thanks!

 

[Longfellow78]

LMS does merge local and Spotify files transparently to the user. It's a great facility, especially for long playlists or just random play.

S

Thanks. I don't want to use Spotify any more though. I a-b tested my old Cds compared to Spotify and was pretty surprised at how much better the cds sounded. Hoping to make the most of my new kit with better quality files.

 

[Jimbob54]

I didn't think of amazon music. Thanks. Is the quality as good as tidal. I think it does cd quality right?

Do you know of the android app will do the same or only desktop?
Thanks.

Its hi res (for what that is worth). Android app is woeful. I haven't tested how it handles local and online files on android but think the app can at least play local content.

 

[Jimbob54]

LMS does merge local and Spotify files transparently to the user. It's a great facility, especially for long playlists or just random play.

S

Sorry, I meant the spotify native app. Never tried LMS but it does sound like it was way ahead of its time.

 

[Totoro]

Yes, Logitech Media Server with Squeezeplay as the player will do what you want for free. You can also use a 'phone or tablet as a remote control using free or very cheap software. It's worked perfectly for me for many years.

S

For iPad, iPeng is a great remote/player for LMS, and squeezer is decent on Android.

 

[sergeauckland]

Thanks I will take a look at that. Will this also work on my dap do you know or is it strictly desktop only? Thanks!

Depends what OS your DAP uses. I use Windows and Android, and the player runs on both. The server, LMS, runs on Windows and Linux and I think also iOS. Players for Windows, Android and iOS and you can have the player on the same machine as the server, or on separate items like a 'phone or tablet.

S

 

[Chazz6]

On Windows you can use Minimserver. It will serve all shared folders to your home network as well as any streaming URLs you may find for free (typically, so-called Internet radio stations, or the Internet stream of established radio stations).

Then put the BubbleUPnP on an Android tablet or phone. It will see everything served by Minimserver, and you choose what to play from the list.

That's my setup. Both programs handle .flac files as well as the highest quality streams that you are likely to access (for example, 96 kHz and 24 bits). Both programs are free. Minimserver has an upgrade option, not really much added. BubbleUPnP asks for a few dollars for a license.

You have great flexibility with these. For example, you can set up a working folder on your PC, copy the day's selections from the NAS and from the file that contains the streaming URLs into that folder, then have BubbleUPnP look at that folder.

 

[Galliardist]

You should really tell us what your equipment is if you want good answers. No need to be shy about it.

Have you tested Spotify against your CDs blind? It may not be as bad as you think, at least for Premium. I found differences blind, and use Qobuz, but they are rare, and you may lose some favourite tracks and built up information by changing.

To be honest I use lossless because of a bit of audiophile paranoia, the differences I found weren’t really important.

 

[BillG]

I dropped Roon in favour of Logitech Media Server.

As for your DAP, that would depend upon which OS it runs. If it's running some variant of Android, and allows sideloading of apps, yes... it'd possible to use it as a network player that LMS can stream to.

If not, if it's capable of acting as a DLNA renderer, then we've the option of installing the UPnP-DLNA Bridge plug-in in LMS and streaming to it using that protocol.

By the way, if you need server-side DSP for things like Correction EQ, LMS is capable of that as well with the SqueezeDSP plug-in.

I use LMS daily and am quite familiar with its installation and configuration. Please feel free to contact me if you find it necessary.

 

[Longfellow78]

Depends what OS your DAP uses. I use Windows and Android, and the player runs on both. The server, LMS, runs on Windows and Linux and I think also iOS. Players for Windows, Android and iOS and you can have the player on the same machine as the server, or on separate items like a 'phone or tablet.

S

Thank you. It's an android dap so sounds like it should work. Will investigate.

 

[somebodyelse]

LMS does merge local and Spotify files transparently to the user. It's a great facility, especially for long playlists or just random play.

It does the same for Qobuz - anything marked as favourites in Qobuz appears in your collection and can be added to playlists or random play. If you're browsing by artist you can see the albums in your collection (local or Qubuz favourites), with an option to browse that artist on Qobuz throught the LMS interface. That then lets you add other albums to favourites, view similar artists etc. all through one interface.

For iPad, iPeng is a great remote/player for LMS, and squeezer is decent on Android.

The Material Skin plugin also works well on either.