I've used Sonos for many years (and will continue using it as the 'family, whole house' solution because its just so easy and reliable). Same goes for Spotify.
I'd like to try higher res streaming, just for the main stereo system and/or the AV system. Sonos have stated many times that they will never implement hi-res so I need to experiment with other options.
I flirted with Roon, really like their engineering approach but at the moment can't justify the subscription.
Available hardware:
- My music library is on a Synology NAS.
- I have a Raspberry Pi 4 but don't have a DAC hat for it.
- I have a Google Chromecast Audio.
- I have a 2012 mac mini which I have just updated to Catalina (possibly a mistake because of issues with LMS?)
- Main stereo is currently a Mission Cyrus 2, so only analogue in - although I do have a couple of DACs I could press into service.
- AV system is a Marantz NR1403, which has HDMI, optical and coax spdif (and analogue of course)
- A long time ago, Slim Devices created a client-server streaming solution. The clients were Squeezeboxes, and the server was the SlimServer software which was notable for being open source.
- Logitech bought the company, and SlimServer became Logitech Media Server, or LMS. Logitech no longer sells any hardware devices which are LMS clients, but LMS is still being developed (presumably by the user community?)
- To get up and running, you need a computer of some sort running LMS, and as many clients as you want/need to play music.
- Various projects exist which aim to make it easier to implement this client-server architecture. Ironically, this was one of the things I found it particularly difficult to get my head around - how all these projects fit together......
- Daphile - based on Squeezebox Server, Squeezelite and Linux. You take a spare PC or Mac and convert it into a headless server, dedicated to audio, with various nice features (nice web interface, NAS functionality, apps...). If you are familiar with Roon, then I think Daphile performs the same system function as a Roon Core...? Looks nice but I don't want to dedicate my Mac Mini......
- PiCorePlayer - runs on Raspberry Pi. Can run the server or the client or both. The simplest architecture would be a Pi running LMS and then however many Pis as clients.
- Max2Play - an alternative to PiCorePlayer for running LMS, but also able to do other things....?
The thing that is holding me back is that the Synology NAS wants to install Perl first (because LMS is written in Perl?), and I don't know enough to know whether that will make my NAS vulnerable to....er.....nasty stuff?
So my first question to the wise ones is, am I OK installing Perl on the Synology NAS?
While I'm at it, does this seem like a sensible first step?
If not, what would you recommend?
Thanks