Ok, this will expose my extreme laziness, but here it goes.
I have a pretty damn good gaming PC, and I use it for pretty much everything, including as a home for my Rune core. When I play games, I close most all extraneous programs to free up system resources, including Rune. But dammit, if I don’t always forget to open Rune back up. Every time I go to listen to my system, I sit down and open up the Rune app on my phone only to realize I forgot to open Rune again on my PC. Uhhhg, and I have a really small apartment.
Any suggestions for a reasonably priced music server? It need not be “officially” a music server, as I really just need something to house my Rune core.
I was in the same situation as you. I bought a sonicTransporter i5 with a 2TB internal spinner for music storage and could not be happier. It has no fan so it is quiet and runs on a custom Linux that requires no direct interaction as you manage via a web GUI. Easy peasy!
I have been very happy w/ Roon Nucleus+ w/ 1TB Samsung 860 Pro SSD & AQVOX SE switch; however, next move in 3 years will be PF 2.16 or their best flagship at the time. It will have the present 3 independent low phase noise oscillators; improving them more as they wring out their oscillator hardware. Can’t wait for their next gen streamer. It will blow away my Nucleus+.
All of the above will probably sound better than what I will be suggesting.
My suggestion can be seen as temporary and or allow you to test whether or not you want to stream and if so what factors are most important to you for less than $150.00
First, you or a friend needs to have some understanding of how to work with Linux, or at a bare minimum, be able to understand and execute technical instructions. This sounds way more imposing than it really is, but could be the difference between a couple of hours until you hear music versus a couple of days. The number of websites giving step by step instructions are literally in the thousands.
Step one order a Raspberry Pi3 kit from Amazon $79 - why because it includes all the parts you will need to make this work.
Second order a HifiBerry Dac Plus from amazon - this is one of many Dac’s available but is definitely in the Top 5 and will process any file format your music is in. Dedicated 192kHz/24bit high-quality Burr-Brown DAC
Third goto this web site and download a file called an “Image” basically this is a Linux operating system and the Moode Audio Server/player and all the settings done. This “Image” is expanded onto a small memory chip included in the package above and acts as the Raspberry Pi’s hard drive. Once the image has been installed and inserted into the Raspberry Pi you are ready to boot up.
On the Moode Audio site you will find what little instructions you need to recognize the HifiBerry Dac+Pro, and how to find you music on your network. Plug the two ( Left - Right ) RCA connections into your Amps input and your ready to play music.
I have this up and running and the end result will actually stun you once you see what a Raspberry Pi and Hifiberry Dac actually is and how small they are. This does everything the $1,000 and up streamers do at probably 85-90% of the sound quality. Its true value is in being able to evaluate your finale streamer choice as it has to be better than this and now you have a basis of comparison