Computer electronics related question

[HIFI]

If all your worried about is heat there are a couple things you could consider most walmart, office depot laptops like inspiron, pavilion are consumer products with a 2 year life span 1 year warranty purchase a business type laptop like the lattitude, pro book completely different build with 3 year onsite 24hr warranty no mail in. Or just use a usb powered chiller. I stream a lot of netflix using an hp pro book i7 with WIDI cooling fan hardly ever comes on during a 2 hour movie almost as cool as when it's powered on.

This is probably some of the best advice I could have used . . . over a month ago. I think a Windows XP Professional would have been even better recommendation for my music server application.

So where can I go from here with my consumer version with windows 7? I was casually discussing my windows PC and my desire to dummy down processing. Mentioned were all the extra processes going on in background. While none of them, by themselves, are a big deal there are several that I would not need. Could stopping a collection of these make an impact. That is the reason for my questions. I am not sure if I could even make a difference in sound quality OR processor heat.

 

[HIFI]

Follow up question . . .

I have a router that I use to create my personal/local network for the purpose of using the remote applications for tablets/iphones to control ITunes or JRiver on laptop. Could I also add an Apple Airport Express to serve music to my dock Hifi from boat laptop? This means two independent wireless systems operating at same time.

 

[bajturner]

This is probably some of the best advice I could have used . . . over a month ago. I think a Windows XP Professional would have been even better recommendation for my music server application.

So where can I go from here with my consumer version with windows 7? I was casually discussing my windows PC and my desire to dummy down processing. Mentioned were all the extra processes going on in background. While none of them, by themselves, are a big deal there are several that I would not need. Could stopping a collection of these make an impact. That is the reason for my questions. I am not sure if I could even make a difference in sound quality OR processor heat.

HIFI, don't beat yourself up too much over your laptop selection. After going through more laptops over the years than I care to think of, for myself and my staff, I am pretty confident in saying the manufacturers have the business case pretty well fine-tuned and it's close to a wash either way (consumer vs business machines). A fleet of Latitudes that were used more like desktops almost all developed fan and battery issues. Warranty covered any single repair once, and battery warranty has flip-flopped over the years. I was able to buy two and sometimes three Pavilion-type macines for the price of one Latitude. I can't say one approach is better than the other.

At the end of the day, a laptop or ultrabook is out of its element being packed away as a server. There are small form factor enclosures for standard desktop boards that are meant for that application, but they are overkill for what you want to achieve. I think what you're going conclude as some point, is a PC not the optimal weapon of choice for this mission. All you need to do is serve-up digital media to a DAC via remote.

As for dumbing-down Windows 7 vs XP, you are better off with Win7 on an ultrabook in my opinion as it contains more power-saving features and can take better advantage of newer hardware.

Have you tried running msconfig? The Services tab can be a little daunting but the Startup tab is pretty straightforward.

 

[bajturner]

Follow up question . . .

I have a router that I use to create my personal/local network for the purpose of using the remote applications for tablets/iphones to control ITunes or JRiver on laptop. Could I also add an Apple Airport Express to serve music to my dock Hifi from boat laptop? This means two independent wireless systems operating at same time.

I think you can achieve what you want. First of all, if I understand correctly, you want the Airport Express to be on your dock, with an audio connection to your dock Hifi, accessing your laptop music on the boat.

If this is correct, there are two ways to do this. The easy way is to put the Airport Express into "client mode". In this mode it does not act as an access point, but just joins the wireless LAN to provide an endpoint for AirTunes. Your application is exactly the intended purpose of client mode, if I understand you correctly.

The second way is extending your existing wireless network either by plugging the Ethernet port of the Airport into a port on the router or using the wireless extender capability. Plugging it in to your router requires running an Ethernet cable from your router on the boat to your Airport on the dock. Not likely what you want. The wireless extender function only works if your existing router is an Apple router or if it supports WDS. What kind of router do you have? The added benefit of this is better range for your control devices (iPad, iPhone, etc.).

