Hi, Wanted to show my setup. I do not really describe myself as an audiophile (I have no education in sound). A while ago, I wanted to scrap my stuff to make a playback solution in my living room. My goal was to have a one button push on/off system, that made the music collection available to anyone in the flat to control; for zero investment (did not worked out :D).

I started with a Samsung N150 netbook, on which I put a minimal installation of ArchLinux with a MPD server on it. I used a crappy car amplifier and the two loudspeakers of my small Philips hifi stereo I had as a teenager. I had to use the minijack output of the laptop to connect to the amplifier. Me and my girlfriend used it for a while, but we came to the conclusion that the sound quality was awful. Eventually, I put a bit of money into it.

I replaced the netbook with a mini-computer (~300€). I got advice on this subreddit, and bought a SMSL AO300 DAC & Amplifier (2.1) ~280€. The loudspeakers I am using now are the old Wharfedale Linton 3XP from my mother's sound system (her 16yo gift). This is the last bit of retro touch ;).

This time, I put a more user-friendly distrib (Kubuntu) for more versability. I still use MPD as a music server. One push on the front button, it loads in ~15 sec and the controls are available from any of our devices (desk computer, phones, tablet). The computer is now also our retro-gaming system (Batocera), and movie player (we project on the wall above).

For now, I am satisfied though it is probably not as cost efficient as I wanted it to be =). What do you think ?

Next will be adding a subwhoofer !