Considering an NDS and Naim vs the other guys...

see Raspberry Pi wiki.

Hafler - unfortunately the raspberry pi is not for complete idiots. It would be great if someone could make a commercial product based on one, but I am not sure if that would be allowed. 

Is that as basic as it gets? I was thinking along the lines of a tutorial for a specific application. I've no idea whether the majority of that is relevant or not! I was asking for a guide on how to implement as Simon mentioned. The hardware seems variable given the target application.

Hi - although not for complete beginners and a little knowledge is required - after all that was the whole purpose of the Pi - there are some quite basic guides for setting up Asset and MinimServer for the Pi on their respective web sites.

I'll dig out the guide links later - as both are mentioned for use by Naim I am sure such links wont be an issue

Simon

I was kind of hoping there would be a page out of a 'cookbook' available, rather than the whole book.

To make a... You will need... for 20mins .. then serve with chips (of course!) I' m no idiot, just never used one before, a bit like "I've never ridden a trials bike, but I do have a minibus license." 

Great stuff - my next project is a very low power server project so these will be useful. 

James

That would be great, thanks Simon. Don't make it top priority, I'm in no hurry!

The Raspberry Pi discussion is great, as to some extent it's a metaphor for the whole 'this digital music thing is so complicated' process a lot of us go / went through. 

As I've written before, I bought a uServe because at the time, this whole digital music thing seemed so complicated, and I did not want to shell out $15,000 (ahh the good old days) for a hi fi that needed fiddling with to work.  I did not want a computer in my living room. I bought the uServe because I knew it would "just work."  Fast forward . . . I now know a whole lot more about this digital music thing, am perfectly capable of installing Minimserver on a nas (although I've yet to really optimize how it serves the data to the Naim App), managing my own metadata for downloads, etc. 

I dare say most people can make the transition I did (I'm not all that smart), but many will get value out of something that "just works" on Day 1, right out of the box.

If/when I want a project, I may buy a Raspberry Pi and learn a little.  I have a friend in the area who I know would help me with it when I get stuck. (He's the guy who looked at my uServe backup folders and said they probably aren't working because there are spaces in the names; brilliant.)

I am using a Pi as a file server and backup system. It is basically a Debian/GNU Linux system and can be set up quite straightforwardly. I also run minidlna (a UPnP server) but I stream music over the LAN only occasionally and not for dedicated listening.

For dedicated listening I use a fanless low-power Fit-PC microserver. If you google tinygreenpc you will find newer models (Fitlet and Fit PC4) with even lower power consumption (than my Fit PC3) and certification for Windows, Linux and, depending on the model, Android. They are well built (the Fit PC line uses a thick aluminium case as a heat sink) and absolutely silent.

James, halfer3o and Bart - here are some basic instructions on installing these media servers on the RPi. Asset is probably slightly easier - but neither is particularly hard to do

Asset:

https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/s...y-Pi-Asset-Specifics

MinimServer

http://minimserver.com/install-raspbian.html

Both work very well - and with the newer RPi2 the navigation and search performance is superb with my 20533 Tracks, 1324 Albums.

I have both transcode FLAC and ALAC to WAV in real time. (but  I would not install on same RPi / Server as  there are technical IP Port config changes to do if you have both running on the same RPi / Server)

I mount the NAS as a SMB read only network file mount - and voila

S

Very different. Japanese designers tend to prefer a slightly warmer presentation. I found the music to be well-rounded and more 3-dimensional, yet with similar drive and punch.

Of course, the gear looks completely different!

Cheers Simon - much appreciated. I've got a spare Pi board sitting in the lab so will try and have a play with it if i get a chance over the weekend 

HifiBerry Digi+ arrived in the post today and very much looking forward to hearing an improvement to the SQ of my Pi. This card adds coax and Toslink outputs

Hi it will be interesting, however I think you will be at the mercy of the PSU quality and impedance to the SPDIF transport clock and how well the isolation and regulation is around the transport clock. I am not sure it would be best to rely on the USB PSU for such activity for critical usage.. Can you power the SPDIF transport clock via a seperate PSU?

Simon

I went for the version with an output transformer which offers 'full galvanic isolation between the Pi and the DAC"

I don't know whether its possible to power the SPDIF clock separately but suspect not as the board  just plugs into the Pi (HAT) and guess the power can only be provided that way.

I've been told by someone who has one that the SPDIF out is vastly superior to USB. It only cost  £23 so worth a go

Absolutely worth a go... it's perhaps a shame you can't  power seperately but for £23 you can't complain .  I have yet to hear any USB sound better than a precision SPDIF source... But of course USB is a lot easier and cheaper to do with modern computers.. But it's the reason I use Ethernet into my precision SPDIF transport stream generator (NDX).. I have yet to better it..

Simon

I just watched an interesting video on YouTube by Hans Beekhuyzen - easily found by searching for "Rune Audio on Raspberry Pi and HifiBerry Digi" - in which he gives a detailed explanation of how to configure the HW and SW and what to expect sound-wise.  His conclusions were pretty positive and he used various DACs including a Hugo.

Thanks to all for your previous insights.

Update: I have now upgraded to a new 282 and a sub for a dramatic improvement in SQ. Congestion is fully relieved, low end extension is much improved and mids are much cleaner, grip/control is explosively better, and there's generally a tremendous ease/air and lack of edge to the music that wasn't as evident before. I'm very pleased.

I have a related follow-up question on my digital conversion that I will post separately in the streaming section. Thanks again.