SoTM SMS - 100 Mini sever.

I thought this mini review may be of interest to those people looking to build a second system or who like me use streaming as a secondary source for background music and discovering new music on a bit of a budget.

This little unit is no longer supported by SOtM and will no longer receive software updates it does however represent great value for money at less than £200. You will need a separate usb only dac or usb>spdif converter I'm using a Chord 2Qute but a Mojo or even something like an Audioquest Dragonfly have both been tried with good affect.

For streaming Tidal, Spotify, TuneIn, shoutcast and many other apps the SOtM uses the Squeezelite platform so that it appears as a 'player' on Logitech Media's my squeezebox.com and so can also bee seen and used with Roon although I have not tried this as yet.  For streaming Quboz the SOtM uses the DNLA platform another extremely dextrous platform which again I have not used yet.

When it comes to streaming your own files it has HQ Player built in and your Nas/USB drive can be hardwired into the back of the unit streaming anything up to and including DSD, it also can use Airplay so you can stream anything from an Apple device to your stereo.

I have so far only used the Squeezelight function which can be remotely controlled by the iPeng, iPhone app. Of course Tidal is only 16/44 but even that sounds much better it did via both the Pi and CC Audio. Like other Network players it does apparently benefit greatly from a separate Linear or battery psu which I do intend to try this though is of course optional.

There are still some great value options out there and even though considered expensive and extravagant by some my set up with this unit plus the 2Qute can be put together for less than £800.