The Most Minimal Computer Music Converter

[terrybooth]

That is why it has not really gone commercial yet apart from companies like Linn and Naim with lots of sheep. On a commercial basis it is frightening how quickly thing change. It is still definitely a hobbyist thing at the mo.

In computer land there's an expectation of a chance at least once a year. All the 'leading' smartphone do it, Apple now do it with OSX, Microsoft is trying to climb on board, Google are continually changing stuff. So very difficult to make something which isn't out of date in a year or so.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

But these are massive corporations, compared with them even Linn and Naim are insignificant flea bites.

[Lazmo]

But these are massive corporations, compared with them even Linn and Naim are insignificant flea bites.

Hi Doc

I hope it stays in the hands of the small business concerns and the public for a long time to come yet as this way it gets to be developed by the people that have a real interest in it rather than the commercial giant who only want to asset mine it we could end up with a apple versus samsung versus htc mentallity where they are all hauling one another in to court and accusing each other of stealing there designs copyright etc .

[Lazmo]

Terry

The link for the picture i am working from thought i would include it this way then you can save it and Res it up on your pc to get a closer look if needed .
http://www.hifiberry.com/wp-content/upl ... G_2336.jpg

Link from http://volumio.org/forum/dacs.html

[terrybooth]

Thanks. In the first instance I think I'm going for a diy case made from some acrylic sheet I have laying around. (If it was good enough for Blakes 7, it'll be good enough for me.)

[Welder]

Hello terrybooth

I’m not sure I’ve understood exactly what you are trying to achieve except that you want a minimal system.

I’ve watched with some interest the various hand held devices development and so far I’ve not been tempted to follow that route.

You write you’re interested in the Cubbox which is essentially a mini computer so I thought these might interest you.

http://store.voyage.hk/

One of these, a USB Dac and some form of controller is about as basic as it gets. My daughter has such a system and it’s highly portable (USB HD for storage), just needs a regular hi fi to plug into or in her case, a set of active speakers.

I’ve taken a different route with my system so I wondered why you are looking at these options given you have two Dacs and basically two servers with the TFS and laptop?

[terrybooth]

What got me hooked to this was browsing stuff about dedicated music playing linux distros and Raspberry Pi.

This is an experiment - at a high level, what I'm aiming to do is to replace my current standard PC (Wintel or Mac) plus external Dac (Beresford or Asus) with a little box who's only job is to read music files stored on Network Attached Storage, convert to analogue and output to an amplifier, with a user interface presented on a smartphone or tablet device.

The first iteration will be based on a Raspberry Pi, Volumio and I'm looking at IQaudio or the HifiBerry Dac - on paper I prefer the latter but I'm dithering about 'importing' from Switzerland.

I will be taking a lead (cribbing) from NVA and using a non-metallic case.

If I build it, I'll compare it to the two computer music players I have both in terms of music quality (to my ears) and time to delivery - my current anticipated workflow is: test Raspberry Pi (using external KVM), solder header on Raspberry Pi, attach DAC, download Volumio, stick it in, enable the DAC and point the whole lot at my NAS(using external KVM) and check, put it in the box, attach to ethernet and amp, and see what happens. This could be a lot less faffing around than hacking about the OS and JRiver.

After that - who knows: throw it in the bin or start thinking about potenital mods.

[jammy395]

Well good on ya Terry - Best of luck, Hope its a succsess.
Mind you i havent a Scooby Doo what you were talking about....
Was getting a bit peckish reading it though...All those HIFIBerry's n Rasberry Pi's...Roll on dinner time.

[terrybooth]

Well, the bits are ordered. Let's see what arrives and what I can do with it.

[slinger]

I haven't chimed in yet (there's a bonus eh? ) but I'm following tihs with interest.