[aceinc]

I am an audio hobbyist. I have about 6 systems mostly analog throughout my home. I also have ~6.600 flac files (I also have quite a stack of the original CDs) on a computer on my network. My goal is to be able to easily access the FLAC files from any of the systems. I could move a notebook computer from system to system, and I do this sometimes.

What I would really like is multiple small inexpensive device which I can plug into all of the systems which I could control from a PC, tablet or phone (Android, I do not do Apple and will not have any in my home). They would then need to talk with some flavor of a media server running on Windows.

Streaming from services would be a nice add-on, but I do not have any subscriptions at present so it is not a requirement. I have a secure WiFi network everything would run on. I have wired ethernet to a number of the locations as well.

I should have started doing this 20 years ago, but here I am.

What recommendations are there based on the above?

I am not afraid of technology, but since I work with it daily, I prefer not to get up to my derrière in it as part of my hobby, so simple is good.

[Tyson]

Roon will do this.

[aceinc]

Roon will do this.

Knowing nothing about Roon, is it something one can put together without spending hours/days/weeks on a learning curve?

I know there is a dichotomy in what I am asking, inexpensive, easy to configure & use. Usually in technology these are seldom in the same "product."

Where can I get enough information to determine its viability without "learning how to build a clock?"

[aceinc]

Roon will do this.

I did a quick search and it appears Roon is a subscription service. Additionally I didn't see any inexpensive devices to attach my analog (read vintage) systems, we are talking pre remote control let alone anything digital.

Is there a version Roon which doesn't require a subscription? Perhaps an open source or community supported version.

I've read a little about Logitech Media Server with Squeezebox. It seems like it is tech which was abandoned by Logitech and taken over by the community. I couldn't find a good resource which shows how to put together what I want, however.

[newzooreview]

Raspberry Pi sounds like what you are describing: little boxes on the network accessing files on a disk/file server somewhere on the network.

You can put Moode on a Rasberry Pi and get digital out to a DAC. You would almost certainly want to put better digital output on the Raspberry Pi, so something from Allo would be a better choice than a bare bones Raspberry Pi.

https://www.allo.com/sparky/katana-player.html

There is no free version of Roon. Raspberry Pi streaming was hit and miss for me with hi-res files (e.g., 192/24 tracks) even via ethernet.

If you are just going to move a laptop around and plug a USB DAC into it, then you just need something like VLC (free) or Foobar. They will probably identify at least 80% of your library and grab album art so it won't be a completely miserable experience.

Sound quality with the free options will be ok for background music and general non-critical listening.

Other than having FLAC files on a computer, the rest of your use case is unclear.

[aceinc]

Raspberry Pi sounds like what you are describing: little boxes on the network accessing files on a disk/file server somewhere on the network.

You can put Moode on a Rasberry Pi and get digital out to a DAC. You would almost certainly want to put better digital output on the Raspberry Pi, so something from Allo would be a better choice than a bare bones Raspberry Pi.

https://www.allo.com/sparky/katana-player.html

There is no free version of Roon. Raspberry Pi streaming was hit and miss for me with hi-res files (e.g., 192/24 tracks) even via ethernet.

If you are just going to move a laptop around and plug a USB DAC into it, then you just need something like VLC (free) or Foobar. They will probably identify at least 80% of your library and grab album art so it won't be a completely miserable experience.

Sound quality with the free options will be ok for background music and general non-critical listening.

Other than having FLAC files on a computer, the rest of your use case is unclear.

My use case is I have, right at the moment, a few systems in my Garage, which I am testing, two systems in my den, one in my master bedroom all of which have no attached video device (smart TV). I would like to turn on any of these systems and using a handheld device be able to play at least CD quality music from my library without attaching cables from a notebook. If at some future time I choose to subscribe to Spotify, or one of the other music services, I would like to have the ability to use this as well.

My concern with a Raspberry Pi is the level of complexity to put all of the moving parts together. It sounds like I would need to buy the device, buy an additional DAC, a power supply & chassis for everything, install software on the device making sure everything is compatible with appropriate firmware & software versions. Then I will need to make it work & play well with my android device and whatever Windows media server software I choose.

I write software, and work with network implementations for work. Can I do all of the above? Yes, I feel confident I would be able to make it function. But do I want to do all of this in my spare time? It would seem a lot like going from one job to another.

If there were a preconfigured Raspberry Pi, or even a preconfigured kit with everything I would need where all I would need to do is slap it together, I could live with that.

[charmerci]

JRiver will allow you to do all you want. For one, one-time price, you can download the software to multiple devices, hooks up to the internet and allows you to stream services.

