Have you looked at the Raspberry PI streamers with the I2s hat? Lots of different flavors to look at. The Allow Boss2 player is already built if that's what you want and will play Spotify directly using free Volumio software. Not sure about Moode but it should play it also.
Dear all,
I have modest Hifi system with the following components, and looking for some changes around it.
Speaker : Monitor Audio Rx6
Amp : Creek Audio Evolution 50A
DAC / Streamer : Pioneer N-50A. and Chromecast Audio
CD player : Marantz Cd67mk2
The problem is not the sound quality but the form factor (with the addition of wider TV) and some aesthetic (usage of TV stand as well as wife factor). My amp is quite slim and can be placed under my new tv and looks fine but not the other components. I will keep the CDP as it does the job, lacking almost nothing at all.
I would like to replace Pioneer N-50 with something bit more slimmer (something not more than 6cm height) or considerably narrower ( to stay next to Tv).
What Pioneer does very good for me is to provide two inputs to be used as a sole DAC as well as some streaming capabilities (works for me as I am streaming from Spotify and from my NAS mostly). I use one of these inputs to connect my TV digitally and one of them for my Chromecast (not very necessary though as N50 can be used for the same purpose as well,
As the DACs and the streamers are improved a lot (as well as the market!) , I am seeing very nice devices around SMSL and topping range but couldn’t found what I am looking for except two here.
Arylic S50 Pro plus
Omnia WR-1
and also Matrix Mini i-3 Pro (it is bit above my current budget but evaluating)
Do we have any other option within this price range and similar form factor ?
Alternative option would be something like SMSL SD-9 and connecting TV via bluetooth (but need to turn on the blueetooth every time) .
and the last option would be going for DAC, using ChromeCast Audio as a streamer for Spotify, and my mobile phone to stream the content from my NAS via bluetooth. Yes.. not very practical...
What do you think ?
Which way should I follow ?
Thank you