If you like to experiment, there may be a third way by using both the ultrabook Ethernet NIC with your existing router, and the wireless NIC with the Airport on a separate subnet. This would be the independent networks you describe. I'm not sure what iTunes would make of that...maybe Bob&Sue can harken back to his MCSE days and take a stab at it. If I had to guess, I would say iTunes uses Apple Bonjour and it will bind to one subnet or the other. I will see what I can find on Google!

Once again, the really elegant and HIFI way would be to plop down two SONOS Connect boxes, one on the boat, one on the dock. They form a proprietary mesh network automatically that is designed for music delivery and you can play whatever wherever. You could have the same music in sync on the boat and the dock, or different music in each zone, and you can control it all from any device you want (except Blackberry). Also, you could add an Airport Express to the SONOS Connect on either the dock or the boat, disable its radio, and play content contained on any Apple device on the LAN, in any zone!

 

[HIFI]

Have you tried running msconfig? The Services tab can be a little daunting but the Startup tab is pretty straightforward.

I have looked at it and simply dont know what I can and cant do. For someone that knows nothing about CPU processes this stuff spooks me.

Because I am moving forward with the Lenovo as my server I am going to find someone who can help local. I am happy to hire a professional.

I am hoping to manage the heat and enjoy trouble free.

 

[HIFI]

I think you can achieve what you want. First of all, if I understand correctly, you want the Airport Express to be on your dock, with an audio connection to your dock Hifi, accessing your laptop music on the boat.

If this is correct, there are two ways to do this. The easy way is to put the Airport Express into "client mode". In this mode it does not act as an access point, but just joins the wireless LAN to provide an endpoint for AirTunes. Your application is exactly the intended purpose of client mode, if I understand you correctly.

The second way is extending your existing wireless network either by plugging the Ethernet port of the Airport into a port on the router or using the wireless extender capability. Plugging it in to your router requires running an Ethernet cable from your router on the boat to your Airport on the dock. Not likely what you want. The wireless extender function only works if your existing router is an Apple router or if it supports WDS. What kind of router do you have? The added benefit of this is better range for your control devices (iPad, iPhone, etc.).

If you like to experiment, there may be a third way by using both the ultrabook Ethernet NIC with your existing router, and the wireless NIC with the Airport on a separate subnet. This would be the independent networks you describe. I'm not sure what iTunes would make of that...maybe Bob&Sue can harken back to his MCSE days and take a stab at it. If I had to guess, I would say iTunes uses Apple Bonjour and it will bind to one subnet or the other. I will see what I can find on Google!

Once again, the really elegant and HIFI way would be to plop down two SONOS Connect boxes, one on the boat, one on the dock. They form a proprietary mesh network automatically that is designed for music delivery and you can play whatever wherever. You could have the same music in sync on the boat and the dock, or different music in each zone, and you can control it all from any device you want (except Blackberry). Also, you could add an Airport Express to the SONOS Connect on either the dock or the boat, disable its radio, and play content contained on any Apple device on the LAN, in any zone!

bajturner, thank you again for helping. I need it.

You are correct. I have my music on laptop. I am running Jriver as my player rather than Itunes. I am streaming data to a usb DAC, therefor not using laptops DAC.

Next I want to stream music files to the Apple Airport that has a DAC built in. This is plugged into dock stereo. I really cannot think of any reason I need both systems to play at the same time. My dock Hifi has all the power,speakers,subs to party ten slips away in any direction.

My concern was streaming data to Apple Airport that will sit on dock, plug in to dock stereo and at the same time integrating my Remote application I use on tablet. Gizmo is the equivalent of Apple Remote and requires Wi-Fi to communicate. I THINK you explained what I need to do to accomplish. Correct me please.

Your Sonus is easy and smart. For me and my needs I have issues/confusion. I still need a CPU or NAS. I need to buy two Connects . . . $700.00. This system does not serve me without 120 AC power. There may be some other things that concern me but those are my top issues.

If I pull this off I have a 400.00 Laptop, 200.00 USB DAC, 50.00 Router, 100.00 Apple Airport or 750.00 total. I will build or buy a cooling system for Laptop to extend life.

 

[bajturner]

I am happy to hire a professional.