[aceinc]

JRiver will allow you to do all you want. For one, one-time price, you can download the software to multiple devices, hooks up to the internet and allows you to stream services.

This looks like a decent software solution. In the 3 minutes I spent on the JRiver web site, I couldn't see a list of the "endpoint" devices (the device which attaches to the line in on my preamp/amp and talks wirelessly to the network) I could use.

Where can I find endpoint devices which would be compatible with their ecosystem?

I repurposed the term endpoint from my IT background, please correct my terminology.

[newzooreview]

Roon also has a one-time payment option, but it's $700 (going up to $830 in the new year, apparently).

JRiver is 10x less expensive and is setup using a couple of network streaming standards that are broadly implemented in endpoint devices, especially DLNA which shows up on all types of things ("smart" TVs, NAS boxes, etc.). I suspect the reason that JRiver doesn't list compatible devices is that anything using one of their streaming protocols will work so the list would be unwieldy if not impossible to maintain. It would be like the USB consortium listing compatible devices (almost).

I bought Roon for a $499 one-time payment at the outset, which turned out to be a reasonable investment over the long term. The advantage of Roon is that it is very easy to setup and configure (much less time reading a mishmash of technical guides and forums that may contain outdated and otherwise misleading information), next to DLNA it has the widest range of endpoints available, and it has by far the best metadata with further improvements on the horizon.

The major disadvantage to Roon, other than cost, is the decision to disable the Roon server in your house if the internet connection falters. You cannot play the music you own, using the software that you pay for, if your ISP or some other glitch interrupts the Roon software from phoning home. This change was made this year with no forewarning. Complaints overtook the Roon forum, and their response was to bury the thread, shut down voting on the petition to restore function without internet, and verbally malign their customers throughout the forum wherever the issue was raised.

The cost of Roon is continuing to bloat for subscribers due to lock-in and lack of competition. In addition, on installation Roon attempts to hack your network to punch a hole in your firewall so that it can see your locally stored files and provide the "service" of streaming them to you (at low resolution) on your phone or tablet outside of you network. This "feature" cannot be disabled, but at least a good firewall will not allow it. I consider it a nice security test and my network passes, fortunately. A lot of people probably have incorporated a Roon security breach, weakening them to other attacks, without even realizing it.

I am glad that I am not paying monthly, and I have come out ahead compared to subscribing during the time I have used it, but I fully expect that Roon will become less and less attractive as features bloat and they veer towards trying to compete with streaming services like Spotify and away from audiophile quality local playback.

Something like JRiver looks to be an interesting option, but I do wonder about the quality of the metadata and the user interface of the playback software. I am simply ignorant of those things, not passing judgment. Roon was miles ahead of other options I had tried before I started using it.

[Doublej]

I think a stack of Amazon Echo Dot 3's will do it for you and provide streaming services too. Price is $15 each on Cyber Monday special. Take the analog output on the Dot and feed it to an input on each of your systems.

Control is through the Alexa voice interface on the Echo Dot or an Alexa app which is supported on Windows, Android, iOS, MacOS and (I think) browser.

For higher audio quality you should be able to substitute a WiiM Mini for an Echo Dot 3 at $80 each and use the WiiM SPDIF out to feed a DAC. It's analog output is likely better than the Echo Dot 3 as well. If you want a hardwired Ethernet connection there is a WiiM Pro at $150, coming soon.

You'll need to do a bit of research to determine how to setup an inhouse music server for use with Alexa. I think you can use a Plex Server or a DLNA server. You might find that the WiiM will work better for serving up your internal collection of music.

Darko Audio has a number of YouTube episode on streaming digital music collections, whole house audio and related topics.

[newzooreview]

Control is through the Alexa voice interface…

Respectfully, I would rather sit in the corner and poke myself in the eye with a fork than try to get Alexa to play something via voice control. 

Me: "Alexa play Patti Smith, Horses."

Alexa: "Playing Aerosmith Greatest Hits"

Repeat.

WiiM Mini looks interesting, but it looks like a bottleneck for sound quality. I've heard of JRiver being used to run some pretty high-end systems. It can be done for cheap or with refinement.

[aceinc]

I think a stack of Amazon Echo Dot 3's will do it for you and provide streaming services too. Price is $15 each on Cyber Monday special. Take the analog output on the Dot and feed it to an input on each of your systems.

Control is through the Alexa voice interface on the Echo Dot or an Alexa app which is supported on Windows, Android, iOS, MacOS and (I think) browser.

For higher audio quality you should be able to substitute a WiiM Mini for an Echo Dot 3 at $80 each and use the WiiM SPDIF out to feed a DAC. It's analog output is likely better than the Echo Dot 3 as well. If you want a hardwired Ethernet connection there is a WiiM Pro at $150, coming soon.

