Budding Audiophile help.....

[Mike12421]

Hello all,

I have recently started transitioning my music collection to FLAC. As such I would really like to setup a music server on my NAS to be able to stream my lossless audio to both, my devices at home and whilst I'm away. have searched high and low but nothing seems to tick the boxes or costs a fortune.

Does anyone have any suggestions? For info, I use Emby rather than PLEX however it would appear that Emby has a long standing issue of downsampling audio. I would much prefer a dedicated "total audio media solution".

Thanks in advance.

 

[Telos]

I use Emby rather than PLEX

Where has Plex failed for you?

 

[Mike12421]

Where has Plex failed for you?

I found Emby would do a better job at streaming my video content, whereas PLEX would routinely stutter and struggle. I used PLEX for around 18 months however in the end Emby took a lot of the stress away.

 

[fredbert]

Not used Emby. You've looked at Audio Station and DS audio? Various settings for playback quality and conversion.

What playback kit are you using? If it supports navigating a DLNA server, at home, then you can use Media Server.

 

[Mike12421]

Not used Emby. You've looked at Audio Station and DS audio? Various settings for playback quality and conversion.

What playback kit are you using? If it supports navigating a DLNA server, at home, then you can use Media Server.

Hello,
To be honest, I haven't looked at either Audio Station or DS Audio before, but I certainly will. As for playback kit, it will be via whatever recommended app for my Android phone for the time being until I can invest in some proper playback kit.

 

[chenks]

I found Emby would do a better job at streaming my video content, whereas PLEX would routinely stutter and struggle. I used PLEX for around 18 months however in the end Emby took a lot of the stress away.

what client do you use?
i use plex with an nvidia shield pro and it plays pretty much everything without any issue

 

[Mike12421]

what client do you use?
i use plex with an nvidia shield pro and it plays pretty much everything without any issue

At the moment I utilise Emby on several Samsung TVs in the house that stream direct from my DS916+ and when I'm away from the house I use Emby on my phone (Samsung Note 10+).

 

[kiriak]

for music I use Volumio,
it runs on an ancient eeePC,
you "install" it on a small USB stick (2 Gb are more than enough) and it will change nothing on your laptop,
but you have to boot from the usb stick
it is super easy to "install" and setup

alternatively it will run nicely from a rasberry

It plays music from my Synology via samba share (FLACS from my CDs)
and then through DAC->amplifiers-> speakers

You can control it from every smartphone or tablet

free and opensource and it just works

Volumio - The Audiophile Music Player


and of course it can play bit-perfect your music if you tick the relevant option

 

[fredbert]

Hello,
To be honest, I haven't looked at either Audio Station or DS Audio before, but I certainly will. As for playback kit, it will be via whatever recommended app for my Android phone for the time being until I can invest in some proper playback kit.

OK so you've probably got a reasonable pair of headphones. I've not tried it but I've seen good feedback on improvements from using the DragonFly USB/3.5mm DACs that can be used with mobile phones (with suitable adaptor). For the TVs I guess you have soundbars or other amp setup?

If your kit advertises as DLNA receiver (e.g. speakers) then Audio Station can be directed to stream directly to it. Other streaming protocols it supports are AirPlay (currently only v1) and, I think, Chromecast too (don't have CC).

Plex works well too, if your Plex player has speakers attached to it. With Plex Pass you get access to use Plexamp and I've liked it vs some other apps for playing gapless (concert) tracks.

 

[Mike12421]

for music I use Volumio,
it runs on an ancient eeePC,
you "install" it on a small USB stick (2 Gb are more than enough) and it will change nothing on your laptop,
but you have to boot from the usb stick
it is super easy to "install" and setup

alternatively it will run nicely from a rasberry

It plays music from my Synology via samba share (FLACS from my CDs)
and then through DAC->amplifiers-> speakers

You can control it from every smartphone or tablet

free and opensource and it just works

Volumio - The Audiophile Music Player


and of course it can play bit-perfect your music if you tick the relevant option

Many thanks for your suggestion.

I had a look at Volumio however its not quite what I'm after, I would like to utilise my NAS as the host rather than just storage. But thank you for taking the time to reply.

 

[Mike12421]

OK so you've probably got a reasonable pair of headphones. I've not tried it but I've seen good feedback on improvements from using the DragonFly USB/3.5mm DACs that can be used with mobile phones (with suitable adaptor). For the TVs I guess you have soundbars or other amp setup?

