DCAudioDIY.com

Last weekend I put together a nice little low power music server for price of trading in some credit card bonus points. No, it is not a Raspberry Pi, but a more capable mini computer that already runs Linux perfectly, an ASUS Chromebox. You can pick up the base version with a Haswell Celeron dual core processor, 2GB RAM, a 16GB SSD, and 4 USB3 ports for around $150. Add another 2GB RAM ($12), and it is perfect for a low resource DIY musicserver, so long as your music files are on an external disc or NAS. The version of Linux installed on this box is Daphile, which is a highly pared down and optimized version that provides only enough resources to run a modified version of SqueezeServer and a modified Squeezelite player. That being said, it is capable through a Brutefir plugin to do room correction, upsampling, and also can output DSD over PCM. The feature I find great is the play from RAM, which loads the FLAC file into a RAMdisk, decompressing to WAV so that is streams with no processing or disc access. I have found that with 4 GB of RAM installed, the RAMdisk size is a little over 3 GB, which is enough for a 24/96 album to be stored as uncomrpressed WAV files. It runs headless, controlled via a web browser interface that I run on my tablet.

The setup is quiet as a mouse, there is a fan on the Chromebox, but you have to put your ear on it to hear it running. According to the UPS I have the unit attached to, it is drawing around between 4 and 5W of power while streaming, and this is both the unit and the 1TB Hybrid SSD I have my music files on. One upgrade I plan to do is replace the switching wallwart power supply with a linear supply. Also will be adding an Audioquest Jitterbug on the USB port I am streaming to the Async USB/SPDIF converter I have (Musical Fidelity VLink II). My DAC is currently a quad Burr Brown (TI) PCM 1704 based DENON DVD5000, which still sounds remarkably good (my Twisted Pear Buffalo II DAC with Sabre 9018 is currently not working).

No pics. Can followup with a Howto if anyone is interested, or just contact me directly. I know Stuart has had some musicserver issues, I think this has alot of potential of being an inexpensive and high performing server that can easily fit on an audio rack instead of finding the space for a PC or laptop.

I tried, but was unsuccessful in getting daphile running on my Chromebook. However, I did put it on a small PC last night, and got it up and talking to the NAS that my music is on. Tonight I'll see if it can find my iFi micro iDAC2 and get it hooked up to the system. Some of the Intel NUC boxes look like good candidates as well....

Dave- are you running the real-time kernel version or the standard version?

Roscoe

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Standard kernel.

I investigated the Intel NUCs, they are very similar, hardware-wise, at the low end, have space internally for a laptop-style drive if you want to store files locally. However, I heard reports of audible fan noise, and noisy USB ports. Also, they are designed to boot Windows, whereas the Chromebox is already running a version of Linux and after installing modified firmware can boot off USB for installing Daphile. The Chromebox is also cheaper.

What was your problem with the Chromebook?

david

There's a quad-core celeron NUC now for only $130, (no RAM or HD) reviews say the fan can't be heard unless you put your head right next to it. Even has TosLink out....

I couldn't get it to run properly when I installed it to a USB stick, it wouldn't let me install to the internal SSD at all. There are other things I can use the Chromebook for

Roscoe

_________________
I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.

Did you boot the Chromebook into Developers' Mode? Remove the write protect screw and install a replacement ROM? See: https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook- ... -download/

It is a bit of hacking, but I believe the Chromebook ROM as stock specifically inhibits booting off the USB or overwriting ChromeOS. Once you have replacement firmware, then you can boot directly off a USB stick and install Linux to the internal flash drive.

I was about 51%/49% between the Chromebook and NUC. The $130 NUC I saw was barebones, whereas the Chromebox was a functional machine. Yes the TOSLINK is a good feature, and I could easily convince myself to go with the NUC instead.

David

I've done all that. I've installed other Linux flavors on the Chromebook, just can't get Daphile to work. There's a new update to the install .iso as of Tuesday, I'll give that a try and see if it helps. I'll probably not use the Chromebook for a main music player in the long run any way, no wired network connection on the Chromebook.

Roscoe

_________________
I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.

Roscoe,

I have an ACER Chromebook that DOES have an RJ-45 connection.
It doesn't get a whole lot of use ATM, and I could let it go.......

The Chromebox and NUC have wired ethernet, so better way to go. Mystery on your Daphile problem. I know is does not work in wireless Hotspot mode on a Chromebox due to a driver issue, though once I assigned an address on the wireless network it worked for me fine.

david

That's interesting, I didn't have any trouble with the wireless drivers on the Chromebook...

Roscoe

_________________
I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.