[Wiljen]

So far, I have a PC with windows 7, and a 1.5 TB drive, a 55 watt solid state amp and two pairs of yamaha indoor/outdoor speakers.    I know by standards here it isnt a particularly hifi solution but it will be used outdoors.
 
I have been looking at either a usb sound card (Xonar or Creative) or a USB Dac in the same price range (used or new Modi or Modi 2 or something else close) to go between the PC and the Amp. 
 
Music will be mp3 (mostly 320 but some is less) and flac files.
 
Here is where I need help:  music software,
 
I am thinking of using either
 
Itunes and one of the various remotes on an ipad
or
media monkey and one of the various remotes for andriod
or
Foobar and one of the remotes on whatever it will work on.
 
i have an ipad 2, an Asus Android tablet, an old iphone 4S without a carrier, and several current android phones I can use.
I dont have a windows phone or tablet and would prefer not to buy another device.
 
 
What makes the best choice for a simple "out by the pool" music jukebox using the pieces I have and a $150 or so USB Dac.   I'm interested in ease of use and the ability to pick play lists by genre etc more than I am absolute sound quality seeing as my listening room will be an outdoor area.
 
Tell me about your experience with any of the software or others I missed.   Also would you go Xonar u7, Creative e5, or Schiit Modi?
 
I've seen a couple Modi (1st edition) boxes on the sales board - worth doing for this or would you wait on a Modi 2 uber?

 

[cel4145]

I use Media Monkey on my PC, and have used it for years. I like it a lot, but have not tried any kind of remote app control capability.

You might look into the Schiit Fulla. Nice and small for a portable tablet/phone setup, and I have heard of people using it with their phones (ask more here). Less expensive than the Modi. So you could use the phone or tablet as the jukebox if you wanted.

 

[Wiljen]

i had looked at that but with the music collection I have (1.25Tb) it just wasnt practical to use anything short of a full blown PC to manage it.  I could do a raspberry pi and rune but already had a couple spare i3 boxes from work.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiljen /img/forum/go_quote.gif

So far, I have a PC with windows 7, and a 1.5 TB drive, a 55 watt solid state amp and two pairs of yamaha indoor/outdoor speakers.    I know by standards here it isnt a particularly hifi solution but it will be used outdoors.

 

To be fair, traditional hi-fi designs might actually be detrimental for sound quality in that kind of application. Forget weather resistance, those are separate Left and Right cabinets for the speakers. You're not likely to sit in a spot equidistant to both speakers, so for the most part you'll likely hear one channel much, much louder than the other. I'd really much rather go with a single cabinet, portable Bluetooth "boombox" type speakers for an outdoor environment. Boosted bass compensates for noise floor and other acoustic issues also.

 

[Roseval]

As far as I know, Apple doesn’t  support FLAC.
At least not on OSX
Makes me wonder if it will play Flac on a PC.
 
Likewise WMP, you have to upgrade to Win 10 to play FLAC
 
I could never get used to Foobar’s interface.
I do like MusicBee, it is an elegant piece of freeware.
http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/MusicBee/MusicBee.htm
It also has an UPnP/DLNA component.
This will probably allow you to control it remotely from Android using any UPnP/DLNA media player.
My personal preference is UPnPlay on Android

 

[Wiljen]

I had thought about the issue with distance which is why I found 2 pairs.  I was going to mount the left and right on the same section of fence for each pair so the channels would maintain a similar distance to the listener.  so one pair on one side and the other on the opposite,   with an octagon  shaped pool and fence it will actually be less of a task to keep left and right at roughly equal distance.
 
I'll have to look at musicbee - I hadnt done that.

 

[Wiljen]

I went ahead and loaded the PC with windows 7 and put all my flac files on it.  Loaded media monkey (free version) and downloaded MMRemote from the Google play store on my phone and the server component to the PC.   All works perfectly as hoped.
 
2 small caveats.  
 
1.) Make sure you have the PC set to auto-logon at boot and run the mediamonkey and mmremote in startup using a batch file with a 45 second delay between items.  This insures the server for the remote finds an active copy of mediamonkey in memory and works correctly.
 
2.) If you use RDP to remote into the PC as I did since I didn't want to use a keyboard, mouse, or monitor on the PC, be sure to go into the settings on the RDP client and change the audio settings to play at host as it defaults to play at client.
 
 
It works well enough that I am debating building another box for use as a media player in the den.  If I do that one, I'll start with a fan-less mini-pc design so it wont intrude.