FLAC files on NAS drives and listening to them

[B17NNS]

Am currently digitising my CD collection (twice). First into FLAC files and then into iPhone friendly reasonable quality mp3s.

So the Apple side of things is just fine, can listen to stuff on my Mac, out and about on my phone, iPad etc. Could even cast it to my stereo if it fancied.

But I've got the FLAC files and I'd much rather use those when listening at home. So my plan is to put these on a NAS and attach it to my network. I've got a Blu-Ray player that can play FLAC connected to the network and I've also got an AV receiver connected to the network that can play FLAC files. I guess I'll use the one with the better DAC.

What I'm struggling with is the bit in-between. I need some sort of slick device or interface to allow to me pick and choose what I want to play. Something that makes the whole process look pretty and user friendly. Like iTunes but not iTunes.

All I can think of is maybe an Nvidia shield running Plex using the TV as a display.

Is there a go to product or piece of software for this kind of thing?

[HappyMidget]

Kodi would work. And you can also control kodi from your phone using an app.

[FurtiveFreddy]

I came to the same conclusion about using an Nvidia Shield and running Kodi on it, but I haven't done it yet so I'm interested to hear of any other solutions.

[markiii]

Squeezebox would be my simple answer

this is a very easy way to do it

https://shop.max2play.com/en/raspberry-pi-bundle-7...

just run Squeezebox server on yoru NAS

[FurtiveFreddy]

markiii said:

Squeezebox would be my simple answer

this is a very easy way to do it

https://shop.max2play.com/en/raspberry-pi-bundle-7...

just run Squeezebox server on yoru NAS

The server side only seems to support a few Netgear ReadyNAS models...

[davek_964]

I use a squeezebox as the client (actually, an SB+ although these days that's a bit unnecessary since I have an external DAC) with Squeezecenter on my Synology NAS and control it with Squeezer (I think) App on my tablet.

Works well.

[B17NNS]

FurtiveFreddy said:

I came to the same conclusion about using an Nvidia Shield and running Kodi on it, but I haven't done it yet so I'm interested to hear of any other solutions.

Looks like Plex Media Server comes pre-loaded on the Shield.

Watching a few Youtube videos about it now. Looks like it ticks all the boxes.

I'll also be putting my DVD and Blu-Ray collection on the NAS so this could handle that too.

Presumably with the client app/player on other TV's/devices they can all access content.

[psi310398]

I use Tomahawk - https://www.tomahawk-player.org - with my NAS and have no issues at all - if you map your NAS to a directory letter you can then just select it from Tomahawk preferences in the same manner as any other drive. It's free.

Peter

[Funk]

JRiver - it's fking ace: https://www.jriver.com/audio.html



It will also allow you to transcode on-the-fly to another device: I have FLAC on the PC and stream to the phone over WiFI/4G as mp3 on my Android phone and would save you having to have both FLAC and mp3 (which was what I wanted to avoid):



You can also plug in your phone and have it transcode and copy to the phone's storage if you want (like iTunes Sync) although I don't use this because I can stream.

They have an Apple app too: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jremote/id48622263...

It also functions as a DLNA server for my Samsung multiroom software to allow me to stream to various R6 wireless speakers over WiFi (in FLAC).

Also allows remote login through any browser too:



Basically it's the business and I wouldn't use anything else.

Edit: I see you mentioned Plex - that's also a good shout, I use that for TV and films but not the music (JRiver is, imo, far better for the audio side of things).

Edited by Funk on Friday 27th October 14:21

[mikef]

Also check out FlacTunes, a cheap Mac app that lets you bulk convert FLAC to the Apple equivalent, ALAC. I can also recommend the Mac Fidelia app for listening to high-def audio on Mac

[SwissJonese]

B17NNS said:

Looks like Plex Media Server comes pre-loaded on the Shield.

We use Plex on iPad, Xbox One, PS4, PC, Laptop etc. It also supports FLAC and displays all the album art, links to videos from the internet, wiki details etc. Excellent bit of software, well worth paying the small amount of money for premium and keeping it up to date.

