Thinkin about getting a server

I don't need it hooked up to my phone just want one to play tunes at home and to burn cds.


There was a previous thread about the "Escient Fireball MX-111"
you mentioned - apparently out of production a few years now
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/escient-fireball-mx-111.402859/

Old skool!

Apparently it had a 160GB hard drive - these days, drives under 2000GB (e.g, 2TB) are considered small.


Okay, so you want a canned computer "server" with CD drive to rip files to a hard drive,
and a sound-card or similar to let you output audio to your music system.
No need for phone/pad type external controls ...?
Tho they are still out there, there's not a huge market for those anymore -
that's why everyone has been recommending some kind of DIY or other.

No flames, but good luck!
 
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yeah it sounds like pretty much any old PC with EAC and Foobar2000 (or software to taste) plus a good USB DAC will serve very nicely for desired use. Working on something similar out of salvaged parts right now. Total budget all in will probably be around $200.
 
I built a ZUMA (CAPS3) server, loaded windows & JRiver on it, access it remotely using TeamViewer software from my laptop. It has a hardwired USB connection to my DAC, an optical to my TV and any sound generated by it goes through the DAC to the pre-amp.

Everything is backed up on my Synology D5415+ NAS.
 
Are you able to navigate by Artist/Album? Are you sure it's not your client's DLNA implementation? On both my. Roku and Oppo BDP-103, I can pick an album and play it through in the correct order. The Bluesound Node uses SMB and manages the same feat.

I haven't looked directly at my transfer rates, but it's fast enough to play smoothly over both wired and wireless connections.

Same behavior on several clients and is actually documented on WD forums. Actually have both Roku and Oppo 103, as well as a Denon 3310ci, same behavior on all three. Actually the Oppo really doesn't work well at all in that respect; the DLNA client doesn't recognize any of my files, I use the Roku in the bedroom instead. Oppo has the ability to use file browser and read files directly, and that works OK. Yes, artist/album works but that doesn't help with sampler or compliation albums, or classical albums that have two different composers' work on them. It's able to be worked around, but isn't as easy as handing someone the remote and telling them to have at it. Honestly I'm starting to wonder about the utility of even having a DLNA server in the first place; finding what I want seems to be easier through a laptop, I just find the folder I want to listen to, make it a playlist in Foobar, and use it that way.

Transfer speed isn't an issue for playback, but for uploading new rips, it's painfully slow. 10-20 CDs can take hours, I have to plan my moves. I'd love to be able to just do maintenance on a portable hard drive, delete the music folder on the NAS and recopy it (so as not to end up with duplicate tracks if e.g. I had an album in mp3 format and ended up finding the CD and ripped to FLAC) but that could literally take days.
 
Technical detail is great if you're an experienced Do-It-Yourself builder; unfortunately it only frightens away beginners who might otherwise have been interested. :(
I had thought of all sorts of DIY solutions myself, then just got totally disgusted with the bazillion options out there (not to mention the highly polarized opinions) and completely gave up the idea. I ended up just getting a Synology box and a pair of 4TB drives, loaded 'em up, and I've been streaming ever since, to any device in the house. I don't want a full-blown computer running 24/7 just to serve files. The Synology takes a nap when it's not in use, and uses minimal power when running. (And to be honest, unless I am at my "work" computer, I don't like using a computer as a playback device either. I would rather have a streaming network player handle that menial task...and do it properly.)

My one complaint is about the terminology, since there are a handful of players out there (some of them incredibly expensive) that call themselves "servers" when in fact, they are simply music players with a built-in music storage drive. Unless a device is actually sharing files on a network for any and all other attached devices to use, it has no business being called a "server." Just my opinion, though.

Another complaint I have is that some of these streaming players are incredibly difficult to use. Yeah sure, I can easily find my way around VLC Media Player or Kodi (formerly XBMC) to play a movie, but anyone else in the house? Forget it. These things have interfaces that only a tech geek could love. I find that Kodi takes way too many clicks to get to actually finding and playing what I want. It's not perfect, but my cheap WDTV Live boxes are far more user friendly for everyone else in the house. Once you set up the home menu, it's only a few clicks before you get right to a movie.

Just a couple of things to think about before taking that step towards a central music/video server...
 
I think DIY is so popular in this area because most of the network server/players are nothing more than linux boxes using open source software dressed up to look like an audio device.
 
There was a previous thread about the "Escient Fireball MX-111"
you mentioned - apparently out of production a few years now
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/escient-fireball-mx-111.402859/

Old skool!

Apparently it had a 160GB hard drive - these days, drives under 2000GB (e.g, 2TB) are considered small.


Okay, so you want a canned computer "server" with CD drive to rip files to a hard drive,
and a sound-card or similar to let you output audio to your music system.
No need for phone/pad type external controls ...?
Tho they are still out there, there's not a huge market for those anymore -
that's why everyone has been recommending some kind of DIY or other.

No flames, but good luck!
Thanks, this will do till the WiFi chip that's implanted into your cerebellum powered by your body's bio electric energies is approved by the FDA.
 
I think DIY is so popular in this area because most of the network server/players are nothing more than linux boxes using open source software dressed up to look like an audio device.

