Well I use a very very very low cost Music Server since many years. Try to describe that...
I use "Logitech Media Server" or "Squeezebox Server", this is the same thing. The server app started in 2003 with "Slim Devices" company, bought by Logitech that developed some nice products and then is now in the hands of the "community": this is an open source projet.
The headless computer is a Raspberry Pi and it costs 26$ here in China, maybe 35$ in USA. I need a SD card (as the main HDD) where I installed Squeezeplug 7.5 and I can connect an HDD on the USB port (at home my music is installed on a NAS).
I can use a computer to select music, or smartphones or tablet. With the computer I use a web browser. With tablets (Android and iOS) I use free Apps like Squeebox or Squeezer (only for Android).
The Raspberry Pi is always on, the power needed is 5V @0.5Ah, so near nothing, it's like a smartphone. I can connect the Rasp on a TV or a computer screen via HDMI but I never do this because this is a no brainer system.
There is plenty of "clients" for the server: the products maid by Logitech lke Squezebox Duet, the Touch, and the Radios. I modified the Duet to transform it in a killer source : changed the clock and the SPDIF output to have a jitter less than 1 ps where expansive CD Player are around 20ps (I am at 200fs in fact).
You can also build your own client, using a Raspberry Pi and, for example, PiCorePlayer for software. You can use a very low cost USB DAC at 10$ with classic PCM2704 Texas Instruments circuit or you can go for better sound like products from Hifiberry or the classic "Wolfson" Audio Card from Cirrus Logic (anyway we are still in Texas Instruments DAC circuits) from 20$ to 50$. Hifiberry Dac is around 40$ i think. If you prefer simplicity your Server could be your client: add the audio card to your server and it's done for less than 100$, Server and Client.
I have a high-end hifi system but I am en engineer and I prefer to do myself and optimize (without magic but with measures and circuit specifications) and I suppose my way to do this is not the standard hifi afficionado way of life.
There is a lot of other solutions to have music server. Think about this: all the "boxes" with no screen that do something is motorized by a processor, and some RAM... And Linux. So you internet box at home is surely a Linux computer. If you have a NAS, it runs Linux also. Logitech Media Server is a set of code that run on Linux (and also Windows, you can install it on Windows, and Apple computer to) so it means there is a chance you can install it on a Linux computer, as your NAS. LMS runs on Synology NAS, some of Western Digital NAS etc...
Raspberry Pi "computers" are from the Raspberry Pi foundation. At the beginning the project was to produce 1000 cards for schools in the UK. Since 2012 they sells more than 5 000 000 cards in the whole world because the versatility of the card and also the huge and dynamic community.
With Raspberry Pi you have a system offering these points :
- ultra low cost, no license cost, no "Audiophile" tag tax
- no fan noise
- no virus nor automatic update that kill your system
- low electric cost - environment friendly
- brain friendly because you have to do this by ourself
Considering a very potent and excellent hifi system, the cost without speakers is less than 200$ for everything (music server, a client server and an Hifi card, an HDD and an amp), especially if you add an amp like the TPA3116 with the Texas Instrument excellent component, for around 15$. If 50W is not sufficient you can bridge the card and add another one for 15$ to go to 2x100W. If you consider wall plug is evil, you can go to battery power. At the end you have a dual mono 100w battery powered for 300$...
Considering this solution from an Audiophile point of view it's pure ******** because it is by far too low cost. In the other sense, before to buy, ask what is inside the box and then search the spec. And then find or try to find where is the money on the component you are going to buy.
