Which software to use to serve up my flac files?

[splotzot]

Hi everyone!

I've recently bought a WiiM Ultra which I'm planning on having setup on my vintage hifi system to give it some modern capabilities, it's also to give my TV audio a boost as well as I'll be able to use HDMI Arc from the TV to the WiiM. We're a Spotify household so being able to use Spotify Connect is great.

My question is this - I'm currently ripping my entire CD collection to flac using EAC and I find myself at a bit of a stumbling block, and that's how to serve up all these files to my WiiM Ultra.

My current line of thought is to build a server, I already have a Micro PC in the form of a Dell OptiPlex 7060 (similar to this), it's been upgraded with an additional 1TB SSD drive, but I'm now falling flat about what software to use to serve up my music files as there is a lot of choice. I don't want to put Windows on it.

I've read about Roon and LMS and I'm not convinced one way or the other, but also, couldn't I just created a Linux box with MiniDLNA installed? I'd prefer to keep controlling apps to a minimum on my phone to make things easier for my partner.

Would Plex be a better option? I could in theory playback music using Plex on my TV connected to the WiiM Ultra? It would involve creating another Plex media server (I already use Plex on my desktop for streaming films, but keeping that turned on 24/7 isn't an option) on my Dell 7060.

Would virtualising all of this on Proxmox be recommended? IE install Proxmox as the base OS on my Dell then create a vm with MiniDLNA installed?

Also, what's stopping me from just copying my entire library to a large enough USB Drive and plugging that into the WiiM Ultra?

I'm fairly technically competent so barrier to entry isn't a worry, I'm just a bit overwhelmed with all the options!

 

[simbun]

Which platforms are you looking to use for controlling playback?
Do you want to access your music remotely?
Do you need user profile support (for favourites, playlists etc)?

If you want to use the WiiM Home app (which is a little limited) your best options are MinimServer or Plex.

 

[anonyless]

only speaking out of my own experience here -
Roon costs money, even worse, subscription. also it requires a fairly capable PC to run properly from what I understand (so that's a no TMHO)
LMS - I recently installed Lyrion server for Debian on Raspberry Pi 4 4GB, which auto mounts a drive from my NAS (another SBC) server :
it works, the WiiM integration is fantastic no doubt, and you can easily control it through its web interface even from a smartphone without an app. but, if you have a large collection of music (over 60k files), i find it's scanning on the slow side and buggy when it comes to foreign languages tags.
here's another option for you which i've been using for years now - Navidrome:
its completely open source and based on Subsonic protocol, so there are many apps and desktop software that support it. it's extremely lightweight and works so well and fast. the web interface is also great.
downside - streaming to WiiM devices: i mainly have my laptop connected directly to the Ultra usind DDC, and playing from the Navidrome server, but from any app on your phone you would have to use DLNA (same as Plex i assume).
I run Navidrome directly on the SBC NAS that runs Debian 11
you can check out the interface in their demo website https://demo.navidrome.org/app/#/login

 

[slartibartfast]

only speaking out of my own experience here -
Roon costs money, even worse, subscription. also it requires a fairly capable PC to run properly from what I understand (so that's a no TMHO)
LMS - I recently installed Lyrion server for Debian on Raspberry Pi 4 4GB, which auto mounts a drive from my NAS (another SBC) server :
it works, the WiiM integration is fantastic no doubt, and you can easily control it through its web interface even from a smartphone without an app. but, if you have a large collection of music (over 60k files), i find it's scanning on the slow side and buggy when it comes to foreign languages tags.
here's another option for you which i've been using for years now - Navidrome:
its completely open source and based on Subsonic protocol, so there are many apps and desktop software that support it. it's extremely lightweight and works so well and fast. the web interface is also great.
downside - streaming to WiiM devices: i mainly have my laptop connected directly to the Ultra usind DDC, and playing from the Navidrome server, but from any app on your phone you would have to use DLNA (same as Plex i assume).
I run Navidrome directly on the SBC NAS that runs Debian 11
you can check out the interface in their demo website https://demo.navidrome.org/app/#/login

Did you report the buggy foreign language tags in the Lyrion forum?

