brhifi

Matt, Nice to see you on here. I've no doubt these guys could build the hardware. But in my view the software needed to maximise the SQ of that build would be the major challenge.

I've a MiniPCIe MicroSD card adapter on the way. I'll try it and report my findings. The Intel 320 will be hard to beat but I'm trying all avenues.

Thanks @Chanh, I tested it. On the Swedish Hakai streamer forum the "best" sounding os solution recommended is an Intel 320 SSD. It sounds audibly superior by some way to Mini-PCIe SSD. The Intel 320 SSD for the os sounds significantly better than any other SSD I've tried. I'm trying to find the best combination of recommendations from this forum and the Hakai forum (https://www.lejonklou.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=10). I hope you and @tasso don't mind me mentioning your content from here on the other forum. I've an Intel 2500cc and Z2 pico on the way. Good luck with the wine cellar! Grange, RWT & 707 are my favourite Australian wines. A colleague in my time in Sydney loved Old Adams Shiraz. Wine and music mix well!

Many thanks to all of you for the excellent work and thread but especially @Tasso, @Chanh and @Kith! First, I bought a few Intel DN2800MT boards to build a server and a dedicated player. Apologies if these questions have been asked before. The Intel boards have two mini PCIe slots and a PCIe slot. Has anyone used a microSD card adapter to a miniPCIe slot rather than an SSD for the Snakeoil OS? The Intel boards have no obvious way to use a Cfast card. Second, I bought an Elfidelity USB Isolation card - this works really well with the Intel board with a default clock speed of HPET. However I'm trying to compare it an existing streamer using a Gigabyte GA-N3150. For some reason the default clock speed used by Snakeoil for that board is TSC and HPET isn't an option. Does anyone know why that is? Thanks in advance!

A lot of work has been done on this on the other end of the world. You may want to have a look at the following link: https://www.lejonklou.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4272 I've built two digital streamers using the Hakai recipe. They sound brilliant. Considerable work was done by Lejonklou and others to identify the best sounding components for a digital streamer. This week I wanted to create a Hakai NAS or music server. After much searching I came across the Snake Oil OS. So far I'm using it as a server for my Hakai digital streamer using Minimserver within SO. The Hakai digital streamer is using Volumio. Since I set up the music server using SO I figure I have got around 20% improved sound compared to using my Netgear ReadyNAS which is brilliant! What I'm trying to do now is find a combination of Minimserver or LMS on SO with the best sounding player on SO to sound better than Volumio and get the best out of SO. At first glance I can't quite see how to experiment with Minimserver or LMS and the best choice of player on SO to achieve the best combination. I also want to use the system headlessly and control it with HiFi Cast on an android tablet or phone. When I first looked at SO I thought I could use Minimserver or LMS with any player (MPD, Squeezelite etc.) via upmpdcli. Perhaps I'm just being a noob but SO seems to want me to use LMS and Squeezelite as a pair or Minimserver with upmpdcli (I'm not sure which player this combo uses). Does anyone have a view as to which player on SO is the best? And how to use SO most effectively with that player and Minimserver or LMS via upmdcli?