18-Sep-2015, 15:20
@Womaz, perhaps, the situation is not as hopeless as may be concluded from your last post 
I also dislike the idea of buying a dedicated network streamer, even though I'd flirted with Auralic Aries for a week. The main reason is not SQ and not money: it's that I don't want to be locked into a single control point app.
If you give up on AIR (but before you do, are you running the latest BETA version of AIR; have disabled the screen saver, auto Windows updates, configured your Anti Virus to ignore JRirver folders, tried to switch your PC to the high power mode ? - experiment with these, before you rule out AIR on your current computer).
So, if you give up on AIR, but still like the flexibility of your current setup, get yourself a MAC mini for under $500. Run JRiver on it, and still stream over AIR. Don't even have that MAC connected to the Internet. No extra programs. If this works, you retain both the SQ and flexibility. If you still encounter AIR issues (not likely, in my opinion), you can always fall back on USB. If there is a better option in the future, you'll just sell the MAC or give it away as a present.
I also dislike the idea of buying a dedicated network streamer, even though I'd flirted with Auralic Aries for a week. The main reason is not SQ and not money: it's that I don't want to be locked into a single control point app.
If you give up on AIR (but before you do, are you running the latest BETA version of AIR; have disabled the screen saver, auto Windows updates, configured your Anti Virus to ignore JRirver folders, tried to switch your PC to the high power mode ? - experiment with these, before you rule out AIR on your current computer).
So, if you give up on AIR, but still like the flexibility of your current setup, get yourself a MAC mini for under $500. Run JRiver on it, and still stream over AIR. Don't even have that MAC connected to the Internet. No extra programs. If this works, you retain both the SQ and flexibility. If you still encounter AIR issues (not likely, in my opinion), you can always fall back on USB. If there is a better option in the future, you'll just sell the MAC or give it away as a present.
JRiver MC20 --> Devialet 250 Expert Pro --> KEF Blades II