If your kit advertises as DLNA receiver (e.g. speakers) then Audio Station can be directed to stream directly to it. Other streaming protocols it supports are AirPlay (currently only v1) and, I think, Chromecast too (don't have CC).

Plex works well too, if your Plex player has speakers attached to it. With Plex Pass you get access to use Plexamp and I've liked it vs some other apps for playing gapless (concert) tracks.

Hello,

You're reply has been extremely informative. As I am just starting out with FLAC I wasn't aware that a DAC was required, I naively thought my phone would take care of everything. The Dragon however will be very much what I am looking for now that I know I need one.

As for headphones, I have some Bose over ear ones that are a few years old and so I would be open to suggestions regarding a replacement.

I wasn't aware of PlexAmp. A quick Google search of it is very much pushing me back to PLEX from Emby.....as a matter of fact, I think I'll go and make the transition now. Just what I was after.

 

[fredbert]

Your phone may support FLAC (the Android DS audio offers transcoding for FLAC, suggesting it may be natively supported but over mobile networks it may consume a lot of bandwidth and/or you won't notice the quality drop). The iOS DS audio offers the same transcoding for ALAC (similar to FLAC... Apple LAC) but I guess FLAC will always be transcoded for iOS as there's no native support for it.

Your phone will most probably work but you may not notice the difference between 320 MP3 and FLAC unless your playback kit is a reasonable quality. BOSE have had a good name so you're off to a start there I prefer open-back, over-the-ear headphones as they don't crush my ears but they aren't suitable for quiet, shared spaces. I've a couple of pairs of Sennheisers, 20 year old HD 545 Reference and newer HD 558. I prefer the older ones but they are 150 ohm so can be quiet unless listening via an amp. So many audio brands out there, the best thing (when possible) is to demo kit, though ear/headphones are generally a buy and find out exception.

The good news is that these apps all can work with the same source media files on the NAS, so you can try out different packages and apps without having to duplicate files and folders.

BTW there's Plexamp for Windows and Mac too.


As for your TVs as audio players, you'll probably find it better to get dedicated audio kit (amp/AVR and speakers). Many TVs have an optical audio out port that can be used to send the original data to the amp/AVR.

 

[Mike12421]

Your phone may support FLAC (the Android DS audio offers transcoding for FLAC, suggesting it may be natively supported but over mobile networks it may consume a lot of bandwidth and/or you won't notice the quality drop). The iOS DS audio offers the same transcoding for ALAC (similar to FLAC... Apple LAC) but I guess FLAC will always be transcoded for iOS as there's no native support for it.

Your phone will most probably work but you may not notice the difference between 320 MP3 and FLAC unless your playback kit is a reasonable quality. BOSE have had a good name so you're off to a start there I prefer open-back, over-the-ear headphones as they don't crush my ears but they aren't suitable for quiet, shared spaces. I've a couple of pairs of Sennheisers, 20 year old HD 545 Reference and newer HD 558. I prefer the older ones but they are 150 ohm so can be quiet unless listening via an amp. So many audio brands out there, the best thing (when possible) is to demo kit, though ear/headphones are generally a buy and find out exception.

The good news is that these apps all can work with the same source media files on the NAS, so you can try out different packages and apps without having to duplicate files and folders.

BTW there's Plexamp for Windows and Mac too.


As for your TVs as audio players, you'll probably find it better to get dedicated audio kit (amp/AVR and speakers). Many TVs have an optical audio out port that can be used to send the original data to the amp/AVR.

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain it all, it is very much appreciated.

Hopefully this lockdown won't go on much longer and I can get down to a decent audio store to try a few different headphones out. Just finished migrating over to PLEX, I'm really happy with PlexAmp, just what I was after!

 

[fredbert]

I'm really happy with PlexAmp, just what I was after!

Excellent! Glad it's helped.

This lockdown has made me look out for concert videos, so I can work with a 2 to 3 hr curated track list and leave the Mac display doing something to rest the eyes on every so often. I was never one to go to many concerts but seeing people enjoying themselves in crowds and performing has been something to lighten the mood. A-knee-who, Blu-ray and DVD converted to full size MKV files and then to MP4 (M4V) with two or three different audio tracks. DS218+ with Plex and Video Station handles both MKV and MP4, playback on Apple TV HD and 4K to ooooold TV via Denon AVR and Dali Spektor main speakers and aged rear/centre/sub speakers. None of it was very expensive ... all at the budget end of HiFi. Still it sounds great to my ageing ears, looks good too!