Implementing a music streaming system: request for advice or comments

[simoncn]

Welcome to the MinimServer forum, and thanks for the detailed explanation of your thinking and choices. I don't see any major problems with anything you've said in your post. I've made a few comments inline below.

(02-09-2013 18:31)DavidHB Wrote:  My current main audio system is based on 1980s technology, in particular a much-loved Quad (34/FM4/606) setup which still sounds well to me, but which cannot sensibly be connected into my otherwise digital media world. The idea is to replace the Quad components with a DSM player providing a DAC, control unit facilities for various components and (probably) power amplification.

You might not need to replace all your Quad components. I have a 1980s system as well, and I have found that a Linn DS (not DSM) makes an excellent front-end source for this system.

For radio listening, you will have the choice of receiving FM through your FM4 or digital internet radio through a streaming player. I've been very impressed by the sound quality of the BBC Radio 3 320 kbps AAC digital stream. I don't have a high-quality FM tuner myself, so I can't do a fair comparison, but I've seen a number of comments saying that the sound quality of this digital stream (when played through a high-quality streaming player) is superior to the FM signal.

Quote:Rendering and Control. This is an area where I am still experimenting. Currently I am accessing the music through UPnPlay on my Android tablet and foobar2000 on my PCs. If I do buy a high-end DSM player, computer- and tablet-based rendering will in any case be of secondary importance.

You will find the sound quality from a high-quality streaming player to be greatly superior to either of these.

Quote:Installation of all this has gone pretty smoothly. The only slightly problematic installation for a PC user was getting MinimServer on to the NAS. The instructions for doing this are very clear and explicit, except that the sentence

"MinimServer should now be running, and you should be able to see it in a UPnP control point."

is confusing to a novice because (1) there is no explanation of what the control point is or where it should be (i.e. not on the NAS!)

This should be covered by the About UPnP AV page on the MinimServer website.

Quote:and (2) the new user might not yet have a control point installed (I didn't). It seems to me that what I did to check that MinimServer is running, that is install and run MinimWatch on the PC, is a simpler way of doing the test. The new user can then go on to install, say, UPnPlay on a tablet to discover whether it can 'see' MinimServer.

Most new MinimServer users are already using another UPnP server and control point, so they would find it easier to check this using their existing control point than going through the extra steps of installing MinimWatch. I'll think about how best to introduce this to new MinimServer users who have no previous experience of UPnP streaming.