I thought I would take some time and let others know of my experience, probably redundant within this thread, but maybe helpful to others.
I think around 2 years ago I started paying attention to Brian Moura about downloading music and I knew that was going to be my next step, but I feared the set up as I lack skills needed for this, so I put it off until I met Brian in person and I knew I had to push through.
It is not easy and I couldn't have done it if not for a friend of mine. The easy part is reading this thread and buying the items needed for playback, there are many internal factors in set up that even tough I sat next to my friend, I couldn't repeat what he did. It has gone like this over 3 weeks, my own work and 3 visits from my friend who had never done this but very computer savvy.
Start:
AT&T installs new router.
Ethernet cable from router, under house to Netgear 5 port switch. Ethernet cable from switch to Synology NAS, Ethernet cable from switch to Intel NUC, USB from NUC to McIntosh D-150, 2XDSD stereo only (will upgrade in future)
That was the easy part.
First, put the NAS on the Network and load all my music from my PC to the NAS, took quite awhile. Used a software program called Splashtop to access and read the NUC from my PC, loaded JRiver Media Center on the NUC, lots of setup with JRiver, output, auto detect from the NAS for import, Windows 10 updates, etc, tons of little stuff. The NUC stays on all the time, hums a little bit now and then but I can't hear it when I am playing music. We found out there where a lot of little disconnects when using JRiver app so reconfigured the NAS to shut down midnight to 6am, otherwise on all the time.
The McIntosh music system AVR and the external DAC liked to be turned on before accessing JRiver either with the app or the NUC, that was a tiny learning curve.
Now I can use the JRiver app without turning on my PC, that is very cool as it reads the NUC that is always on. Turn on Music machine first and good to go. I do need to access the NUC via the PC Splashtop for ripped CD's as they go from one file share to the NAS, minor issue, I just do it when I am on PC. When I purchase downloads from HDTracks or Acoustic Sounds I use there downloader which I have set to go directly to the NAS and then whenever JRiver wakes up it imports automatically.
Now I can store and play all stereo FLAC and DFF files up to 2 X DSD. I am pretty happy. My SACD/DVD/BD collection and all my surround discs are still being played with the discs but that will soon change.
My new setup is as easy as can be, turn on McIntosh system one button and use either my phone or my IPad for playback. I much prefer the IPad over the IPhone for the JRiver app. The app itself has little issues but once I found out how to use the app efficiently it is not a problem.
In my opinion this is not an easy undertaking but well worth the time and money, I think I spent $1800.00, give or take. The NUC and NAS the bigger, than the switch and some cables. Every item within the chain hierarchy has there little quirks and needed adjustments. Glad I did it.
