15 Dollar Roon Endpoint

@cd318  - Yes, you can stream via bluetooth from your phone. Unfortunately, bluetooth is lossy and you lose a bit of resolution when using bluetooth. I've been down that road and have used 4 different bluetooth receivers connected to my system. By far, the best bluetooth receiver I've used is the Auris BluME HD. It is very good and it has both rca analog outputs, as well as a toslink digital output so you can connect it to an external DAC.

I've moved on to a Raspberry Pi based streamer running Volumio OS. It is very good and the sound quality is significantly better than the bluetooth option. It has the streamer, plus a good I2S DAC built into a tiny acrylic case. Tiny and effective and only about $100 total.

Happy to discuss the Raspberry Pi streamer option with you if you are interested.

@reubent ,

The Auris BluME certainly looks the business. I had been looking at the similarly priced iFi ZEN Blue.

It's good to know there's some purpose built products put there.

Great advice to about the Raspberry Pi streamer option too, especially with the phrase "the sound quality is significantly better than the bluetooth option" attached.

My lazy instincts would be to go the Bluetooth route, esp version 5,

but I'm not going to rule the Raspberry Pi option out just yet.

Thanks.

@cd318 - Nothing wrong with going the BT route, especially with a choice of a couple of quality products. Looking at the iFi Zen Blue, I would probably have bought it had I not already been the owner of the previous version Auris BluMe. The iFi Zen Blue looks like a really nice product at a reasonable price. Lastly, about BT, if you sign up at Auris for their news, etc., you will receive pretty regular discount codes. Their Black Friday price for the BluMe HD was something like $89. A real value.

I just completed the configuration of my second Raspberry Pi 3 based streamer, running the Volumio OS. This one does not have a DAC hat. I just connect it via USB to the DAC in my primary audio system. Works great, was easy to build and configure. Sounds great running Spotify Premium and Radio Paradise in FLAC. I'll probably upgrade the free Volumio OS to their premium version so I can run Qobuz or Tidal on the streamer. 

Enjoy streaming, whichever way you decide to go...

@reubent,

Thanks for the information.

I've been getting a bit behind the times with technology recently. This is surprising to me as I used to enjoy keeping abreast of developments in audio/visual matters.

The Bluetooth route was chosen as it seemed to be the easiest. It's probably a good place to start.

Anyway, with a bit of luck 2022 will bring further understanding in matters such as Raspberry Pi / streamingDAC hats (?) etc.

Not to mention unravelling some of the mysteries of Linux and the Dark Web. I get confused too easily nowadays.

 Now what was that about ducks and onion browsers...?