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Post by audiobill on Feb 5, 2016 18:35:42 GMT -5
You know, I've never tried that, but I can't imagine it shouldn't.
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Post by yves on Feb 6, 2016 5:30:46 GMT -5
Because then you are stuck with having to maintain and update a windows PC. By the time you buy this and add the necessary tweaks and programs to do it right you might as well buy a dedicated device that is focused on audio. A Auralic Aries Mini is $550 and has the ability to add a internal SSD for storage. I do not have one, but I'd buy one before I bought or built another PC as a music server. The Aries Mini also comes with a year or two of Tidal. Seems like a no brainier to me. The advantages: 1. Lower upfront cost - The ChromeBoxes pop up on sale occasionally for $99 (keyboard/mouse extra) 2. No Windows to slow down the system 3. The OpenElec OS runs far faster and is more stable than any version of Windows. 4. You control OS updates/patches/fixes unlike the auto download function in Windows 10 5. Lower processor, ram, HD etc in the ChromeBox with better performance Simply put, it just keeps on running and running. I have two independent networks run off Windows servers in the house, so I am not anit Microsoft, it is simple economics and you can let your kids use it with ZERO problems because they messed up a Windows setting. I use an Asus R510L notebook (Core i7-4510U, 8GB RAM, 1TB internal HDD) running on Windows 8.1 with foobar2000 and WASAPI output for music, MPC-HC and madVR for movie content. My keyboard is the Logitech K800 Wireless Illuminated; using it in conjunction with my Logitech G400 optical corded mouse. The UMC-200 is plugged into the notebook via HDMI. The separate DAC is hooked up to the analog Ext. 7.1 Left + Right inputs on the UMC-200, and to the notebook's USB 2.0 port. The notebook's two USB 3.0 ports are hooked up to one powered USB 3.0 hub each, and in total I own 38 TB of external storage space spread across seventeen external harddrives the majority of which are not plugged in. The advantages of using the notebook are: 1. More processing power so that I can use it for multitasking / other interesting stuff besides music and movies, and it's a portable machine 2. Windows for maximizing on freedom of software choices instead of being too severely limited in this regard (see above) 3. No relevant system slowdowns due to being able to use programs like Bitsum Process Lasso, Condusiv Diskeeper, Primo Ramdisk, etc. etc. 4. System stability = 150 percent (pun intended). 5. I control OS updates/patches/fixes because it's on Windows 8.1, not Windows 10 |
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Post by noodlejohnson on Feb 7, 2016 23:41:06 GMT -5
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Post by visiter555 on Feb 8, 2016 12:25:21 GMT -5
And what did you pay for the laptop? The ChromeBox was $99 and the MS Wireless Media keyboard with touchpad was $21 for a total of $120 all in for a dedicated streamer and computer (dual boot OpenElec/Chrome O/S with Netflix, browser, office suite etc.). The advantages: 1. Lower upfront cost - The ChromeBoxes pop up on sale occasionally for $99 (keyboard/mouse extra) 2. No Windows to slow down the system 3. The OpenElec OS runs far faster and is more stable than any version of Windows. 4. You control OS updates/patches/fixes unlike the auto download function in Windows 10 5. Lower processor, ram, HD etc in the ChromeBox with better performance Simply put, it just keeps on running and running. I have two independent networks run off Windows servers in the house, so I am not anit Microsoft, it is simple economics and you can let your kids use it with ZERO problems because they messed up a Windows setting. I use an Asus R510L notebook (Core i7-4510U, 8GB RAM, 1TB internal HDD) running on Windows 8.1 with foobar2000 and WASAPI output for music, MPC-HC and madVR for movie content. My keyboard is the Logitech K800 Wireless Illuminated; using it in conjunction with my Logitech G400 optical corded mouse. The UMC-200 is plugged into the notebook via HDMI. The separate DAC is hooked up to the analog Ext. 7.1 Left + Right inputs on the UMC-200, and to the notebook's USB 2.0 port. The notebook's two USB 3.0 ports are hooked up to one powered USB 3.0 hub each, and in total I own 38 TB of external storage space spread across seventeen external harddrives the majority of which are not plugged in. The advantages of using the notebook are: 1. More processing power so that I can use it for multitasking / other interesting stuff besides music and movies, and it's a portable machine 2. Windows for maximizing on freedom of software choices instead of being too severely limited in this regard (see above) 3. No relevant system slowdowns due to being able to use programs like Bitsum Process Lasso, Condusiv Diskeeper, Primo Ramdisk, etc. etc. 4. System stability = 150 percent (pun intended). 5. I control OS updates/patches/fixes because it's on Windows 8.1, not Windows 10 |
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Post by Dr. Feel Good on Feb 8, 2016 16:23:32 GMT -5
Here is my Recommendation, And I personally own this product. Olive One, By Olive: www.myoliveone.com/Enjoy  |
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Post by yves on Feb 8, 2016 17:15:05 GMT -5
