I finally took the step from storing my music on my computer and using VLC media player then running it through a cheap DAC (Serenade DSD). Bought a used NUC and have made it into a dedicated server/streamer using Volumio. Setup went pretty well, I tried Daphile but it didn’t work so then came to Volumio and very happy with the results. Excellent sound quality; I am impressed.
I decided not to go down the raspberry pi route once I read that Volumio could be installed on a NUC, I am not familiar with the pi and more comfortable with PCs so that is what made up my mind. I also upgraded the cable between the NUC and the DAC, Furutech from Aliexpress and that has improved things considerably.
In time I will look at getting a better DAC, DDC and hopefully a Volumio Rivo Plus as funds allow.
I just wanted to say hi to everyone here. Looks like a good community to belong to.
I installed Volumio onto a USB flashdrive, started up and followed instructions to install it. There is then a function in the settings to transfer Volumio onto internal drive. No need to take the SSD out. Once I did that the computer had Volumio installed and works well.
Hi @Craig1, and welcome. I suspect - but don’t know - there’s a reasonable number of New Zealanders on this forum (I’m in Wellington). Anyway, I’ve always found the forum an excellent source of ideas and advice, and it’s well moderated.
Hi jetstream, thanks for the welcome. I’m down on the West Coast. I went to uni in Wellington many, many moons ago and got interested in audio gear and quality sound then. I agree with your comments about the forum, I have looked it up a few times to answer the questions that I had and it is very friendly and welcoming.
You did a good thing choosing a Intel over a RPi5 as I have both but RPi5 is not only expensive but weaker than my Chromebox PC hacked to run Volumio. Everything just works perfectly on the Intel machines and it’s faster and smoother.