My poor man music server

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Hi all,
I always want to have a music server like Olive, PSA Perfect wave, etc but the price are just too expensive (and very difficult to find in my country). Having completed a hifimediy TK2050 amp, I decided to build a music server as my next DIY project. So I made following design goals :
  1. It should sound good but cheap, small & energy efficient.
  2. It should be headless (no monitor, keyboard, mouse).
  3. Control could be done from external devices (other PC/laptop, smartphone, etc).
  4. It should be able to share it's library to other consumer electronic devices (eg: TV, other PCs, etc).

After some research, trial & error and some headaches (although I'm not new at all to computer & networking). I came up with following config (except for the server, I already have the other devices):

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


The result (the server is on the middle):

2011-07-24084739.jpg



The server is a very basic Atom D410 single core PC with only 1GB RAM and 160GB hdd taken from old laptop plus USB wifi adapter. It runs Win 7 Home Starter edition. The case is a very nice CFI mini ITX case (looks like a high end audio device hahaha). To ensure efficiency, I disabled all un-necesary devices via the BIOS (serial, parallel ports, onboard LAN & audiodevice, etc). The case fan was also disabled.

I also removed un-necessary services and features from Windows to make it boot faster & resource efficient. There's a ton of info about this on the web.

Software side, I installed Foobar and it's uPNP component and configured it as uPNP server (to provide content library) and renderer (to play the contents). Foobar is launch as a service when the system startup. I have tested several other uPNP server (TVersity, TVmobily, Servioo, etc) but nothing come close to Foobar for the flexibility & portability.

To make it sounds good. I also install foobar Wasapi & ASIO component (requires installation of ASIO4all driver). I still can't decide which is better in term of SQ.

Being a headless PC, I need to find a way to control it from external devices. So I installed tightVNC (for remote desktop, in case I want to make some changes on the server) and PC Monitor (to remotely monitor the PC, restart, power off, etc). Both can be accessed remotely by another PC or smartphone.

To access & control the content of the server, I used an Android smartphone (Samsung Gio). I installed uPNPPlay as uPNP controller. It can browse the library and play the content into remote foobar renderer. This is an amazing piece of software as you can control the server just like using a portable music player. It can also be used to play the content from the server like a portable music player.

I also install tightVNC viewer and PC Monitor client on both my laptop and smartphone to control the system part of the server. This is necessary for example to : update patches, change system / software config, etc.

Except for the Win 7, all software all free. In total, the server costs me about 140$.

Overall, I'm very please with the result. The SQ is good and very easy to use. I can now browse my FLAC album library, create playlist and select the song without leave my couch. A CD player will look & feel like a stone age technology compare to this music server.
 
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To continue my post above, following are the screen capture of uPNPPlay android controller :

Select the library :
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Select the genre :
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Select the artist :
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Select the album :
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Make a playlist :
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Select a rendered (aka player):
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Play it !!!
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
thanks all for the kind words....:)

it's very nice build my friend :-D (dukung sama orang sekampung :p)

hehe...makasih gan.

Wow!

Very impressive, would you say this sounds equal to straight from the cd player quality?

Compared to my cheapo marantz 5400 analog out, the server + DAC combo significantly sounds better. Sometimes next week I plan to compare it to my friend's mega expensive system (Marantz SACD, DLS DAC + upsampler, etc).

Brilliant job i2K92!

Dumb question - with this setup, is it possible to remotely play video content/movies?

no, bu it can be done if you use other uPNP server with video support (TVersity, Serviio, etc). But I think transcoding of video contents will need better CPU. I don't care about video as I have a HD media player for my video needs. But for music, it can stream music to Panasonic Viera plasma & Dune HD media player effortlessly.
 
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Hi!
So I installed tightVNC (for remote desktop, in case I want to make some changes on the server) and PC Monitor (to remotely monitor the PC, restart, power off, etc). Both can be accessed remotely by another PC or smartphone.
Could you tell me where can I find that "PC MONITOR" software?
How the tightVNC on your Phone communicate with the PC? On Bluetooth?

Greets:
Tyimo
 
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Impressive. I opted to not only go for the poor mans server, I opted to cheat and use a Pure i20 dock.

My set up was quicker and cheaper, yours is the infinitely more flexible and expandable. Bravo. To use one of my favorite Futurama quotes, "A real inspiration to the children"!
 
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slamat siang pak,

can you please explain the connection done between the music server with the DAC?

picture might be a good help

before I used USB, now I use coax after I upgraded the motherboard with on board spdif (MSI E-350IA-E45). As it is now support up to 96khz, I use SOX upsampler on foobar,the sound quality is improved.
I also replaced Quad 11L with Kef Q300, more improvement.

I also tested j.river mediacenter, sounds good but the uPNP server in foobar is easier to deal with & more stable. I also have a new Asus Transformer tablet, controlling a uPNP device via tablet is a real joy !!!

This looks like a great project but I'm concerned that you disappeared. Your last post was way back when.
Francois

Hi I'm still around. Haven't got a chance to compare with my friend's system yet...he just got a baby & the system is in his living room...baby + audio is not compatible at all :-(

BTW, I already listed some upgrade possibilities :
replace the PC psu with picopsu with external power brick and perhaps in the future make a linear power supply (not sure yet about the effectiveness related to sound quality).
Build a DAC using those ebay kits, need to decide which one to choose.
Replace the hard disk with SSD...this is the last priority.
 
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Hi i2k92,
Q300 is really nice speaker. and ASUS Transformer? poor man? oh no :)
For PicoPSU, please have larger one for future motherboard/CPU upgrade.
and DAC/Amp.. how about "QA100 full digital amplifier"?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/QLS-QA100-C...4-amplifier-24-192-TAS516-2-pcs-/120790943612

Your configuration looks great, pls give me some advice.
My current system : https://sites.google.com/site/koonaudioprojects/
Core i3 fanless (foobar, Reaper, exaU2IDB all ASIO) - exaU2I USB to I2S x4 - 4 way amp - 4 way speaker

(1) I have iPad2, "AirPlay" can work as your uPNPPlay?
(2) if not I want some 7 inch Android tablet. Ideapad A1? or any recommendation?
 
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Hi i2k92,
Q300 is really nice speaker. and ASUS Transformer? poor man? oh no :)
For PicoPSU, please have larger one for future motherboard/CPU upgrade.
and DAC/Amp.. how about "QA100 full digital amplifier"?
QLS QA100 Class T Digital Amplifier 100 W*2 (@4?) amplifier 24/192 TAS516*2 pcs | eBay

Your configuration looks great, pls give me some advice.
My current system : https://sites.google.com/site/koonaudioprojects/
Core i3 fanless (foobar, Reaper, exaU2IDB all ASIO) - exaU2I USB to I2S x4 - 4 way amp - 4 way speaker

(1) I have iPad2, "AirPlay" can work as your uPNPPlay?
(2) if not I want some 7 inch Android tablet. Ideapad A1? or any recommendation?

in fact that Asus belong to my wife...so I'm still classified as poor man. :)

wow you have a scarry looking heatsink tower. That Exa should sound great, I wish I can spend some 250$ for USB only. I already have a great sounding Tripath based amp, it will stay for some years until I get bored. My target now is a better DAC kit.

I don't know about AirPlay (poor man, can't afford iPad :eek:), but somebody told me that PlugPlayer will work with any uPNP device.

No idea about Ideapad. But my friend has an Archos 7", he told me that it's great & price is lower than other brand. But any cheap Android phone with wifi will work great with my setup.
 
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