Before you do and spend money on this, jot down the running services on the Services tab (sort by Status), or do a screen snip, and do the same for the items on the Startup tab...if you do screen snips you may have to scroll down and grab it multiple times. Resize the columns so the entire program or service name is visible. It would look something like this:





I'm sure between all of us can figure out what can be disabled or removed.

I am hoping to manage the heat and enjoy trouble free.

I hope you can...best of luck!

 

[bajturner]

bajturner, thank you again for helping. I need it.

No problem...I am learning some things too!

I am running Jriver as my player rather than iTunes [on the laptop]...I want to stream music files to the Apple Airport that...is plugged into dock stereo.

Ok, I am not too familiar with JRiver, but I don't think it will stream to AirTunes/AirPlay devices like the Airport Express. In fact, I don't think it will stream at all. It looks like a media player to me, not a media server. Do I have this right? If I do, and you are not running iTunes on the laptop, I don't think you can stream to the Airport. You could stream content from an iPod Touch or iPhone on the LAN to the Airport, but not from the laptop unless iTunes were running on it. Are you aware if JRiver can stream to AirPlay devices or if it can operate as a music server?

My concern was streaming data to Apple Airport that will sit on dock, plug in to dock stereo and at the same time integrating my Remote application I use on tablet. Gizmo is the equivalent of Apple Remote and requires Wi-Fi to communicate. I THINK you explained what I need to do to accomplish. Correct me please.

I don't think you have a music server running and as such can't stream from the laptop to anywhere. I will look into JRiver more closely to see if I am wrong about this. If JRiver can play to the Airport, Gizmo will be controlling JRiver on the laptop on the same WLAN as everything else.

Your Sonus is easy and smart. For me and my needs I have issues/confusion. I still need a CPU or NAS. I need to buy two Connects . . . $700.00. This system does not serve me without 120 AC power.

First, might be a typo but I have been talking about Sonos (Sonus is a different product). The easiest configuration would use a NAS. The simplest NAS would be to get a router that has integrated NAS support and can provide a CIFS share. You just plug a hard drive into a USB port on the router. One Sonos Connect would plug into a port on the same router and the other would sit by itself on the dock. The Sonos system scans and catalogues all music on the NAS, makes it available to other Sonos devices, and outputs digitally or over analog to your audio equipment.

As for power, yes you would need a little inverter on your boat. Maybe something liks this: http://www.amazon.com/Samlex-PST-12S-DC-AC-Inverter/dp/B003FFIBJ4. I don't think this is more involved than getting the laptop and router powered from the 12V supply on the boat.

If I pull this off I have a 400.00 Laptop, 200.00 USB DAC, 50.00 Router, 100.00 Apple Airport or 750.00 total. I will build or buy a cooling system for Laptop to extend life.

Yep, this would cost you about $300 more:
Sonos: $700
Router: $150
Ext. HD: $100
Inverter: $100
Total: $1050

But it would work reliably, and the user interface is really good. You would need to select your router and hard drive carefully. You would lose some of the advanced features JRiver provides. I don't think your $750 in hardware accomplished your goal yet, however...

 

[HIFI]

No problem...I am learning some things too!

Ok, I am not too familiar with JRiver, but I don't think it will stream to AirTunes/AirPlay devices like the Airport Express. In fact, I don't think it will stream at all. It looks like a media player to me, not a media server. Do I have this right? If I do, and you are not running iTunes on the laptop, I don't think you can stream to the Airport. You could stream content from an iPod Touch or iPhone on the LAN to the Airport, but not from the laptop unless iTunes were running on it. Are you aware if JRiver can stream to AirPlay devices or if it can operate as a music server?

JRiver is a Music Player just like ITunes. I stream to external USB DAC. No expert but why wouldnt I be able to stream to Airport?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


I don't think you have a music server running and as such can't stream from the laptop to anywhere. I will look into JRiver more closely to see if I am wrong about this. If JRiver can play to the Airport, Gizmo will be controlling JRiver on the laptop on the same WLAN as everything else.

