Re: OT: Audiophile grade music server using several flavors of Debian
I am in the finishing steps of building something similar myself.
* Nick Lidakis <nlidakis@verizon.net> wrote:
> There are several flavors, one of which caught my attention immediately:
> The ALIX 3c2 (http://www.pcengines.ch/index.htm). A 500Mhz AMD Geode CPU
> (fanless), 256MB RAM, 2 USB ports, 1 serial, 1 Ethernet, 2 mini PC-I all
> on a board sized 100x1600mm. The whole thing runs off a small 12V, 18
> watt adapter.
Why did you use the 3c2 that is intended as a router, but not the 1c [1]?
It has vga, network, usb, and even sound onboard (spdif, too, if you are
willing to build an adapter yourself [2]). Be careful with the PCI-slot
of the alix1c though, it doesn't provide +12V/-12V, so most soundcards
won't work.
> Software wise, I wanted: MPD on the server, FLAC files served to the MPD
> server
No real alternatives to that...
> A Nokia N800 running MMPC (http://mmpc.garage.maemo.org/) if I could
> find one used at a decent price.
I didn't find this gui at that time, so I wrote my own [3]. It runs
without X (just SDL+framebuffer), and uses a touchscreen I got on ebay from
some car-modding-guy. GPM has experimental support for these kind of
touchscreens in the current version.
I can control it via touchscreen or via my own LIRC-compatible infrared
receiver [4].
> My Kill-A-Watt registers 3 watts max consumption when the ALIX is
> playing FLAC files
I have a small via epia system since I wanted to use a real soundcard,
with a via C3 533MHz, 512MB ram, and a CF-to-IDE [5] adapter.
> FLAC output is via USB, which is plugged into a Trends Audio
> USB-to-S/PDIF converter. The trends is plugged into a Adcom GDA-700 DAC.
Timo
[1] http://www.pcengines.ch/alix1c.htm
[2] http://www.beis.de/Elektronik/ADDA2496/SPDIF-Converter.html
[3] http://www.spida.net/projects/pympdtouchgui/
[4] http://www.spida.net/projects/usbtiny-ir/
[5] http://www.pcengines.ch/cflash.htm
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