[littlesister]

I have been reading all forums, suggestions, setup, etc. and narrowed it down to a few setups, but I am still not sure that I'm finding the right setup. I can't find a single answer that doesn't contradict another, but I'm sure there must have been many people before looking for a similar solution.

What I want is easy: Something that my wife can use without complaining :-)

Hardware and installation must be:
- Stable and relatively fast, but not too expensive
- Hardware will be connected for Video/Photo to HD TV
- Hardware will be connected for Audio to living-room amplifier through tulip connectors)
- Internal Harddrive not a must (optional), mainly streaming from Synology NAS and/or internet
- Remote XBMC on Android tablet controls the hardware
- Must have WOL, so when XBMC remote starts, the XBMC server on the hardware starts too
- Audio quality must be good, since I play FLAC
- Prefer not to self-build

Should I use Buntu? Should I wait for official Android version? Is an external USB audio card connected to my NAS a serious option? Are the soundcards inside the available hardward deviced be good enough?

This sounds like a relatively straight forward setup, but I have difficulty 'destillating' what I need to buy.

Any advise but especially experience from people that have a similar setup is welcome.

[thethirdnut]

As far as audio fidelity goes. IMHO nothing in the PC itself could compare to an external high quality stereo /Hifi DAC.

The Cambridge DACMagic seem to get good reviews. That is my long term plan for stereo. PC has way too many electrically noisy components.

Besides the Cambridge lotsa other good USB DAC's, but they get crazy expensive very quickly.

[littlesister]

My hifi is Cambridge Audio with Spendor speakers, do that would fit perfectly :-)

But I guess it needs a USB input. Could you connect is to the USB port of a NAS and have XBMC as the renderer (Android version on a tablet) send it through the NAS to the DACMagic? Or would you still need a separate PC next to your DA converter and amplifier to get it going?

[littlesister]

And the other thing is; a DA converter would only be for getting high quality audio. I also want to play movies from XBMC to my TV. So I'm not sure if a USB connection to my NAS would be the best solution.