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Because things are never static for too long!

In the living room: gone are the old Intel Atom-based server, the Raspberry Pi for Kodi and the old Intel Core 2 Duo laptop for Roon server. All the services those machines provided are now aggregated into a "less old" Intel Core i5 laptop. Power usage and administration costs will be lowered, with improved all-around performance.

In the bedroom: gone are the Rotel RA-820BX integrated amplifier and the Musical Fidelity V-DAC V1. They are replaced by the Raspberry Pi liberated from the living room, equipped with a HifiBerry AMP2 DAC and class D amp combo (negotiated from another project). Less space and electricity used, and such an improvement in audio quality!

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  • New Raspberry Pi 2 and IQaudIO Pi-DACZero (24/192) replacing my old Musical Fidelity V-DAC (only synchronous USB and max 16/48 on USB) and acting as a network streamer using Roon Bridge
  • Roon server installed on the laptop. This software+service+technology is absolute magic. Great interface on any platform (Linux interface missing, though, but core and Bridge rock the penguin's way!), fantastic metadata, and even better contextualisation, and very nice bit-perfect music transport. The radio feature is such a good way of (re)discovering our extensive music library.
  • This IQaudIO Pi-DACZero is quite nice, and it was free on a black Friday event! But I still want to replace it with a Hifiberry DAC+ Pro, with dual oscillators to eliminate any potential jitter from I²S. Missing those parts.
  • I want another Raspberry Pi 2 int the bedroom, this time with an IQaudIO Pi-DigiAMP, a combination of a 24/192 DAC and a 2x35W Class D amplifier. Add that extra pair of Castle Pembroke Loudspeaker that we have... That would be another all-in-one network streamer using Roon Bridge, allowing for independant music, or in perfect synchronisation with the main system! Missing those parts.
  • Eventually, I'd like to upgrade the server from that 32 bit Atom machine to a 64 bit i5 machine. It would incorporate the roles of the current server (good bye!), of the laptop running the Roon server (good bye!) and the main TV's Raspberry Pi (good bye!) and add HD movie audio capabilities and 4K resolution future-proofing. Much simpler, while keeping the power consumption at bay. Missing those parts.

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