 

[Aquaman]

Coming from LMS installed in a docker container on my NAS I switched to Minim Server. It‘s @simbun who gave me the impulse.
In addition to its very high flexibility re. custom settings (LMS isn‘t bad at that either) it beats LMS in scanning speed by far.

As all my real Squeezeboxes are out of the house there was really no necessity to run LMS any longer and UPnP is more universal and understood by most renderers. Even thou LMS also has a UPnP casting plugin, I have to say, it sucks!

Plugging a USB drive into the WiiM, while possible, has many usability limitations compared to a proper UPnP server.
Also making mods to your library becomes a PITA. Not to forget backups!

Let‘s hear which route you‘ll be going down.

 

[anonyless]

Did you report the buggy foreign language tags in the Lyrion forum?

no, maybe i should have. some directories it scans ok, some it gets stuck and I see 100% CPU usage on the Pi.
i installed LMS to see what's it about and the more directories I added for it to scan, I noticed more issues, like same artist that is spelled with different capital letters being scanned twice (tRickY and Tricky for example),

 

[slartibartfast]

no, maybe i should have. some directories it scans ok, some it gets stuck and I see 100% CPU usage on the Pi.
i installed LMS to see what's it about and the more directories I added for it to scan, I noticed more issues, like same artist that is spelled with different capital letters being scanned twice (tRickY and Tricky for example),

Yup I still have the same Artist appearing twice because of different capital letters. I'll get around to fixing it sometime

 

[anonyless]

Yup I still have the same Artist appearing twice because of different capital letters. I'll get around to fixing it sometime

that's just one example i'm afraid. I have albums with 2 or 3 "Disc Number" tags that i just can't group together no matter what i tried, rescanning when i fix tags takes too long, it's all just kind of annoying

 

[Aquaman]

I consider case sensitivity of tags a feature, not a bug.

 

[Aquaman]

that's just one example i'm afraid. I have albums with 2 or 3 "Disc Number" tags that i just can't group together no matter what i tried, rescanning when i fix tags takes too long, it's all just kind of annoying

No rescan, no fix.
But even with 50k titles even a full rebuild should be done in 20 min., depending on your machine‘s hardware of course.
Minim would probably do it under a minutes.
My 16k tracks are done in 10 seconds, from scratch!

 

[anonyless]

No rescan, no fix.
But even with 50k titles even a full rebuild should be done in 20 min., depending on your machine‘s hardware of course.
Minim would probably do it under a minutes.
My 16k tracks are done in 10 seconds, from scratch!

i don't need to rescan at all with (or manually initiate any kind of action actually) Navidrome when I fix tags..it take 2 seconds to appear the way I changed it to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Aquaman]

i don't need to rescan at all with (or manually initiate any kind of action actually) Navidrome when I fix tags..it take 2 seconds to appear the way I changed it to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Now I‘m lost.
I thought you were talking about LMS and how long it takes to rescan.

 

[anonyless]

Now I‘m lost.
I thought you were talking about LMS and long it takes to rescan.

I was comparing LMS to Navidrome, as I run both

 

[r5yk5]

Why don't you just remove plex from your desktop and install it on the mini pc and have it serve both your music and videos?

I use Emby in that way. Whenever I (re)try out music servers including roon, plex, navidrome, both lms, minidlna, in the end I always stick with emby because
a) it'll be running anyway because of the films and
b) it does everything I want. None of the other's offer me anything worth switching for, or do anything any better.

If you're running plex anyway and it will do everything you want it to, why mess about?

 

[slartibartfast]

Why don't you just remove plex from your desktop and install it on the mini pc and have it serve both your music and videos?

