I am really in need of advice. After searching for the best way to proceed for weeks, I find myself confused on which way to go. My goal is to get the best sound I can from my audio files (duh), while providing the flexibility to stream the music in a low res format to my smart phone or other devices. Here is a list of what I am working with:
1TB external HDD with FLAC and MP3 music (about 5k FLAC files and 20k MP3)
A spare laptop to use as a server.
A PS3 connected to my AVR via HDMI
A gen 1 Apple TV - HDMI to AVR
Anthem MRX 500 AVR (I use the internal DAC because you cannot pass through) Also, the Anthem will accept WAV and MP3 files and maybe ALAC, but not FLAC.
What I hope to achieve is a media server with software that will serve WAV files or some other format to my Anthem receiver with a nice interface on my iPad for managing the playlists, etc. I would also like to remote stream to my iPhone for use in my car over bluetooth (lower resolution of course to save on data).
I have seen a media server software called Plex that seems compelling, but I cant tell if it will take the FLAC files and stream them through the PS3 to my Anthem in a codec it supports such as WAV.
I am completely open to any idea here and once again, thank for any suggestions or guidance.
Cheers!
