Accessing FLAC files, interface and control

[pauljdh]

Im finally very very happy with my HIFI, my tunes sound the best Ive heard, and I've wasted all sorts of money over the years chasing the holy grail!.

The food chain is FIIO X5 DAP into an Arcam Solo as a preamp into an Audiolab 8200 power amp them Monitor Audio MD952 speakers. It sounds stunning.

I use mainly FLAC files loaded onto the twin storage cards on the FIIO.

whilst it sounds super, I'd like some interface, preferably from a tablet (Android) preferably an Android one. I do have a macbook air too that I could bring into play.

I s there anyway of introducing a way of controlling the front end? Id like to scroll and select from my lazyboy

Cheers

[Bullett]

Unlikely. That looks like a portable player with no network, wifi or bluetooth access to me.
Which is what you would need. I might be wrong though. Even if it had those features you would need the controls to be exposed and accessible in software. Then you would need an app that could control it.

Replace it with something else like a sonos connect.

Or plug the mac directly into the DAC.

[dvshannow]

Agree sorry fio has no remote interface it's very basic by design though it is great at what it does (except for some card reading issues I've had)

Would suggest if you want to go remote using a laptop I have a mac book pro controlled from ipad using jriver atm which works pretty well

Also in general would highly recommend a good sub I was running a pair of b&w 805ds which I thought sounded great but have since asked a b&w sub and it sounds absolutely incredible the music has taken on a whole new scale

[JonV8V]

I run a squeezebox as my source - you can control it from iPhone, tablet etc. Shame they've stopped making them but you can pick one up a used one cheap, prob way less than £100

That feeds an audiolab 8200cdq into a pair of monoblocks into Naim speakers.

[pauljdh]

Thanks, forgot to mention I have MJ acoustics sub too, really makes a difference......

dvshannow said:

Agree sorry fio has no remote interface it's very basic by design though it is great at what it does (except for some card reading issues I've had)

Would suggest if you want to go remote using a laptop I have a mac book pro controlled from ipad using jriver atm which works pretty well

Also in general would highly recommend a good sub I was running a pair of b&w 805ds which I thought sounded great but have since asked a b&w sub and it sounds absolutely incredible the music has taken on a whole new scale

[pauljdh]

Thanks, Ill take a look at eBay tonight, which model od squeezebox do I need? cheers

JonV8V said:

I run a squeezebox as my source - you can control it from iPhone, tablet etc. Shame they've stopped making them but you can pick one up a used one cheap, prob way less than £100

That feeds an audiolab 8200cdq into a pair of monoblocks into Naim speakers.

[simon_j]

Have a look at https://roonlabs.com

I have a MacBook running the Roon server connected via usb to a Chord DAC. I guess you can do the same with your DAC. You control it via the Roon remote app on a tablet (iPad in my case). It's not cheap but it's very good. You can combine various sources (Flac files, Tidal, etc) into one giant library. It's the meta data that sets it apart from other applications. Whether that's worth paying for is a personal choice but it provides a very rich interface.

[Bullett]

I'd recommend a squeezebox touch. It works well for me.
Alternatively if you a bit geeky you can build your own using a raspberry pi.

[pauljdh]

Thanks, I have a macbook air with a 128gb SSD so no real storage capacity on board, shame

simon_j said:

Have a look at https://roonlabs.com

I have a MacBook running the Roon server connected via usb to a Chord DAC. I guess you can do the same with your DAC. You control it via the Roon remote app on a tablet (iPad in my case). It's not cheap but it's very good. You can combine various sources (Flac files, Tidal, etc) into one giant library. It's the meta data that sets it apart from other applications. Whether that's worth paying for is a personal choice but it provides a very rich interface.

[simon_j]

Could you not put an SD card in the MacBook and connect to the DAC via USB?

[Rodintee]

A s/h o2 joggler can be reflashed to run squeezeplay so almost identical to a Squeezebox touch. Output to a USB souncard then to amp. Just set this up in my garage and working perfectly. Total cost for the joggler and USB sound about £50. Can then be controlled using android app. Genuine SBT's still seem to be going for very strong money.

[marctwo]

Rodintee said:

A s/h o2 joggler can be reflashed to run squeezeplay so almost identical to a Squeezebox touch. Output to a USB souncard then to amp. Just set this up in my garage and working perfectly. Total cost for the joggler and USB sound about £50. Can then be controlled using android app. Genuine SBT's still seem to be going for very strong money.

I do this too and it works very nicely. But if you just want to be able to control the source from your phone or tablet then how about a Raspberry Pi running Volumio or PiCorePlayer?