So . . . Airport will handle both funtions I speak of . . . Remote Application from Tablet/SmartPhone and strem data from Laptop?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

First, might be a typo but I have been talking about Sonos (Sonus is a different product). The easiest configuration would use a NAS. The simplest NAS would be to get a router that has integrated NAS support and can provide a CIFS share. You just plug a hard drive into a USB port on the router. One Sonos Connect would plug into a port on the same router and the other would sit by itself on the dock. The Sonos system scans and catalogues all music on the NAS, makes it available to other Sonos devices, and outputs digitally or over analog to your audio equipment.

Typo on my part. Your Sonos config would be a must for me if I needed to serve different needs to different zones. Because I just need one place to store and one-at-a-time places to serve my conceptual system works . . . well it works in my head.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As for power, yes you would need a little inverter on your boat. Maybe something liks this: http://www.amazon.com/Samlex-PST-12S-DC-AC-Inverter/dp/B003FFIBJ4. I don't think this is more involved than getting the laptop and router powered from the 12V supply on the boat.

The laptop will stay plugged in at all times and will defult to its battery power. My last netbook would run for six hours on its own. It was an Accer with a low end Atom (I Think) processor. I ran XP Home. I DID NOT have an external USB DAC. Untill I see if I am running short I am going to stick with Laptop power supply. I always have my IPod as a back up.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yep, this would cost you about $300 more:
Sonos: $700
Router: $150
Ext. HD: $100
Inverter: $100
Total: $1050

But it would work reliably, and the user interface is really good. You would need to select your router and hard drive carefully. You would lose some of the advanced features JRiver provides. I don't think your $750 in hardware accomplished your goal yet, however...

Please feel free to find holes in my concept. I appretiate your feedback and willingness to help.

 

[HIFI]

Before you do and spend money on this, jot down the running services on the Services tab (sort by Status), or do a screen snip, and do the same for the items on the Startup tab...if you do screen snips you may have to scroll down and grab it multiple times. Resize the columns so the entire program or service name is visible. It would look something like this:

View attachment 24240

View attachment 24241

I'm sure between all of us can figure out what can be disabled or removed.



I hope you can...best of luck!

How did you get the screen snip?

I will do this and post for your help.

 

[bajturner]

How did you get the screen snip?

There is a program under Accessories called Snipping Tool. You can configure it to capture a window.

 

[HIFI]

Should I be concerned with the 75 services that show running in Task Manager?

 

[Tonka Boater]

HIFI -- I'm a bit of an audiophile and gadget-phile myself so I can appreciate the loss-less formats, etc. But....playing devil's advocate I am curious about the system and speakers that you will be running all of this through. I'm guessing with a name like HIFI it's good stuff but to do all of this for your boat's audio is where I was going with my previous comment about it being heavy. 256KB AAC may not be loss-less but when your iPod is connected to your boat's head unit via an iPod connector it sounds great. The most expensive iPod Touch is $400 vs. the $1000+ your are looking at spending on all of that gear...not to mention the complexity.

Playing an iPod through an RF transmitter to your stereo sounds like crap (IMHO), playing it through the headphone jack sounds OK, but a direct connection with the iPod connector sounds great....especially for a boat application.

 

[HIFI]

Playing an iPod through an RF transmitter to your stereo sounds like crap (IMHO), playing it through the headphone jack sounds OK, but a direct connection with the iPod connector sounds great....especially for a boat application.

I really enjoy a great sounding Hifi system and I do seek the possibilities of moving things up a notch. Sometimes it is not just a source, connection, speaker, amp. It can be a collection of many things.

My purpose in this thread was not just “What’s the best way to playback digital audio files”. I want several things that ITunes/IPod/Remote Application don’t offer.

I don’t know if you are doing anything with computer audiophile at home. I am and I can readily discern differences that are subtle. I have tried some of these things at the lake and I don’t hear ANYTHING. For example . . . I use external DAC’s in home as well as the dock Hifi and my boat Hifi. I have a modest priced DAC at home. I took it to the lake and could hear no difference in the $150 DAC I had been using. Water slapping, wind blowing, water from boats Air Conditioning . . .all these noises covered the details. I can clearly hear a difference when I am in the cockpit listening to a direct connected IPod/compressed MP3 file and a flac file from JRiver /HRT DAC served up from my little PC.

My Hifi at the dock is superb sounding. I love the sound of a great outdoor system.

