Show your audio system

[kurt1970]

Hi All,
 
I’m using moOde since the end of 2022, as I was looking to replace my Naim NDX Gen1 streamer on my main system.
 
At some point, Naim released their new series of streaming gear, which also meant they only support flac radio stations on their new devices. From a commercial point of view, a smart move of course.
 
As I work most from home, I listen a lot to internet radio stations. Almost all of them in (at least) CD quality (flac - 44.1kHz/16 bit). To have CD quality on my Naim NDX Gen1, in 2021, I developed a Raspberry based gateway that I put in between the Naim and the internet station, doing the conversion from flac > wav. This trick took weeks to figure out but allows Naim Gen1 customers to listen to CD quality radio stations. My ForwardProxy (as it’s called) is still running In the Cloud in Europe (Frankfurt) and the US (Phoenix).
 
Fact is that Naim was/is quite sensitive to network hick-ups, causing music stops playing very frequently. I still have an 18y old SONOS Connect, doing very well, but not playing CD quality internet stations either. So, at some point I made the decision to look after “something” else. Given the fact that most commercial brands buy streaming boards instead of developing them themselves, and the fact that I’m using an external DAC, I decided to explore what was possible with a spare PI I had.
 
Next to that, I’ve a +2600 CD collection stored in flac on a NAS. Well, the NAS is basically a PI4 with a 2TB SSD, exposing a SMB share, and some auto backup/sync software on it to make sure I never loose my music collection. So, the ease of accessing those files was an important criterion as well.
 
Another aspect was the UI. I’m familiar with the very good SONOS app, as well as the crappy NAIM app (it’s improving – finally…). So, user friendliness was also important.
 
I tested piCorePlayer, Volumio and moOde. For me, moOde is by far the best solution of all three because of its speed, very user friendly UI running on all kind of devices, easy and fast access to my CD collection.
 
And yes, we (my wife and myseld) and some audio minded friends, were not able to hear a difference in sound quality between the NDX (connected via S/PDIF to the DAC) and the PI running moOde. I tested moOde, both connected via USB to the DAC and via the Hifi Berry Pro S/PDIF hat. Slight preference for the USB link.

Some words about the systems.
I run moOde on two systems; the main system and the garden house system.
 
The main system consists of:

• Amplifiers: 2 x McIntosh 1.25KW
  
• Pre Amplifier: Quad Artera Pre – connected via XLR to the Amps and to the DAC
  
• DAC: Soulnote D2 – Connected to the moOde PI via USB and via XLR to the Pre Amp
  
• Speakers: KEF Blade
  
• Wiring: WireWord
  
• Power Conditioning: Torus Power RM16 CE
  
• Streamer: moOde (always latest version) running on a PI4 with SSD boot and nicely hidden after the DAC
  

 

The garden house system consists of:

• Integrated amplifier: Gato DIA-250S, including TI Based DAC.
  
• Speakers: Sonus Faber Lumina III
  
• Wiring: Ali Express (works great)
  
• Streamer: moOde (always latest version) running on a PI4 with SSD boot, digitally connected to the Gato amp via USB, and nicely hidden after the digital clock
  

Best,
Kurt