Streaming advice needed.

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Ali Tait
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#31 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by Ali Tait »

Roon is indeed very good and sounds better than Jriver IMO, as well as being user friendly. Yes the NUC would be ideal for the core. End point can then be the TFS or phone/tablet or both..

Jplay can be run via Roon too.
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Ray P
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#32 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by Ray P »

I've been rediscovering JPlay and have been getting amazingly good results even using only my Linsley-Hood headphone amp.

I have JPlay installed on low power, passively cooled, Win10 computer (using a NUC motherboard/processor). Music library is on Asset UPnP on my NAS. Control point is an Anroid tablet usibg BubbleUPnP. Very simple to use and, as I say, amazingly good sound, especially now I have sorted a better driver for the USB DAC board so am able to run JPlay in Kernel Streaming mode. Later I will try hibernate mode, which, if it works, will shut down all the Windows processes not required for JPlay feedback.

I recommend giving JPlay a try.

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#33 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by Tuono »

J Play sounds interesting upon a quick look on their website i will look further into to that i also see HQPlayer is mentioned quite a lot in conjunction with Roon has anyone any experience with this ?

I am trying to get a short list of progs to try on my new install of the TFS (hopefully this weekend) and then i can decide which way round to use the pc's in the chain of events core management etc.

@Ray you mention JPlay in hibernate mode (will shut down all the Windows processes not required for JPlay feedback.)

I recall fidelizer doing something similar for a windows pc it's way over 15 months since i have used that prog i guess things have moved on considerably since then i'm a little rusty on many thins hifi lately i had a bit of an extended break away fomt the tinkering and tweaking ,

Thanks for your input guys :D
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#34 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by Ray P »

Tuono wrote: Wed Sep 06, 2017 8:38 pm ...i also see HQPlayer is mentioned quite a lot in conjunction with Roon has anyone any experience with this ?
Yes, I've used HQP with a trial version of Roon (I'll probably adopt it before long) and it worked well. I've also happily used HQP with Muso. HQP itself is a great music player and i have a licensed copy - I have used it a lot when exploring DSD playback (for upsampling FLAC to high-rate DSD).
Tuono wrote: Wed Sep 06, 2017 8:38 pm @Ray you mention JPlay in hibernate mode (will shut down all the Windows processes not required for JPlay feedback.)

I recall fidelizer doing something similar for a windows pc it's way over 15 months since i have used that prog i guess things have moved on considerably since then i'm a little rusty on many thins hifi lately i had a bit of an extended break away fomt the tinkering and tweaking ,
I've not used fidelizer myself so cannot comment. I first used JPlay probably about five years ago and it had a hibernate mode even then. I understand it works more consistently with a wider range of DACs now though there is a list of known incompatible devices on the JPlay website.
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#35 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by jack »

Another vote here for RPis with IOaudIO DAC+ and DigiAMP+ hats...

Using max2play at the moment, but looking at Roon... and Rune...
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#36 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by simon »

I'm feeling a bit behind the curve with all this now.

Am I right in thinking:

Roon - a way of playing music with enhanced value added info
Rune - the "engine" that actually delivers and interprets the data (an alternative to say Squeezecenter or whatever it's called now)
J Play - another type of "engine" for use on a PC?
HQPlayer - another type of "engine" for use on a PC?

As I seem to be running with a relatively medieval setup perhaps I need to investigate further. Currently I have Squeezecenter running on my NAS drive with a SB3, SB Duet, and a RPi. No need to fire up a PC, the NAS is waiting to serve. I wouldn't want to have to turn on a PC to play music as I listen in different rooms, but is there likely to be any sound quality benefit moving to say Rune, which is open source for embedded applications? Ditch the SBs and buy a few more RPis or Beaglebone Blacks?
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#37 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by ed »

simon wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2017 12:49 pm I'm feeling a bit behind the curve with all this now.
me too!

I've been thinking of changing ever since the fiasco with the last virus/security issue.
I still run SB3 and beaglebone/squeezelite from the zyxel NAS unit....

I looked at the Jriver and Roon stuff but came away thinking they are all solutions to a different problem, and chokka with vido streaming and cover art discovery stuff etc. Is there a benefit if you jsut want to stream music?

