Hi,
I started a quest to find the "all-in-one" solution that woàuld fit my needs.
By all-in-one I mean :
- media server ;
- streamer ;
- DAC ;
- headphone amp.
I was looking for something rather simple to use AND reliable.
I think I found it in the form of the Fiio R7... and must admit that I would now be interested in the R9.
But that is another story.
I would like to tell the one about how I use the R7 to fit my needs.
First of all, after I managed to get it all to work as I wanted, I decided to start on a fresh basis and to set the R7 back to factory defaults.
Once that was done I updated all apps that could be updated.
Then I went to Settings => General and enabled Ethernet.
I am not sure the "Fixed IP address" works so I set my router to assign a specific IP address for the R7.
In my case, that adress is 192.168.1.11.
Once this was done, I hooked up a small USB Hub with 2 drives :
- one with "modern music" of all kinds : from Iron Maiden to Loreena McKennitt ;
- one with my classical music, which essentially consists of about all complete Beethoven symphonies and Piano concertos and others works by Mahler and Dvorak.
Once the USB Hub was connected I went to Internet and searched for an App called "Emby server".
It is not available from the Play Store, so you have to download an .apk from the official Emby website.
There is abeta version and a stable one. I installed the Stable one...
Once installed, I opened the app and selected "Open in browser".
There I configured the Emby server to retrieve files and metadata from the two USB drives in the Hub.
After some long time to index the whole files, the server was ready.
I went to "Configure server" and went to DLNA settings and checked "Receive via DLNA" and "Share over DLNA".
There you go : I now have a media server in the bogy of the R7 with 2 USB Sticks.
Then I need something to stream.
That is mightily easy.
I just installed Emby on my smartphone.
That one is the client and is available from the Play Store.
I launched it, said I want to connect to the R7 Emby Server on IP 192.168.1.1 and port 8096 (default port used by Emby).
Result was simple, I could now acces my whole music library with my smartphone.
Good...
To stream to the R7 is also quite easy : just install Emby on the R7 and launch it.
You can now wselect to play files on the Emby R7 app... I have a streamer.
That is good, but there is one problem.
I may download music and would like to add it to the USB stciks.
Taking them out might screw the whole set-up.
So I simply installed an app called "FTP server" on the R7.
It is available on the Play store, so you can install it directly from there.
I started the app, created a new user and started the FTP Server.
Now on my computer, I just need to launch a FTP client (I use filezilla) and access the FTP Server on the R7.
As I stated to the FTP Server app that I would like to access my USB drives, I can now acces my USB drives and add music directly to the R7.
Good...
So now I have a media server and a "streamer".
As the R7 has a DAC and a nice headphone amp, I am quite happy so far.
But there is one last setting to make to have it all working : and that is to enable the ScreenSaver on the R7.
Else, the Emby client on the R7 will not be accessible anymore and you'll have to power the display to be able to pause, stop or start music again.
So, in the end, I now have my music stored on the USB Sticks hooked up to the R7.
I can retrieve my files from the R7 from my smartphone using Emby Server as a media server.
I can use whatever app I want to retrive the music BUT : Emby is a renderer only to Emby (not sure why).
So I use Emby client. After all it is good enough
I can start and pause files.
It happens that the connection to the R7 seems lost...
All I have to do in Emby smartphone is "reselect" the Emby R7 renderer.
My played files show up again and I can pause/stop/resume again... Even after several hours of "Pause".
Splendid...
It may sound a little difficult, but if you need help I can provide it.
And all inall, it takes about 5 to 8 minutes to achieve.
Love it
So is there room for improvement ?
Yes... there certainly is.
The most wanted feature is a 1gbps ethernet port instead of that lazy and outdated 100Mbbps one.
I would then be able to cpy files from the computer to the USB Stick at the speed of... the USB stick, and not at 10MB/s which is about the average speed you get on a 100Mbps Ethernet port
I had the opportunity to listen to a device powering the ESS9039 Pro DAC. My o' my...
That DAC is stellar.
Me, I was a fan of AK449x DAC's.
That preference is gone with the 9039 Pro (maybe 9039 non pro would do also ?).
So a R7 Mk2 (or the new "horizontal" S15 device announced by Fiio maybe ?) with a 9039 would be perfection.
Another convenient updgrade would be the ability to install an internal hard drive (2.5 SATA or NVMe) like Rose does or Zidoo does on Neo players.
That would allow to have everything "internal" and much faster...
And if the headphone amp would be slightly more powerful to feed all power hungry headphones, it would also be a nice addition, but that is not a necessity.
Hope this helps.
Regards.