hagensieker

It'll be a sad day for me to see Tidal go away. One thing I really enjoy about Tidal is it integrates with LogitechMediaServer in which I am heavily invested (and by that I just mean my home has about a zillion Raspberry Pi and Mac Mini LMS servers with Squeezelite clients). I love the LMS platform. I almost never listen to the Mac app that has the MQA but every once in a while I check it out. One thing I have picked up on this thread is that several have mentioned the price of Tidal. As a veteran I pay $11 and change a month for Tidal. I'm certain I'm not the only person in this thread who is probably a veteran. I also have Spotify and for months I have toyed around with dropping one or the other. I'd have gladly dropped Spotify but my college aged daughter uses it almost non stop so I'm glad I haven't dumped it. Spotify's music library is a little deeper I think for some of the kinds of music I like to listen to. Anyway I hope Tidal rides the storm out and survives.

Ditto on the HiFiMan 400's. Everybody likes new and shiny and I'm sorry I gotta say this. I have heard dozens upon dozens of different cans and I always gravitate back to my Sony MDR-V6 and Sony MDR-7506. For my money the MDR-7506 are the best cans on the planet. Especially at the price point. I just got another new pair on Amazon for like $75.

Been meaning to do this forever and in fact anticipated this when I built this kit amp (Bottlehead Crack) years ago. Installed a Raspberry Pi under the hood and front mounted an LCD. Uses a HiFiMe 9018 DAC and music comes from LogitechMediaServer. LCD runs from lcdproc and a python script that someone else wrote. Enjoying the heck out of this. I'm going to disassemble, touch up the wood base, mount everything where I want it (current breadboard cables are too short) and then snug that LCD up nice and tight. Pic is unforgiving but the 3D plastic bezel I printed for the 20x4 LCD looks like it was made for the amp when you view it in person.

I've always been a big fan of HiFiMeDIY Sabre USB DAC's. I just picked up the new 9018 and been listening to it with Sony MDR-V6 with source of Raspberry Pi 3 with LogitechMediaServer (Tidal). It doesn't get a whole lot more frugal that that. Sitting right next to this system is a Bottlehead Crack, with Modi 2 and Wyrd and Sennheiser HD 650. In many ways I think this 9018 and Sony V6 cans are more musical.

I've been through most of those and kind of have an affinity for PiCorePlayer, which is also LogitechMediaServer (or Airplay) I prefer LMS to the MPD players. They're cool but my eco-system at home revolves around LMS. I have embedded a raspberry pi in a tube headphone amp (Bottlehead Crack) and the evolution of that (hopefully) will be the LCD player on the front.

I've been using Raspberry Pi as part of a home LogitechMediaServer home audio server for years now. Recently I started messing with adding a small LCD screen and figuring out how to get it to display track info, etc. As a result I've spent a lot of time under headphones on the Pi and am blown away at how good a Raspberry Pi with HiFiMeDIY 9018 DAC and Sony MDR-V6 headphones sound. If you carefully shop the headphones you basically have a full system for about $150 or $200 if you want to be technical adding in the costs of micro SD card and power brick, etc. I have vacuum tube amps and headphone amps and am just as satisfied listening via this inexpensive Pi system as I am any of the others. Oh, and the LCD is cool. You eagle eyes might note that isn't the 9018 DAC in the photo. You'd be correct. Just used my older DAC to set it up because it literally kept falling off the work table. Same goes with the HiFiBerry DAC's as well.

If you open up the case on ANY DAC........it is an electronic circuit. If you package that circuit behind a brand name and shiny box with blue LED's it makes it sound better I have several DAC's and sometimes I swear the best DAC I ever heard is a USB Sabre HiFiMeDiy that costs $50. I'm kinda partial to my Schiit Bifrost as well. I have a JDSLabs ODAC and bang for buck is a great deal. Hanging off a Raspberry Pi it is quite awesome.

Every once in a while you stumble across something that's just amazing, cheap, but amazing with excellent synergy. I'm on travel and have a Cubox -i4 with a Fiio E-17 DAC and a set of Beyerdynamic Tesla T51p headphones. I have the Fiio hooked up via USB but I could certainly and should hook it up SPDIF via Toslink. Probably even sound better. Streaming via LogitechMediaServer. I'm absolutely blown away right now. I'd like to say this system sounds good for what it is but the truth is it sounds good for what anything is. I think the synergy is coming from the Tesla cans. Probably pick an optical cable tomorrow and see what that does. If nothing else it'll buy me a little more cable length. Wow. This is one of the joys of Computer Audio. And this is a low profile system which takes up almost no weight or space in my bag and it also serves extra duty as a web and print server on my hotel room network. Great traveling companion.

I have a Cubox -i4 that's in my suitcase I use for travel. Soon as I hit the hotel room I set it up as a web, and print server, and have installed Logitechmediaserver on it with squeezelite. I run Arch with LXQT desktop but generally run it headless. I generally run it with a Fiio E17 DAC and Sony MDR-V6 headphones. I think it is an excellent sounding little system.

I had my i5 set up for a couple weeks with the mechanical hard drive. When the SSD came in I installed it and then cloned the mechanical to the SSD. To tell you the truth I didn't notice any difference.

I use this Crucial RAM from Amazon. Used it two Mac Mini's now with no problems and it's the cheapest upgrade going. Crucial 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3/DDR3L 1600 MHz (PC3-12800) CL11 SODIMM 204-Pin 1.35V/1.5V Memory for Mac CT2C8G3S160BM at Amazon.com I have used an OWC Mercury 6 SSD and a Crucial MX100 SSD. If I had to give a nod to one or the other I'd say the OWC drive benchmarks faster (real world I can tell no difference in speed or sound) plus you can order the drive and the doubler kit from OWC all at the same time. Be sure you know whether your current drive is in the upper or lower bay. It makes a difference for the cable. In my opinion the 2012 i7 sounds better than the i5 for some bizarre reason I can't explain. I know you didn't ask that but thought I'd throw that out there. I'm going to put my i5 on Amazon or eBay later as I just deployed my i7. I was gonna sell the i7 but once I deployed it, what they hey?

I've also found that it is real easy to pick up Windows Vista era laptops for less than $100. Heck I've had people give them to me. Install a light weight Linux distro on them and an external DAC and it really makes a wonderful platform for a music server. I have one old laptop that I put elementary OS on use it to specifically rip CD's using sound-juicer. Then drop and drag them over the network to my server.

Decide what your software delivery solution is going to be and then go with that. For example if you listen via iTunes then you should use Apple Lossless. If you listen via some software like MPD, or JRiver, or Clementine then you might want to go with FLAC or some of the others. What do you listen to your MP3 on and do you plan on using that same software?

I was on the site while all this was going on, then noticed the site went down for 15 minutes or so. Holiday server reboot or war? I'm mostly a lurker but can't tell you how much I enjoy this site and how much I've learned here. Thanks, John

There's a similar thread on budget systems but I want to see what are the cheapest systems running that are worth a hoot. I've been on a quest for super cheap systems that sound great enough to involve others around me. Mine: Raspberry Pi B+ - $35 IQAudioDAC+ - $45 Sony MDR-V6 headphones - $65 Another system along the same lines but has a step up: Cubox -i4 - $140 Fiio E17 DAC - $125 Sony MDR-V6 headphones -$65 Taking a bigger step up into the world would be: Raspberry Pi B+ - $35 HiFiBerry Digi+ $45 Schiit Modi - $100 Bottlehead Crack w/ Speedball Upgrade - $295 (on special) Sennheiser HD598 - $165 refurbished What is your super budget system?