I can't help thinking it's abit like buying hifi from Tesco....sure they sell it, but why don't they stick to groceries and let clothes shops and hifi shops do their own thing, with the associated expertise. All in pursuit of money and the monopoly etc etc

rant over, as you were....

watching what you do though Simon.
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#38 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by Ali Tait »

Roon is an all in one solution, there are separate parts to it. The "core" which handles the heavy lifting of managing your files and doing conversion etc, and the "end point", which is the player bit. There is also a server version, which is what I use on the headless pc. You can download an all in one version to do it all on one pc, but Roon say that's not ideal and not the best sounding, and having tried it both ways, I'd agree. There is also the "bridge", used if you want more than one player on your network. It's a flexible system, and user friendly once set up.


Haven't tried Rune, but I can say Roon is the best sounding I've tried, whether streaming Tidal or playing from my NAS. Neither is free though.

I bought a secondhand pc to run Roon Core, this is run headlessly on my network. If you did similar, you could use the Pi as the end point, and control it with a smartphone or tablet.
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#39 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by Ali Tait »

ed wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2017 1:58 pm
simon wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2017 12:49 pm I'm feeling a bit behind the curve with all this now.
me too!

I've been thinking of changing ever since the fiasco with the last virus/security issue.
I still run SB3 and beaglebone/squeezelite from the zyxel NAS unit....

I looked at the Jriver and Roon stuff but came away thinking they are all solutions to a different problem, and chokka with vido streaming and cover art discovery stuff etc. Is there a benefit if you jsut want to stream music?

I can't help thinking it's abit like buying hifi from Tesco....sure they sell it, but why don't they stick to groceries and let clothes shops and hifi shops do their own thing, with the associated expertise. All in pursuit of money and the monopoly etc etc

rant over, as you were....

watching what you do though Simon.
Roon only does music Ed. Yes there is cover art, but also info on the album and band should you wish to read it. You can use a phone or tablet to control it if you want less faff though.
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#40 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by Neal »

I still recommend max2play. In built support for LMS and many other plugins including kodi and now Spotify. It's highly flexible and can be tweaked to one's 'heart content'.
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#41 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by jack »

Neal wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2017 2:33 pm I still recommend max2play. In built support for LMS and many other plugins including kodi and now Spotify. It's highly flexible and can be tweaked to one's 'heart content'.
I too use max2play at the moment, but I'm unconvinced at the level of development activity on Vortexbox which is my server...

The VB web site was lost along with its forums and never really recovered, activity seems very very low and beholden to very few people... there's no critical mass...
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#42 Re: Streaming advice needed.

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jack wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2017 2:53 pm
The VB web site was lost along with its forums and never really recovered, activity seems very very low and beholden to very few people... there's no critical mass...
That's a shame, I was going to use a spare PC to make a VB unit. :(
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#43 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by jack »

pre65 wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2017 3:24 pm
jack wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2017 2:53 pm The VB web site was lost along with its forums and never really recovered, activity seems very very low and beholden to very few people... there's no critical mass...
That's a shame, I was going to use a spare PC to make a VB unit. :(
DTB is a member on Vortexbox.org - ask him?
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#44 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by Lee S »

I use a BlueSound Node2. Does all the work, connects to any network share or USB drive and also streams Tidal and many others in FLAC and Masters quality. The DAC in it is very nice too. All in one box controlled by an app on your phone or tablet or PC. I love mine. I have full membership for Tidal which is £20 a month but it has everything I ever had on my NAS in FLAC. Can't remember the last time I touched a CD or record or even accessed FLACs on my NAS. Took 2 minutes to plug in and set up.

Got rid of my aged and sluggish SB Touch, LMS and ReadyNAS combo and this beats it in all areas.

http://www.bluesound.com/en-gb/products/node-2/?cl
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#45 Re: Streaming advice needed.

Post by simon »

ed wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2017 1:58 pm watching what you do though Simon.
I hope you're not holding your breath ed :-)

Plenty to think on here. It's still an emerging and changing market - I hadn't realised Vortexbox was in decline.

I like the idea of hi res Tidal but haven't come to terms yet with paying a subscription for content I'll never own. I know millions do for Sky but...

I hadn't heard of Bluesound before. Sounds a nice easy way to go. £500 per room is a bit prohibitive though - can't beat a RPi.

Hmm. Squeezecenter just keeps on keeping on.
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