The Most Minimal Computer Music Converter
Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 11:33 am
I know that I will plough a lonely furrow here. But...
I have a wired (are wireless) home network.
All my digital music sits on a Network Attached Storage box.
I access it mostly through my TFS/Asus Dac or a Mac Mini/Bereford DAC.
Both of these solutions appear to me as having too many parts: both already have a way of converting digital to analogue, but I'm using an external box to do that. In the case of the TFS there's a whole sound card and half a power supply not doing anything.
So, along the lines of 'better than the best component is no component at all'. I've been following little leads I've stumbled upon or been told about from time to time.
The latest stumbled-upon was volumio.org(previously raspyfi). This is a linux distribution designed for 'embedded systems'. All DIY at the moment.
The people behind this also have a 'less is more' theme (in parts at least) and look at ways to reduce the number of interfaces for sound.
http://volumio.org/raspberry-pi-i2s-dac-sounds-so-good/
This looks interesting enough to want to give it a try. The easiest way looks like it is to buy a Cubox (a ready made mini computer) but I can't find out too much about what is inside that and it has more than I think I need.
The nearest I can find to the 'absolute minimum' is to get a Raspberry Pi and a HiFiBerry Dac and make a device which would sit in between a Lan cable and an amplifier (using volumio and controlled from a web interface using a smartphone/tablet/computer). Where I'm stuck in my thinking with that is a case to stick it all in (this is more to protect components from damage than electrical safety since it all runs of 5volts and a fraction of an amp) and the thought that providing a separate power supply to the DAC board might be better (the HiFiBerry is designed to 'plug' into a 5v power rail on the Raspberry Pi board). It wouldn't have wifi but this is supposed to be 'minimalist'.
So, thoughts about making cases (I guess my baseline is making something crude our of plywood)?
And power supplies (wall wart variety at the moment)?
I have a wired (are wireless) home network.
All my digital music sits on a Network Attached Storage box.
I access it mostly through my TFS/Asus Dac or a Mac Mini/Bereford DAC.
Both of these solutions appear to me as having too many parts: both already have a way of converting digital to analogue, but I'm using an external box to do that. In the case of the TFS there's a whole sound card and half a power supply not doing anything.
So, along the lines of 'better than the best component is no component at all'. I've been following little leads I've stumbled upon or been told about from time to time.
The latest stumbled-upon was volumio.org(previously raspyfi). This is a linux distribution designed for 'embedded systems'. All DIY at the moment.
The people behind this also have a 'less is more' theme (in parts at least) and look at ways to reduce the number of interfaces for sound.
http://volumio.org/raspberry-pi-i2s-dac-sounds-so-good/
This looks interesting enough to want to give it a try. The easiest way looks like it is to buy a Cubox (a ready made mini computer) but I can't find out too much about what is inside that and it has more than I think I need.
The nearest I can find to the 'absolute minimum' is to get a Raspberry Pi and a HiFiBerry Dac and make a device which would sit in between a Lan cable and an amplifier (using volumio and controlled from a web interface using a smartphone/tablet/computer). Where I'm stuck in my thinking with that is a case to stick it all in (this is more to protect components from damage than electrical safety since it all runs of 5volts and a fraction of an amp) and the thought that providing a separate power supply to the DAC board might be better (the HiFiBerry is designed to 'plug' into a 5v power rail on the Raspberry Pi board). It wouldn't have wifi but this is supposed to be 'minimalist'.
So, thoughts about making cases (I guess my baseline is making something crude our of plywood)?
And power supplies (wall wart variety at the moment)?