I use Emby in that way. Whenever I (re)try out music servers including roon, plex, navidrome, both lms, minidlna, in the end I always stick with emby because
a) it'll be running anyway because of the films and
b) it does everything I want. None of the other's offer me anything worth switching for, or do anything any better.

If you're running plex anyway and it will do everything you want it to, why mess about?

Does Emby have Replaygain?

 

[mrehorst]

I'm a long time (20+ years) LMS user. You don't have to scan your library very often, so I wouldn't use the scan time as a measure of how good a server is. (FWIW, I have 23,000 tracks on 1800+ albums and it takes 11 seconds to do a compete rescan). I would use reliability and support as measures, as well as ease of maintenance and use. With any server, you will need to be careful about the way you tag your files. Decide on how you will and make sure new files are tagged to your standard before adding them to the server. If you're downloading files and trusting the tags to be correct and acceptable, you'll be disappointed. Get yourself a copy of MP3tag to do tagging, and Foobar2000 to do replaygain tagging.

I tried using Plex for video several years ago. It started great, but the Plex people decided they wanted to become a streaming service and then it went to shit. I started having to log into Plex cloud servers just to play stuff from my own server. I replaced Plex with Jellyfin and it has been reliable and serves video as well a Plex ever did without any ads or logins.

I have a 10 YO small form factor PC for a server that runs Ubuntu server (headless) with Jellyfin and LMS and it has worked with 100% reliability and simple maintenance (once every couple weeks I run sudo apt upgrade) for over 5 years. Jellyfin upgrades with the server software, and LMS uses a slightly different process that it conveniently tells you what to do when it infrequently updates.

Wiim products show up as players on LMS without any screwing around. I have a Pro plus, Amp pro, and Amp Ultra and they all just work with LMS, Tidal, and Pandora.

I organize my audio files on the server in sub directories: genre, band, year - album, files. For multidisc sets I number the files per disc like 101, 102..., 201, 202,... etc. Single disc files are 01, 02, 03, ... - always use leading zeroes! File names are always track no - title. Keeping file names short helps any server avoid confusion and too-long file name problems. MP3tag can translate tags to file names easily. When I want to play a multidisc set, I just select it and all the files play in order- I don't have to select the individual discs or add them to a playlist.

 

[r5yk5]

Does Emby have Replaygain?

No.
They say it is planned for future releases but that might not be for another decade.
It's not something I use.

 

[MotleyG]

Also, what's stopping me from just copying my entire library to a large enough USB Drive and plugging that into the WiiM Ultra?

There are some questions about the limitations of this option. Some users have psoted about issues with artwork or not having visibility to all files. Some have no problems at all. Perhaps it is a tagging or file format issue.

If you have a local computer on your network that hosts these files, I can recommend Asset UPnP from illustrate, the developers of dbPoweramp. It is pretty lightweight and easily compatible with the WiiM Home app and devices. I have been using it for years at home and was very happy to find the integrations was flawless when I started using WiiM. I now have a Wiim Amp, a Wiim Pro Plus, and a WiiM Ultra and all three can separately access music on the fly.

 

[splotzot]

Which platforms are you looking to use for controlling playback?
Do you want to access your music remotely?
Do you need user profile support (for favourites, playlists etc)?

If you want to use the WiiM Home app (which is a little limited) your best options are MinimServer or Plex.

I guess I'm going to be using MinimServer then, having music accessible remotely to me isn't important so I don't need to worry about that.

I want to be able to control it via Android, user profile support isn't necessary.

 

[r5yk5]

If you have a local computer on your network that hosts these files, I can recommend Asset UPnP

I guess I'm going to be using MinimServer then, having music accessible remotely to me isn't important so I don't need to worry about that.

I want to be able to control it via Android, user profile support isn't necessary.

Try out Asset Upnp and MinimServer if you decide to go down that road. I also prefer Asset of the two, though, it seems, most people recommend Minim.