Sartorius

Thanks bogi. The Oppo HA-2 reviews do look positive and its an attractive unit.

Thanks Eloise. And in your view, will the Nano markedly improve the sound quality based on my set up (above)? I notice that some reviewers suggest the headphone amplifier may not be able to drive more demanding headphones. Is that likely to be an issue with my Westone W40s?

Thanks for the suggestion. This stuff looks good but I want something compact and portable as I will either be using it on the go with my iPhone 6, or at my desk with my MacBook.

I'm considering purchasing a DAC/headphone amp and would like feedback on whether people feel adding one will make a noticeable difference to sound quality. I would use it with a MacBook Pro (late 2013 model) with JRiver MC20; and also with an iPhone 6. All music is either lossless (FLAC and ALAC) or mp3 320kps or higher. I have Westone W40 headphones. I don't have a particular budget, but would be reluctant to spend more than £200 - 300.

Thanks mrvco. Can you elaborate.

I want the mini to have ac wifi (the 2012 doesn't) so am only looking at the new 2014 models - unless of course the the 2014 models won't be able to handle music and video over JRiver...

Hi Eloise - yes, the virgin is completely separate from sky - we'll ditch Sky in due course assuming we're happy that virgin is an improvement (so far it certainly is). Sky don't offer fibre in our area (even though we're in London!) - and that won't change any time soon - so virgin have the fastest offering. Also, at the moment even sky's newest router is still only n rather than ac wifi. They're behind the curve as far as broadband goes.

Unfortunately my wife is insisting on a solution which dispenses with the laptop! We listen to music in the kitchen (via the Denon Piccolo which is hidden in a cupboard and hooked up to ceiling speakers) and the living room (via a Samsung tv hooked up to a Monitor Audio soundbar). So having a laptop for a controller in either environment is actually not good. I'm basically curious to know which of the new 2014 minis will do the media server job I need - predominently for music but maybe also for video (although not sure how it compares to the WDTV which basically plays anything you throw at it).

Thanks wgscott. Have ditched the Airport extreme idea now we have the new router - it's a huge improvement on the Sky n router we'd been using (and free, so a bit of a no brainer vs paying for an AE).

John, thanks again. Very helpful advice. So I've upgraded our router as the previous Sky router was not good (now using a Virgin superhub, which is an ac router and has gigabit ethernet). That seems to have helped. I'll be hardwiring the Piccolo to a power line home plug to improve connectivity still further. I'm now trying to decide what mini to get - any suggestions? Just to repeat, I'm using JRiver MC 20, a Synology DS713+, and will likely control everything from my iPhone 6 Plus (the MacBook Pro is a bit cumbersome to have sitting out on display all the time to use as a controller so the iPhone would be a better option). At present I only use JRiver for music (the mac version didn't feature video until the last update) but may use it for video as well if the mini is an option. Currently I use a WDTV to access video on the Synology.

Here you go John (the set up is pretty straightforward): Sky Router -> wired ethernet -> Synology DS713+ ---> FLAC files pulled wirelessly to JRiver MC20 (on MacBook Pro late 2013) and pushed wirelessly to ---> Denon Piccolo. The router and Sinology are housed in a cupboard in a separate room to the Denon - I use home plugs to increase the wifi strength so no issue there - but I do have a problem with drop outs regularly. In particular, the Denon drops off the JRiver menu and the MacPro and Synology have to be 'reconnected' most days as they seem to stop talking to each other. My initial thought was to load JRiver onto a MacMini and then hardwire that to the Denon. The Mini would still be pulling files from the Synology over wifi but the wired connection to the Denon would at least remove one of the wireless links. However, it appears the Denon has limited connectivity (basically the only option is optical, which seems to bypass the Denon's amplification (I have to turn the volume right up when playing files from my MacPro via optical to the Denon)). So I'm also open to ideas for a DAC and something else in place of the Denon if necessary (I've tried Sonos btw and got rid of it - same issues and the sound quality wasn't as good).

In another thread I posted recently I explained how I was having drop outs over DLNA. One member suggested this is a classic sign of my router not implementing UPnP/DLNA discovery properly. I use a standard Sky ISP router which is quite old - it's a Sagem F@ST2504n. Any recommendations for a replacement? We are a Mac household, so one obvious option is the Airport Extreme.

Thanks John. Very interesting. Here's some answers which might help you advise me further. Yes, I could connect the Piccolo using wired ethernet (via a homeplug) but that would bypass JRiver. The Piccolo's GUI is very basic (a small display on the front) and not a practical option IMO particularly as we have it out of site in a cupboard. Yes, correct. Understood, but I use JRiver for its GUI, which is fantastic. Using the NAS's media server would by pass JRiver. Again, not an attractive option IMO. Yes, devices randomly stop seeing each other. I use a Sky router, which I'm sure is far from the best out there, but Sky won't support anything other than their own unit. As we use Sky for TV and internet I'm nervous about replacing it. Yes, I use the latest build - MC 20.

Thanks Cebolla. I have two issues with DLNA. One is drop outs. Currently I use JRiver on a MacBook Pro to pull files from a Synology NAS and then push them to the Denon Piccolo. Don't get me wrong, it's not disastrous, but try as I might I can't get everything to reliably talk to each other without having to reset one part of the set up several times a day. My idea is that by using a MacMini I can hard wire part of the set up (the Mini would connect (via ethernet to a Devolo homeplug) to the Synology; and in turn to the Denon - although that's looking tricky given I can't use USB or optical). The other issue is gapless playback. Denon claim the Piccolo supports gapless but it seems this doesn't include gapless over DLNA.

I'm about to pull the trigger on a new Mac Mini now Apple has finally updated it at today's launch. My plan is to run JRiver MC20 on the Mini, and I was going to hard wire it to my Denon CEOL Piccolo (as DLNA is not reliable enough). The Piccolo has USB 2 and optical in, but I notice the new Mini has no optical out. Instead it has USB 3, HDMI and Thunderbolt 2. So, any recommendations as to set up? I'm willing to consider replacing the Piccolo if necessary.