Computer evolves faster than a mutating virus. Hence I have a couple of old Dell laptops sitting around collecting dust. Now they become my servers for a multi-room setup.
I ripped all my CDs into an external HD. I hooked up the HD to my network wireless router and serves as a network drive. Luckily all the laptops have internal wireless and a digital out so that I don't need a USB to SPDIF converter or USB DAC. For my office and bedroom, I connect the SPDIF output from the laptops to my DAC and to my cheap but awesome T-Amp with amazing result. But of course, for my main listening room, I have better gears.
In terms of software, I rip my CDs using Exact Audio Copy (freeware) into lossless WAV files. The frontend player is foobar2000 (also freeware) through kernel streaming, which bypass the internal soundcard completely. IMHO, kernel streaming sound a lot better than the internal soundcard.
This setup is fairly cheap and effective with good sound. I am totally satisfy with it in my bedrooms. All the components are small enough to move from place to place if necessary; even outdoor when it's not raining.
I ripped all my CDs into an external HD. I hooked up the HD to my network wireless router and serves as a network drive. Luckily all the laptops have internal wireless and a digital out so that I don't need a USB to SPDIF converter or USB DAC. For my office and bedroom, I connect the SPDIF output from the laptops to my DAC and to my cheap but awesome T-Amp with amazing result. But of course, for my main listening room, I have better gears.
In terms of software, I rip my CDs using Exact Audio Copy (freeware) into lossless WAV files. The frontend player is foobar2000 (also freeware) through kernel streaming, which bypass the internal soundcard completely. IMHO, kernel streaming sound a lot better than the internal soundcard.
This setup is fairly cheap and effective with good sound. I am totally satisfy with it in my bedrooms. All the components are small enough to move from place to place if necessary; even outdoor when it's not raining.