Is there a 5.1 music media server out there that's worthy at this point in time?

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JonUrban

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I really haven't paid much attention to this area of surround playback but lately I've been giving this a lot of thought. Sure, I can build a little PC with a big storage drive and use Foobar or something like that, which is fine for me but not that "wife-friendly".

I was wondering if there was a consumer market "box" solution with internal storage, 5.1 capability, and a remote control that people other than myself could use to call up 5.1 music files to be output to a 5.1 receiver for listening.

Have I missed anything or is this still a "make one yourself" kind of thing?
 
Have I missed anything or is this still a "make one yourself" kind of thing?

I'd like to know the same thing.

There are quite a few tiny (as in "deck of cards"), cheap computers out there that people are using as Squeezebox replacements and XBMC servers/clients. Most (all?) of those little computers can also output audio via HDMI and it's possible to control XBMC via smartphone apps.

BUT...I have yet to see where anyone is getting XBMC running on one of those little things to output multichannel audio. It's an obvious application and I can see where others are asking about it, but it just doesn't seem to have been done yet.

So the bad news is that as far as I know it's not there yet, but the good news is that if it finally happens, the hardware will be cheap and the software free.

I know someone mentioned the Popcorn Hour line here a while back, but as I recall the comment at the time was something to the effect that gapless playback generally worked but not always. It's probably less grating to others, but anything less than gapless perfection would drive me up the wall...I guess I listen to too much Pink Floyd!
 
Not quite an all in one solution, but my preferred (but not cheap) solution would be:

JRiver media Center (on a PC/laptop) http://www.jriver.com/ hooked up (Asynchronous USB Interface) to a Exasound E28 DAC http://www.exasound.com/e28/Overview.aspx & then control it via the appropriate Smartphone app..

That covers pretty much anything you'd want to play (I believe)...
 
I use XBMC on a Windows 8.1 PC to play my collection of FLAC 5.1 music. Where XBMC doesn't support the format (it is after all primarily a video player) I use Foobar2000. Between them they have all the bases covered, although SACD is something of a fudge as it needs to be converted to PCM. I tend just to convert SACD/DSD to PCM/FLAC anyway. My audio is output from a Radeon 6450 via HDMI to a Yamaha AV receiver.
 
Love JRiver. Although I would love to do it someday (or maybe if the next Oppos do a 5.1 DAC I'd jump on that), you don't have to go to the cost of the Exasound E28. I have an Asus Essence ST internal card with the H6 daughter board that provides 7.1 analog out, sounds great and can be had for ~$250 total. There are other 5.1/7.1 analog internal cards as well. With a media center remote & IR Receiver it can act pretty much like an Ipod with a remote. Yes you get your occasional Windows ouchie, but all in all it is pretty stable, especially if it is a PC strictly dedicated to being a media server.
 
Love JRiver. Although I would love to do it someday (or maybe if the next Oppos do a 5.1 DAC I'd jump on that), you don't have to go to the cost of the Exasound E28. I have an Asus Essence ST internal card with the H6 daughter board that provides 7.1 analog out, sounds great and can be had for ~$250 total. There are other 5.1/7.1 analog internal cards as well. With a media center remote & IR Receiver it can act pretty much like an Ipod with a remote. Yes you get your occasional Windows ouchie, but all in all it is pretty stable, especially if it is a PC strictly dedicated to being a media server.

Is there anything you can't play via Jriver? Do they play DVD-Audio ISOs? I know you can set-it up for SACD ISOs.
 
I use XBMC on a Windows 8.1 PC to play my collection of FLAC 5.1 music.

Does Windows 8.1 still insist on having a monitor on to output audio? Were it not for Windows 7's insistence on muting the audio output when no monitor is on, I'd say that Windows + XBMC + smartphone app would do what Jon is asking.

It may be possible to get it all to work under Linux...the last time I tried I found that the HDMI output on my Linux box has very bizarre channel mapping that I was unable to fix.
 
There's a new version of XBMC coming (now called Kodi) that supports DSD playback. I started a thread on my experience using XBMC on an Intel NUC (PC smaller than a CD case and about 25mm high) that I have running XBMC somewhere here (no interest shown). XBMC/Kodi is free.

I also use Mede8er media player which support MCH FLAC. Both NUC and Mede8er have HDMI outputs that play from my NAS server. The Mede8er MED1000X3D also has its own internal hard disc slot that accepts 3.5" HDD up to 4Tb (maybe now supports bigger drives)

Both systems support IPad, iPhone, Android tablet/phone remote interfaces so I can browse music and select tracks while sitting on my couch or anywhere else in my house.

I couldn't go back to using discs again. Jukeboxing and Playlists is the only way for me now.

Biggest thing is time to rip/convert the discs to FLAC. I've spent many hours doing this but worthwhile for sure. I now have a cheap 5.1 setup on my PC so I listen while I 'work'.
 
It may be possible to get it all to work under Linux...the last time I tried I found that the HDMI output on my Linux box has very bizarre channel mapping that I was unable to fix.

No problems for me using openELEC (Linux) and XBMC.
 
Is there anything you can't play via Jriver? Do they play DVD-Audio ISOs? I know you can set-it up for SACD ISOs.

I have yet to run into anything it won't play, though I don't have any DVD-A ISOs - I just rip DVD-As to flac. I do have SACD ISOs & those work great. I have stereo lossless wmas, stereo flacs, apple aacs, mp3s, 5.1 flacs, 5.1 dts, and stereo &5.1 dsd (dsf) files and probably a straggler or two in something else...
 
I have yet to run into anything it won't play, though I don't have any DVD-A ISOs - I just rip DVD-As to flac. I do have SACD ISOs & those work great. I have stereo lossless wmas, stereo flacs, apple aacs, mp3s, 5.1 flacs, 5.1 dts, and stereo &5.1 dsd (dsf) files and probably a straggler or two in something else...

What about DTSWAV (from a DTS CD)?
 
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