[jerick70]

You could also pick up a Logitech Squeezebox Touch. It runs server software so your music could sit on your laptop but you would play it from another source. You can get the squeezebox touch on ebay for about $150.

That's an excellent idea. It's prebiilt. So it makes it easy.

I'm a tweaker at heart so I've gone the Raspberry Pi route. A little more work to get it working but you have so many options to do whatever you want with it. Volumio supports squeezebox too.

 

[jmkeuning]

I got a Squeezebox a few months ago. I think it’s great. It was my first foray into music servers, but I’m convinced that a local server is where it’s at. I want to do a raspberry pi version now. I’ve never done that stuff, but I need to learn it so this is a good way to get into it.

 

[jerick70]

The only drawback to doing a raspberry pi server is the processing power. If you do a lot of dsp, like Roon does, you have to go to a x86 Intel/AMD based server with lots of ram and a ssd drive. I just use my desptop pc for the dsp processing and store everything on my r pi. It works really well. Plus you can play your music anywhere in your house or on the go if you know how.

 

[Narayan23]

I use an Asus eepc 1005 with Foobar and Windows Fidelizer just for music and I´m pretty happy, the little Asus laptops can be had for cheap (used or refurbished) on ebay.

 

[jmkeuning]

I use an Asus eepc 1005 with Foobar and Windows Fidelizer just for music and I´m pretty happy, the little Asus laptops can be had for cheap (used or refurbished) on ebay.

This is what I originally thought of, one of these little ASUS rigs. Especially if OP is using a DAC.

 

[funch]

The Asus is probably what I will look into. Nice, simple, compact, and cheap.

 

[torifile]

I, too, use a Raspberry Pi. Right now, I’m solely using it for as a Roon endpoint so I’m running the build called ropieee (ropieee.org). It’s light-weight and headless. I decided to go with a Hifiberry Digi+ rather than using USB for the output because I read some analyses that the USB is a little noisy on the pi. But the principle is the same - digital output from the pi to a DAC. Works great.

My Roon server is running on my iMac.
I run a wired connection with the pi since there have been some reports that the pi’s wireless is also a little noisy.

All told, it was slightly over $100 including my “fancy” case.