I built my own computers and have for a long time, but when I wanted some dedicated storage I bought a Synology NAS. Slick interface, easy to configure, easily recognized by every device on my network, fast transfer speeds, small, well supported, and took hardly any time from opening the box to full on redundant storage and file sharing.
 
I really like the Raspberry Pi approach. Just leave it running 24/7,uses a whopping 4 watts of power. Has no moving parts to add noise, and seems to be rock stable (I have had mine running non stop for a few months now..) I recommend JRiver's pre loaded micro USB (ID for the RPi3b) as a near plug and play solution. It can be ran several ways, streamed to, can pull files from, headless, controlled by JRemote app or any web browser. I currently use mine controlled via JRiver on my pc. I was originally out to find a dead quiet USB and the little Raspberry seemed to be a good candidate due to its lack of moving parts and wireless stuff. It has proven to be all of that. All this for around $100 and some ethernet cable.
 
yeah it sounds like pretty much any old PC with EAC and Foobar2000 (or software to taste) plus a good USB DAC will serve very nicely for desired use. Working on something similar out of salvaged parts right now. Total budget all in will probably be around $200.


Sorry, I should have said the above. I thought this group would enjoy details.

However, I recommend Linux, audacious, and vlc.
my music server is an 8 year old machine with an amd chip
my movie viewer is a three year old machine with an amd chip, with a three year old nvidia card.

is that better?
 
One other thing about JRivers ID for Raspberry is that they maintain it, add new stuff to it and all I have to do is go to the RPi menu and hit search for updates. It does the rest, reboots and that's it. I am not sure how the other approaches do it, particularly the DIY stuff, but for $50 to have it always updated (JRiver spends considerable resources keeping their stuff updated and always seem to be adding more functionality) is worth quite a bit for a non-Linux savvy person like me..
 
Sorry, I should have said the above. I thought this group would enjoy details.

However, I recommend Linux, audacious, and vlc.
my music server is an 8 year old machine with an amd chip
my movie viewer is a three year old machine with an amd chip, with a three year old nvidia card.

is that better?

Color?
But seriously, I really enjoyed your original post. I think you should set it to music...good beat, easy to dance to...
 
I'm either a) get a laptop and usb dac or if you already own a computer for ripping then b) build a Raspberry Pi headless player with a pi hat dac. Check out the volumio website for more info on the pi software and various Dacs. Have fun :)
 
I installed Windows home server on an old machine prob ten years ago... Serves as music and movie machine plus makes redundant backups of all my computer's in the house and the music and movies too!
The cool thing about the old server software is , once space starts to run out on the hdd's I can add additional drives and they become part of the "pool".
 
I went around the block last year on the same question:

I ended up just buying a Synology NAS DiskStation (DS216j) and a WD Red 3TB NAS hard disk drive. (amazon $170 and $110 respectively)

I use the Google Chromecast audio as renderers. One using the optical out to McIntosh pre, one using 3.5mm stereo out to vintage receiver. ($35/each)

db Powreamp for FLAC ripping (free)

Plug it into my router voila

manage with my android smartphone using BubbleUp

Couldn't be simpler
 
Standing up a Synology DS216 NAS right now with a pair of 4TB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm drives. Currently coping my iTunes files to it, then a FLAC directory, plus some other music files I've collected - probably hook it up to that Raspberry Pi3B once the hifi audio card for it arrives, and see how that works feeding my DAC and tube gear ...

Looks like about 4 hrs to copy 1.2TB of iTunes - ran that overnight, so maybe I'll know something when I get home from work ...

IMG_3493.jpg
 
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Standing up a Synology DS216 NAS right now with a pair of 4TB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm drives. Currently coping my iTunes files to it, then a FLAC directory, plus some other music files I've collected - probably hook it up to that Raspberry Pi3B once the hifi audio card for it arrives, and see how that works feeding my DAC and tube gear ...

Looks like about 4 hrs to copy 1.2TB of iTunes - ran that overnight, so maybe I'll know something when I get home from work ...

View attachment 869904
That's a lot of tune-age! What like every song ever recorded?
 
That's a lot of tune-age! What like every song ever recorded?
Nah, the 1.28TB of itunes is only 54k songs - most are lossless, but not all.
Plus about a 1/4 of dsd/iso files, and maybe a TB or two of FLAC files ... gonna put that Rune UI to the test!
 
One other thing about JRivers ID for Raspberry is that they maintain it, add new stuff to it and all I have to do is go to the RPi menu and hit search for updates. It does the rest, reboots and that's it. I am not sure how the other approaches do it, particularly the DIY stuff, but for $50 to have it always updated (JRiver spends considerable resources keeping their stuff updated and always seem to be adding more functionality) is worth quite a bit for a non-Linux savvy person like me..

I have three JRiver servers in my home all accessing FLAC files stored on my NAS. I absolutely love it, the various user interfaces makes it easy for non techies to use, and the sound quality is top notch. My wife, for example, can use her laptop, tablet, or smart phone to play what she wants wherever she want it. I didn't know about the support for Raspberry Pi and that's very intriguing. My servers are all MS Windows will all the extra Windows based costs (like anti virus) and I've been thinking about moving to Linux.
 
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