And what did you pay for the laptop? The ChromeBox was $99 and the MS Wireless Media keyboard with touchpad was $21 for a total of $120 all in for a dedicated streamer and computer (dual boot OpenElec/Chrome O/S with Netflix, browser, office suite etc.). I use an Asus R510L notebook (Core i7-4510U, 8GB RAM, 1TB internal HDD) running on Windows 8.1 with foobar2000 and WASAPI output for music, MPC-HC and madVR for movie content. My keyboard is the Logitech K800 Wireless Illuminated; using it in conjunction with my Logitech G400 optical corded mouse. The UMC-200 is plugged into the notebook via HDMI. The separate DAC is hooked up to the analog Ext. 7.1 Left + Right inputs on the UMC-200, and to the notebook's USB 2.0 port. The notebook's two USB 3.0 ports are hooked up to one powered USB 3.0 hub each, and in total I own 38 TB of external storage space spread across seventeen external harddrives the majority of which are not plugged in. The advantages of using the notebook are: 1. More processing power so that I can use it for multitasking / other interesting stuff besides music and movies, and it's a portable machine 2. Windows for maximizing on freedom of software choices instead of being too severely limited in this regard (see above) 3. No relevant system slowdowns due to being able to use programs like Bitsum Process Lasso, Condusiv Diskeeper, Primo Ramdisk, etc. etc. 4. System stability = 150 percent (pun intended). 5. I control OS updates/patches/fixes because it's on Windows 8.1, not Windows 10 Here in Belgium computer hardware prices are much steeper than in the U.S. so I paid 749 Euros for it one year ago at a local retail store, but like I said it's being used for a whole lot more than just playing music and movies, and IMO it was actually a pretty good deal. BTW, my Logitech K800 Wireless Illuminated keyboard alone costed 100 Euros at the time when I bought it from another local retail store quite some time before I got the notebook; back then it was the normal price to pay for the K800 over here. |
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Post by visiter555 on Feb 11, 2016 14:45:00 GMT -5
And what did you pay for the laptop? The ChromeBox was $99 and the MS Wireless Media keyboard with touchpad was $21 for a total of $120 all in for a dedicated streamer and computer (dual boot OpenElec/Chrome O/S with Netflix, browser, office suite etc.). Here in Belgium computer hardware prices are much steeper than in the U.S. so I paid 749 Euros for it one year ago at a local retail store, but like I said it's being used for a whole lot more than just playing music and movies, and IMO it was actually a pretty good deal. BTW, my Logitech K800 Wireless Illuminated keyboard alone costed 100 Euros at the time when I bought it from another local retail store quite some time before I got the notebook; back then it was the normal price to pay for the K800 over here. The ChromeBox is 267 Euros versus the 749 for your computer, so you paid triple the price of the ChromeBox. The OP was looking for alternatives for his AirportExpress, not necessarily for a more expensive device that does additional things. I respect your suggestion, and your willingness to spend extra funds to get what you want, though I think a laptop is not really an equivalent, it is way above the specs/requirements. |
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Post by yves on Feb 11, 2016 19:45:16 GMT -5
Here in Belgium computer hardware prices are much steeper than in the U.S. so I paid 749 Euros for it one year ago at a local retail store, but like I said it's being used for a whole lot more than just playing music and movies, and IMO it was actually a pretty good deal. BTW, my Logitech K800 Wireless Illuminated keyboard alone costed 100 Euros at the time when I bought it from another local retail store quite some time before I got the notebook; back then it was the normal price to pay for the K800 over here. The ChromeBox is 267 Euros versus the 749 for your computer, so you paid triple the price of the ChromeBox. The OP was looking for alternatives for his AirportExpress, not necessarily for a more expensive device that does additional things. I respect your suggestion, and your willingness to spend extra funds to get what you want, though I think a laptop is not really an equivalent, it is way above the specs/requirements. Well, I used to have my USB DAC hooked up to my 10" netbook PC with an Intel Atom N270 @ 1.6 GHz and only 1 GB RAM, 160 GB internal harddrive, running on Windows 7 Starter. This thing also has a battery so it loses no data when the power goes down; BTW it was 32 Euros above your ChromeBox, new, with a 3-year warranty, and, actually this was like more than 6 whole years ago so if it can play FLAC files in foobar2000 and it comes with an USB 2.0 port then you're probably good.  |
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Post by jdubs on Feb 13, 2016 13:44:56 GMT -5
There were a lot of great suggestions in this thread, and I appreciate it. It came down to: I didn't need or want to pay for a high quality DAC, so that ruled out a few. I also wasn't looking for a large feature set as my needs are simple. I ended up going the Kodi route on an Asus Chromebox. I put a remote on my phone and will be setting up an iPad as well. I have it largely functional with a couple more tweaks to do. My Schiit DAC loves the USB connection and it works very reliably.
It is not for everyone as it takes some work to set up and isn't a super produced GUI. I don't really interact with the GUI because I just control it by iPhone/iPad remote. If you need something that pulls media off your network and has a ton of possibilities (for movies and pictures, too) check it out. It has a bit of a learning curve, but is very capable. It would work on a HTPC or on a separate dedicated network device like I am doing.
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