Do I have to use a streamer/renderer to play music from an NAS?

Picking up on the last response about streamers - read my post again. **something** needs to present you a UI, identify the files locally or on a network, and send it to the appropriate digital interface, somewhere on the other end will eb the DAC (depending on the interface).
The streamer may reside on the NAS in some cases. IMO, not a great idea.  It can reside on the networked device. or it can be a stand-alone box like a ROOM server or BlueSound streamer. But it must be somewhere.  A "head end" streamer has the advantage of using many source file locations and feeding many end points.
G

Why do you advise against *lossless* formats like FLAC/ALAC?

There are a couple of claims made, without evidence.

1 - The decompression time, which is variable, can cause audible effects.
2 - The extra CPU time involved in decompression adds noise to the circuit.

Personally I have heard no such effects, nor have I seen anyone measure it, which seems quite easy to do.
If this actually happens it is probably quite DAC and streamer dependent.

kumakahn,

just curious, what are you going to use to rip your CD’s and what format are you planning to use, flac,wav, etc?

I’m thinking of doing the same thing.

Thanks.

JD

To make this work, you'll need a hardware device to hold your music files; some type of software to "serve" or stream your music files; endpoints to receive the streamed music; music control software running on a hardware device to play music; and a wired or wireless network to tie everything together.

• Hardware Storage Device examples: NAS, computer hard/solid state drive (HHD/SSD), thumb drive, USB HHD/SSD, media server HHD/SSD
• Software Server examples:  Roon Core, Logitech Media Server (LMS), Synology Audio Station, JRiver Media Center
  
• Endpoint examples: Raspberry PI, Squeezebox Duet or Touch, Chromecast Audio devices/Chromecast speakers, AirPlay speakers, DNLA speakers
• Music Control Software examples: Roon, iPeng, JRiver, LMS, DS Audio

Using LMS and Raspberry PIs, AirPlay speakers, and Squeezebox Duets, I created a whole house stereo system that worked very well for years.  I used this setup to synchronize music to wired and wireless speakers, both active and passive, all over my 3-story house.  LMS is free, still well supported, and using plugins supports a wide range of clients (e.g., Squeezebox/Squeezelight, DNLA, AirPlay, Chromecast).  If you have a little "techie" in you, LMS is a good option and it has a proven track record of flexibility and reliability.

Recently, I switched to Roon.  Roon has a much better interface and much better SQ; however, to take full advantage of Roon's DSP capabilities, you need a fairly powerful device to run Roon Core.  Hence I purchased a sonicTransporter with DSP (with no storage) just to run Roon Core.  My Roon setup is Ethernet from a wall jack to a 5-port switch.  The sonicTransporter and Zenith are plugged into the switch.  The Zenith music server is plugged into a Mytek DAC using a USB cable.  The DAC is plugged into a NAD M12 preamplifier using RCA cables.

Using Roon, I had to make some comprises. For example, Roon does not support DNLA, but does support RAAT (Roon's protocol), AirPlay, Squeezebox, and Chromecast. HOWEVER, you cannot synchronize different protocols (called Zones in Roon).  The much improved SQ and Roon music management capabilities made the trade-off worthwhile.  I have two zones: 

• Zone 1 uses a Roon ready Mytek DAC and a RAAT enabled Raspberry PI
  
• Zone 2 uses Roon ready Chromecast wireless speakers and one Chromecast Audio device

As a side note, I use Riva WAND wireless speakers in Zone 2 (family room, kitchen, living room, and upstairs guest room).  The SQ is surprisingly good, IMHO much better than Sonos.  I replaced Sonos with Riva WAND because of the SQ but more importantly, the RIVA's support DNLA, AirPlay, Chromecast, and Bluetooth, and they have an Aux input. The switch from LMS to Roon was painless :-).

You need to carefully choose your front end. 

• LMS gives you many streaming options - basically, every major streaming service (e.g., Tidal, Qobuz, Pandora, Sirius), an Internet radio directory, and the ability to manually enter web page URLs (e.g., RadioTunes channels).  
• Roon allows you to stream Tidal and just this week Qobuz, and radio stations that stream in MP3, AAC, and FLAC formats, and TuneIn web page URLs.
  
• I tried JRiver; its like a Swiss Army knife.  I decided not to use it because I didn't want to tie up a computer to use it, and I didn't want to spend the time learning how to use all of the bells & whistles.

If you use a Synology NAS, you should run the LMS Beta version in the "Beta" package center.  I used that version for a couple of years with no problems!

You can also run LMS server and LMS client on a single Raspberry PI, and connect it to any USB or network device.  For my goddaughter's 30th birthday, I gave her one of my legacy systems: vintage Bose 901 speakers (original series with chrome stands), Bose equalize, Yamaha receiver, Raspberry PI LMS Server/Player, and 3 TB USB drive. She's streaming Tidal from LMS, and playing music from the USB drive and her phone/table.  There are no latency or connectivity issues with this setup. 

There's a lot to learn about this stuff.  Don't be shy about asking more questions.  That's how I learned on this forum.  

@ curiousjim  I ripped my CDs to FLAC.  There are those who believe WAV provides better SQ.  I haven't tried WAV and I'm quite happy with FLAC.  WAV takes up more disk space, if that's a concern.  I don't think you'll have a SQ problem with either format.