[feef]

I'd be using Plex rather than Squeezebox. Squeezebox is a dead-end now since logitech abandoned it. For example, the Squeemote app on iOS isn't supported under iOS11 for example, with no plans to update it

[B17NNS]

Wow, some great responses thanks. I'll check them out.

[FurtiveFreddy]

The thing that put me off Plex was that I tried using the Plex app on my LG TV to play the music files on my NAS and it was very slow. Not sure if that's because of the fact the app is running on the TV or because a lot of my FLAC files are high res and Plex was trying to transcode them on the fly.

The Shield supports all high res formats, so that was a big tick in the box for me, but if Plex can't play or transcode them properly, I'd be trying Kodi instead.

[B17NNS]

FurtiveFreddy said:

The thing that put me off Plex was that I tried using the Plex app on my LG TV to play the music files on my NAS and it was very slow. Not sure if that's because of the fact the app is running on the TV or because a lot of my FLAC files are high res.

The Shield supports all high res formats, so that was a big tick in the box for me, but if Plex can't play or transcode them properly, I'd be trying Kodi instead.

I think that's probably more a reflection on the TV app. Better to have some sort of box as the client and have that transcode it seems.

This video relates more to Plex speed in movies but I'm sure audio performance is comparable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptiAYNtX6iw

Edited by B17NNS on Friday 27th October 15:41

[markiii]

markiii said:

Squeezebox would be my simple answer

this is a very easy way to do it

https://shop.max2play.com/en/raspberry-pi-bundle-7...

just run Squeezebox server on yoru NAS

that kit will also let run the server on the PI so can be a one box solution

[FurtiveFreddy]

B17NNS said:

FurtiveFreddy said:

The thing that put me off Plex was that I tried using the Plex app on my LG TV to play the music files on my NAS and it was very slow. Not sure if that's because of the fact the app is running on the TV or because a lot of my FLAC files are high res.

The Shield supports all high res formats, so that was a big tick in the box for me, but if Plex can't play or transcode them properly, I'd be trying Kodi instead.

I think that's probably more a reflection on the TV app. Better to have some sort of box as the client and have that transcode it seems.

That's kind of what I thought, although Plex from the TV is happy playing UHD videos from the same NAS, so I wouldn't have thought hi-res FLACs would put it under any more load. It just seemed unhappy with audio files generally. Slow to navigate and select. No problems at all with video files.

Anyway, it certainly seemed to me the Nvidia was the most powerful box out there and as we know, you can't have too much power.
Is a Pi powerful enough to transcode hi-res music files?

Edited by FurtiveFreddy on Friday 27th October 15:51

[B17NNS]

FurtiveFreddy said:

Anyway, it certainly seemed to me the Nvidia was the most powerful box out there and as we know, you can't have too much power.

Yes and all the additional functionality that comes with the package seems to make it a no brainer. Google assistant, smartthings integration is on it's way too.

I guess the answer is to try it and if it doesn't work try something else. If it's not great on the high res audio side it more than makes up for it everywhere else.

[anonymous-user]

I have one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neet%C2%AE-Airstream-Wifi...

It connects to my phone and I can airplay to my hifi losslessly from my phone. I have used ALAC instead of FLAC and it works great because of this.

I also have my iTunes library backed up on my NAS and can play ALAC files from my HTPC directly into my AV Amp over HDMI. Uses the built in DAC of the receiver which, being a Yamaha Aventage, sounds fine.

Kodi is a bit crap at this sort of thing as I found the music library doesn't contain things it doesn't recognise so you have to browse to the files and play them that way. Great thing about the HTPC is you can choose the right interface for the job - iTunes, Spotify, Youtube, iPlayer etc. It also has enough grunt for a nice, smooth interface.

[B17NNS]

wormus said:

I have one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neet%C2%AE-Airstream-Wifi...

It connects to my phone and I can airplay to my hifi losslessly from my phone. I have used ALAC instead of FLAC and it works great because of this.

I get what you're saying but I don't want to stream from my phone. My phone hasn't got the capacity to hold everything in Apple lossless quality hence the lower res versions I keep on it (which sound good enough through a decent budget set of headphones).

I use the phone when I'm out and about so it needs the low res files on it.

When I'm in the house I use the hifi/av kit and to hell with file size.