You'll need to do a bit of research to determine how to setup an inhouse music server for use with Alexa. I think you can use a Plex Server or a DLNA server. You might find that the WiiM will work better for serving up your internal collection of music.

Darko Audio has a number of YouTube episode on streaming digital music collections, whole house audio and related topics.

With WiiM, can I disable Alexa and only use a DLNA server? I do not have (I have disabled all types of assistants from all my devices that I can) nor do I want Alexa, or any of the equivalents on my network.

I have watched a Darko Video on Squeezebox, and this is what started me to consider this, again. I thought I would check here to see what other options are available.

[nlitworld]

Not sure if my setup would work exactly for your needs without a bit of $ invested, but it does quite well for some of what youre describing. I have a Media PC acting as a server in my living room. On it is 2 big ass hard drives and an older 3rd gen I7 processor. This is my main storage connected directly to my router. On this pc I have one drive for just movies, and the other for all my music, sports and TV shows and everything is in a relatively neat folder system arranged by artist > album > tracks and cover photo. I access this library on my main music system in another room with my HAL MS-6 server. On it I am running Foobar and access it via Google Remote Desktop from my phone. Super simple and light solution to run this without a display but with full control. You could also access it via any other internet browser. For music playback on my main system, I have my MS-6 output usb audio to my inexpensive schiit Modi MB dac. This is not the cheapest of all solutions, but in all it was a great investment for the sound quality it puts out.

For anywhere else in the house, I also have my media on Plex making it very simple for my wife to access music and movies whenever she wishes. Not the best of music quality playback compared to real audio solutions, but more than good enough for general playback. Probably one of the easiest DLNA server solutions to set up and implement on a wide variety of devices. For mobile options to all your other stereo systems around the house for non-critical listening simply plug in your phone running Plex via a 3.5mm to RCA cable and rock out.

[Doublej]

With WiiM, can I disable Alexa and only use a DLNA server? I do not have (I have disabled all types of assistants from all my devices that I can) nor do I want Alexa, or any of the equivalents on my network.

I have watched a Darko Video on Squeezebox, and this is what started me to consider this, again. I thought I would check here to see what other options are available.

You will need to ask WiiM. The WiiM mini does not have any microphones in them but it may use Amazon's ecosystem for it's multi-room capabilities.

[sfraser]

I am an audio hobbyist. I have about 6 systems mostly analog throughout my home. I also have ~6.600 flac files (I also have quite a stack of the original CDs) on a computer on my network. My goal is to be able to easily access the FLAC files from any of the systems. I could move a notebook computer from system to system, and I do this sometimes.

What I would really like is multiple small inexpensive device which I can plug into all of the systems which I could control from a PC, tablet or phone (Android, I do not do Apple and will not have any in my home). They would then need to talk with some flavor of a media server running on Windows.

Streaming from services would be a nice add-on, but I do not have any subscriptions at present so it is not a requirement. I have a secure WiFi network everything would run on. I have wired ethernet to a number of the locations as well.

I should have started doing this 20 years ago, but here I am.

What recommendations are there based on the above?

I am not afraid of technology, but since I work with it daily, I prefer not to get up to my derrière in it as part of my hobby, so simple is good.

Not sure if you are still looking for a solution, but LMS in conjunction with raspberry pi's and Hifiberry DAC's is what I use. I have 6 or seven pi's throughout the house connected to various sound systems. They can all be controlled and synchronised via my smart phone. The LMS "server" itself can reside on a PC /MAC/Linux station. At one point I even had both the server and the client running on a pi, the music  (100k FLAC/MP3 files) was located elseware on a NAS. Here are some URL's to get you started if you are interested. https://forums.slimdevices.com/   (server software ) https://www.max2play.com/ (client S/W )

[mitch stl]

I've also gone the LMS (Logitech Media Server) route.  I use a Raspberry Pi as a server with my local collection on a 4 TB USB drive. I also have a Qobuz subscription and LMS integrates the two seamlessly.  For players, I have 2 Raspberry Pi boards, both running PiCorePlayer OS for my main and bedroom systems.  The PCP software is a free download, which you burn to a micro SD card to operate the RPIs. I don't think it is too hard to set up once you get the hang of it.  I also have two other players I run for headphones. Those are Inovato Quadra units ($30 each + shipping) which come with the Armbian OS preinstalled. I downloaded the Squeezelite software to the Quadras which provide USB output to the headphone DACs.  Yes, there is a learning curve, but there is a lot of help out there on various forums.