Very newbie question: how do I tell if minimstreamer is runnng?

[nickc]

Thanks for this very helpful explanation.

If I've understood you correctly then, the quality of the DAC chip in the computer where I'm using VLC is an entirely separate matter from the capability of the software rendering VLC delivers to the DAC? (And thus the discussions that go on re the quality of DACs are focused on different issues?)

It's not practical for me to use my desktop running VLC as the primary source feeding our two main sound systems in the house, and I tend to agree with you about the benefit of streaming and rendering on different devices. It was reading your comment about that elsewhere in the forum that helped me decide to install a second RaspberryPi to do the rendering (using Volumio), and that has definitely proved a good move. For me, living in France, it's had the added benefit of being able to run a VPN on the original (streaming/decoding) Pi.

From your explanation I'm still not clear though what happens to those BBC streams on my system (MinimServer/Streamer on RPi > Volumio on on RPi > Arcam SR-250) when I don't ask MS to do any transcoding. The reason I tried the stream in VLC was to get the hard info on the stream that so far I can't find a way of doing from Volumio or the Arcam.

Obviously I need to experiment and see if I can hear a difference if I add decoding to MS. (I have to wait a suitable opportunity as I'm not the only listener in the house.) My ears are not as good as they were once!