I installed Debian Jessie (minimal, only gnome-core) and JRiver MC and tweaked the server for optimal SSD performance, minimal startup time and stability. I wrote a manual for a complete clean installation of the software.
Startup time is 8 s. I used 1 SSD for the operating system and 2 SSD’s (a total of 3 TB) for music files. It operates headless and connects with my iMac via VNC (remote desktop) and Samba. The server automatically shuts down at 01:00 (configurable).
There are no moving parts in the server!
The motherboard has 2 lan connections. One lan connection is for my home network, the other (Intel) connection is for a direct link to the Bridge II of the DirectStream DAC. This lan connection is auto-mdi/mdix, so you dont’ need a cross cable. Selecting a playlist and disconnecting my lan home network while the music keeps playing proves that the server streams data directly to the Bridge II.
I’m very satisfied with the way things work at the moment: I switch on my Krell S-550i, push the button of the silent server, grab my iPad (and maybe an espresso) and enter the sweet spot. On the iPad activate JRemote, select a song and there is music …
At the moment I’m using the Streacom power supply, so there may be improvement with a better power supply.
My Magnepans 1.7 deliver a very detailed, wide soundstage and very “controlled” bass (especially since Torreys). The background is very, very “dark”. More than ever are (female) vocals responsible for goosebumps!
Excellent work, Wybe!! I used one of the slimmer Streacom cases myself; I love the look but it is a little limiting in terms of space. I think going with two NICs is a very good idea. Any specific reason for why you went with Debian Jessie? I have used various builds of Linux mint as well as stripped-down windows installs; can’t say I heard a major difference, but then I didn’t really compare back-to-back.
I definitely wanted to use JRiver with JRemote and the OS had to be rock solid with a minimum amount of background tasks and requests for updates. So I decided to learn about Linux and found out that JRiver “officially” only supports Debian. It is not the most user friendly distribution, but it is rock solid! For every issue I encountered, I also found a solution on the many Linux/Debian forums.
Something like this is much better than any factory made streamer IMO. I have both but use silent PC with Jriver as the OP. This is better than W20 in fact.
In the meantime I upgraded to server 2.0 and use now the Streacom FC5 instead of the bigger FC10. The main reason for that is, that I bought an Asus Q170M2 motherboard with M.2 for the OS (Linux Debian Stretch). I also bought an Samsung SSD of 4TB for my music files and there is also room for one more SSD. The Asus Q170M2 has also 2 lan connections.
A year ago I also replaced my Magnepan 1.7 speakers for the 3.7i. A hugh improvement!
@ psaudio: what happened with the pictures of my first post?
This is now an old thread but I just thought I’d weigh in with one meaningful experience, that being that I have run JRiver on Ubuntu and it works just fine. But yeah, in theory they may not support you…
Web gremlins likely. We’ve been nursing our main website build for a long time. Years, actually. We’re in the process of launching a brand new website that will fix all the many crutches and bugs associated with the current site.
For those familiar with website builds, ours is Wordpress and while that’s a very common platform, it’s also very common for it to get bloated and broken through the use of plugins and patches.
Aye Wordpress is sneered at by most of the IT community that I know, but it’s a very good way for a non-core-IT company to get something useful up for its customers, I hope the upgrades go well
