Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Is ANYBODY streaming music through their AVR?

Thanks, Cork.

I would be interested in your opinion of the mobile apps. The ability to control music without having the main display turned on has become one of my requirements.

I played with my Roku 2XD. It also fails that test, but did provide some interesting learning. I found that Roku Media Player was completely incapable of dealing with a large library, whether presented by DLNA or Plex. I didn't feel like buying the Plex app because of the other shortcomings of this approach, but was able to get proof of concept through Rarplex. The other Roku problem is absence of analog output, so I would still be using some kind of external DAC.

What I've done as a short term solution is revitalize my Squeezebox. While Murph told me years ago about ipeng and other third party apps, I was so fixated on my network problems that I completely neglected the possibility that the native Squeezebox app might be the culprit. Sure enough, I switched to a free third party app called Squeezer, and seem to have mitigated the general flakiness that was driving me crazy. If Squeezer doesn't pan out, there appear to be other alternatives.

I think you are correct that Kodi and other full service streaming clients are overkill and unnecessarily complex for my needs given the ways in which we currently consume video.

Long term, I think that the work being done by Axiom, Volumio and Rune Audio is the way to go, especially on the Pi platform. Thanks to Fred for pushing that into our collective consciousness. But the hardware doesn't seem completely mature or settled. Some people are using very expensive external USB DACS, which seems nutty to me. There are a few I2S Pi audio boards, but they aren't exactly free, and you still seem to be hacking around quite a bit, with varying opinions.

I am smitten with the cubox-i, but a $160 box with uncertain analog capabilities is clearly not a fully baked solution even if it is an adorable 2 inch square pc.

I really appreciate everyone's interest and support. Except Mark.