[Sparky14]

Just thought I'd pass along something that worked out great for me. I had been using a couple of laptops as music players in my system. #1 did fine, but it was my main laptop and I needed it for that use. #2 was an older laptop that had enough CPU power, but even though I erased the HD and reinstalled Windows, Foobar2000 and nothing else, couldn't play music without constant skipping. I had to fight both laptops occasionally with USB drivers, and dealing with HiRez files. So....go tired of it, and started to look at mini-PCs as just a music player.

I considered the CAPS route. Sounded like a great idea, but my system is mid-Fi at best (and I am ok with it there), and my PC building days are 15 years behind me and I didn't want to go back there. So...I happened upon the Q190 PC from Lenovo.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops/ideacentre/q-series/q190/

I got it for $249 (price just went to $299), it is a tiny little PC, about the size of two DVD cases stacked. My daughters' Wii box looks huge in comparison.

I got it yesterday, had it going in an hour (with the obligatory 30 minutes of "can't connect to your router" battles). The Q190 has a SPDIF output, so I avoid the USB driver issues. And, right out of the box, it sounds MUCH better that either of my laptops. And it handled the HiRez files with no problem (I am guessing that everything is upsampled to 192Hz since I selected 24/192 as the max output in Win 8.1).

I am sure you can do music better with the CAPs route and the like, but if any of you are looking for a easy cheap little music PC, check out the Q190.

[mcgsxr]

Looks like a good, simple small form factor solution, nice job.

I am still using an Asus Netbook I dedicate to running LMS in my setup, and am happy.  The 4GB of RAM your PC has looks better than the 2GB in my netbook, but other than that they look very similar in terms of specs.

Have fun, and thanks for sharing an affordable solution that sounds good for the $!

[dB Cooper]

Sparky, are you using it headless or what?

Looks interesting but I would put linux on it at first boot.

[Sparky14]

Headless? What does that mean?

I am sure LINUX would be a viable option.

[ttan98]

Hi,

I am in the same situation as you are. I use an old laptop to do the job, running either windows 7 or 8 with the least no of software not relevant to audio running in the background. Also, I use Fidelizer running in the background to further reduce other irrelevant background activities to remain dormant. This s/w is free. I also use dpclat software to monitor whether there are any unusual external interruptions from devices the s/w measures the latency of the system, your PC  should measure about 200-500ms any higher can affect the audio quality.

Lastly there are so many music player software packages to choose from many free and some you have to pay. I use a relatively unknown Russian s/w, AlbumPlayer it is very good because I have compared it others, e,g Foobar. It's free as well try it you can also use it to play CDs from DVD or CDrom which I use it all the time. Most importantly he regularly updates his software you get them for free as well.

Enjoy your new cheap PC.

[srb]

Headless? What does that mean?

That you run it without a monitor, keyboard or mouse connected to it and access through another computer, tablet or smartphone with some kind of screen sharing software, such as a VNC client.

[Sparky14]

Ah, I see, thanks. Then yes and no. I do have it connected to my TV, but once I have Foobar running I do control it from my Android phone. Probably should just put Foobar in my start up menu and be done with it.

[DTB300]

Looks like competition for the Intel NUC.  Nice little machine...

[Mike B.]

I bought a new laptop dedicated to music during the Christmas discounts. It is a A4 processor with 4 gig ram increased to 8 gig. I use Media Center 19 with it. It is a easy and cheap way of getting a decent music server.

[skunark]

raspberry pi with a USB SPDIF dongle also does extremely well.  But it's kinda fun to explain why you have this $300 dongle sticking out of a $35 motherboard running linux and it still requires you to have a tablet or smartphone to change the track.   It's pretty close to a Bryston BDP-1 running through the same BDA-1 dac, the BDP is clearly better, but it's damn close.

Jim