USB Audio

[Jim G]

I chose the Sonore SSR. It will play files from the NAS, and stream Tidal in all formats including DSD. I'm going to give Charlie a demo in his system very soon. My main criteria was that I wanted computer audio to sound as good, or if possible, better than my transport/DAC combo. This does it. I needed a NAS regardless of approach, but figured I could buy the Sonore or (likely) a couple computers over the next decade to use as dedicated servers. I have little faith in computer durability, and ease of use.

I know Tom P has been receiving some "original" 24 bit files ( not upsampled recordings ) from a friend, and I'm hoping to compare his computer and S/PDIF converter to the NAS/Sonore with quality files this fall when we meet up to test out his SET transistor amp in my system. My DAC has multiple inputs making it pretty easy to directly compare 2 sources. Something I feel I have to do all the time now, since meeting Tom.

I currently have 1 DSD file on the NAS from an SACD rip that sounds great compared to the 16/44 rip of the same album. I haven't downloaded any "original" DSD or "truly" hi rez files yet. In the near future, however.

[Grover Gardner]

Ah, the Sonore! Well, I can tell you that the Raspberry Pi 2 with Volumio won't approach that. And having just popped it in again, it doesn't even approach the Mac Mini with HQ Player. In fact it won't even upsample to 96/24. But for $35 you could do worse. But the Sonore looks like a very good investment. I'd love to hear how it sounds. The Orbiter actually looks appealing, in that it will run HQ Player's NAA (network audio daemon), which is something I've always wanted to try. Well, I have tried it on junky laptops, which doesn't really gain you anything.

[TubeDriver]

I must be lucky or have low standards but running a 2015 MacBook Pro (16GB RAM) with the latest version of JRiver into a PS PWDII (has lots of inputs including ethernet) sounds pretty good to me. I did not do anything to really optimize the setup other than run the laptop (completely dedicated to audio) from it's own dedicated line and run the DAC from a Bryston balanced power supply unit.

Tidal works well and sounds very pleasant if not as good as ripped music. I have been disappointed enough times with hi-rez downloads to generally ignore them at this point and have not played around with JRivers software implementation of DSD.

[Grover Gardner]

YOu've got more than luck there. That's a very solid setup with some nice tweaks.

[Grover Gardner]

...and as for upsampling, your setup is more than capable. You should try HQ Player. Don't mess with the Library function, it's hopeless IMO. I just use it as a drag-and-drop player and for serious listening I vastly prefer it to JRiver. I'd be curious to know what you think.

[FerdinandII]

If anyone wants to try a direct-connect NAS with flexible connections (USB, eSATA, Ethernet) for not a lot of money, check out my post in Swap Meet.

http://www.dcaudiodiy.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=551