How can I set up a music server? 

hello Paul. it is end of 2023 and this info is so simple and relevant. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Thanks Paul! I think this is exactly the project to take on as I work remotely during these next few days of snow coming in!

Thx Paul, I too am a "Mac" man and have been from the get-go!! I love watching your audio advice and learning lots & lots even though I had my own audio shop here in New Plymouth NZ back in the 1980s .... Happy 2023 !!!

Several years ago I bought a Musical Fidelity VDAC II after reading Sam Tellig's review of it in Stereophile. I put it beside my stereo system, I ran a TOSLINK cable from my 2008 iMac and that DAC. I was stunned at how easy it was and how good the thousands of tracks on my computer sound. I use iTunes with Bitperfect; I replaced the iMac with a mac Mini and now use USB to get more bandwidth early this year and am very happy with the system. It's nice to sit in my easy chair and select tunes from my 6,000 track library to fit my mood. If you think Chicago is cold try living a block from the North Atlantic and enjoying a lovely NE gale. I can tell you it feels much colder in front of my house than it did when I was on top of a mountain in Korea with the thermometer at -30 degrees and a stiff breeze to help it along.

Paul, I've been in this hobby for a few years. Yet I find your videos so helpful. They cover so many topics and are short and sweet. All your videos are worth saving in a knowledge repository (which they already are on RU-vid). Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge with it - highly appreciate it!

I'm using a GnuBee NAS (from Crowd Supply) with OpenMediaVault using MiniDLNA plugin. Completely open source software and hardware. Bleeding edge, but I've learned a lot.

Step 1: get a cheap NAS (synology is nice both hardware and software, inluding DSD and losless streaming), Step 2: put a drive in it (or two if it is dual), Step 3: install media server for it and you're done! Now count your money you left with because you did not bought overpriced crap and get yourself some nice stuff :D

Glad I found your site and resources... I struggling to set up Jriver with yamaha streamer etc. Not used to streaming music ..I'm an old had CD man and trying to update my system... will persevere Thanks !

Great Boulder aerial shot

Plugged an one TB hard drive into the back of my OPPO 203, music, videos, pics, easy peasy. Their interface is pretty good.

well, it is not just apple, even on linux, with pulseaudio, everything is resampled and mixed to some default parameters chosen to balance "good enough quality" versus "not too much processing" by a sound server, it's the design followed by the common operating systems nowadays; you can get around that, but you have to fiddle (or buy software, as you suggest for the mac)

I now know rather more than I needed to about winter weather in the U.S.A. After five minutes listening to this rambling I lost the will to live.

On the weather note, I am a Montrealer and we know cold but the worst I experienced was in Minneapolis. I don't know what the deal is but it is really cold out there.

They are discontinued but the OPPO has two USB 3 plugs in the back and a nice interface, my entire {digital} music collection, some vids, etc is on a one TB drive, you play a selection you get album art, info, on your screen.. J River was nice but a hassel, however when it worked it was kismet.

Living in Victoria TX it's not far off from the gulf. Regionally speaking, when it's 30 degrees it's same difference of Chicago. Except I think they being higher north they can't get Cold Cold but the moisture in the air really does make a difference.

Foobar on a pc or andriod works just as well with out all the bloat. Plays sacd.iso as well. Open up the files in the network n you can play off any networked device. Mr apple wont let you do thar.

With my 28 year old audio gear, I run XRL out from my ARC LS 15 pre amp into my Exogal Comet Plus external DAC My streamer is the Audiolab 6000N and I connect that into my Oppo BD 105 via spdif ( l want to use the Oppo DSP for sub control) then out from my Oppo ( bypass it's internal DAC ) into my very good Exgogal DAC via spdif The Audiolab uses DTX Play-Fi app for lots of steaming options with lots of features all controlled from my Samsung S10 phone

Check out Plex Media Server, that is a great program

Regarding the 20yr old aspect, assuming your components are that age ... you'll need a streamer/network device (Renderer) which can communicate with the music Server and output, most likely, RCA analog to your amp. An additional component is a phone/tablet app to act as a Controller to choose your source (Server) and destination (Renderer) and provide transport controls (eg play, pause, stop, skip).

Gee, all I had to do, on my main PC, was turn on media streaming and I can now stream from any PC on my network.

Very helpful review Paul - thank you

I use Jriver and I’ve been pleased with it. The help wiki is not much help though.

His Basic stuff is just his brain 😂 it’s twenty years old 🤣

Thanks.

I'm a songwriter, can I stream demos from my own server in 96k 24 bit quality?

Roon Rock on a NUC inside a fanless case - heaven

Get Roon. It's great! I tried JRiver and could not get it to work; the set up is beyond me. I was using itunes but it sucks. They keep changing it and it can only play apple formatted music. It keeps loosing album art. Like all apple programs it does what it wants and takes to much crap to get it to do what you want it to do. If you want to play DSD, FLAC, HD FLAC on itunes you can forget it. Roon will play from multiple librarys and not rearrange things like apple itunes does. If you get the trial subscription you will wind up paying for the service. Good luck!

Just buy one of the cheapest 2 bay Synology servers. And drop two drives in it. This can serve as NAS but can do so much more like a VPN server, media server backup etc. Synology servers run an on Linux based OS and have a very user friendly user web interface. Be smart, don't use overpriced apple crap. Put your money where it can work for you, that is in speakers, dacs and amplifiers.

When people tell me that they use Apple computers I usually shake my head and say that the only thing an iMac is good for is editing or playing music, and I stand by that, they have far superior audio support than any PC that I know of which is ideal for Hi-Fi, I just can't bring myself to drop so much money on a slow computer.

30 degrees is below zero?

I am a real fan of PS products but think we could do without theses daily videos. Perhaps because of the frequency, the videos reveal the limits of Paul’s knowledge (example: his advice re computers) and inconsistencies (example: recommending ridiculously overpriced interconnects). Less would be more.

itunes .. woooah, you gotta be joking. An absolutely terrible piece of software and Apple are forever changing it. Just when you get used to seeing things in one place, you're forced to upgrade, then it's gone. I've had it with Apple, and especially itunes. For me Windows is way better and you can do things your own way, not be dictated to by Apple.

all talk no action ..we don't want to know your life story

Is some one using BitPerfect? I see only bad reviews on App Store about that app.