Here is a link for my boat Hifi I built six years ago :

http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/39468-Complete-Cockpit-Stereo-Upgrade

Let me know what you think.

 

[Tonka Boater]

Oh, I remember that thread. I agree....it's a very nice system. I'm very much into music too and there's nothing worse than a crappy mp3 but your ears are probably waaay more tuned than mine :smt001.... Good luck!

 

[bajturner]

Please feel free to find holes in my concept. I appretiate your feedback and willingness to help.

Ok, I've given this some more thought. Your original question has not been answered...but I don't think there is a ton of bloatware on your laptop. You can likely remove one or two things that are unnecessary, but they will not make a huge difference to performance. Stripping down Windows 7, in my opinion, is a bad idea for someone that is not comfortable tweaking a computer, or not wanting to have to frequently tinker with it. Updates will be a pain, installing new programs may be problematic, etc.

Your user requirements as I understand it:
1) Store music files in flac format,
2) Decode flac files for local (boat) audio,
3) Access flac files for remote location (dock) audio wirelessly,
4) Browse, select, and control music collection wirelessly,
5) Use devices that require DC power.

This dictates some technical requirements:
1) The hard requirement for flac rules out iTunes and Airplay options,
2) Decoding flac files requires either a hardware or software DAC,
3) Remote wireless access of hi-res flac files requires transmission of music in digital domain to retain fidelity,
4) GUI-based wireless controllers require WLAN connetivity,
5) Components using external AC-DC power supplies so they have DC inputs.

I think if you use a laptop on the boat, you would need to also use a computer on the dock to access shared files on the laptop over the LAN and then decode to your preamp on the dock. There are also some AV media players that would work, but you would have different controller methods for boat and dock.

With JRiver as your media player of choice, there are a lot of handheld applications but from what I have been able to find, none of them seem robust or fully developed.

I would recommend the following:
- Use your existing router.
- Add a QNAP TS-112 NAS, connected to an Ethernet port of your existing router. Power: 12V input, 7W. Price: $160
- All media on QNAP is now accessible over the LAN, both wired and wireless.
- The best audio player I can find is Sonos. Others are all AV devices that seem to require a TV interface (WD, for example), or are very expensive audio components (e.g. Squeezbox). Price: 2 x $350. Small inverter required on boat, however.

This would be a purpose-built audio system that would meet all the objectives, but would required a small inverter (only about 20W max required). Wagan Tech make several that would work for under $50.

 

[HIFI]

"Ok, I've given this some more thought. Your original question has not been answered...but I don't think there is a ton of bloatware on your laptop. You can likely remove one or two things that are unnecessary, but they will not make a huge difference to performance. Stripping down Windows 7, in my opinion, is a bad idea for someone that is not comfortable tweaking a computer, or not wanting to have to frequently tinker with it. Updates will be a pain, installing new programs may be problematic, etc."

I would remove one or two things. Is it thae Adobe applications? Just let me know. Does anyone care about all the services running? I have 75-85 in a list. Most are stopped, a few are running and a few rur/stop/run/stop.
You Are Correct. Not Confortable and no frequent tinkering.

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"Your user requirements as I understand it:
1) Store music files in flac format,
2) Decode flac files for local (boat) audio,
3) Access flac files for remote location (dock) audio wirelessly,
4) Browse, select, and control music collection wirelessly,
5) Use devices that require DC power.

This dictates some technical requirements:
1) The hard requirement for flac rules out iTunes and Airplay options,
2) Decoding flac files requires either a hardware or software DAC,
3) Remote wireless access of hi-res flac files requires transmission of music in digital domain to retain fidelity,
4) GUI-based wireless controllers require WLAN connetivity,
5) Components using external AC-DC power supplies so they have DC inputs.

I think if you use a laptop on the boat, you would need to also use a computer on the dock to access shared files on the laptop over the LAN and then decode to your preamp on the dock. There are also some AV media players that would work, but you would have different controller methods for boat and dock."

The technical requirement that Airport Express wont decode flac is the killer. So if I am willing to use ITunes as my player on laptop I am OK . . . Correct? I can close JRiver and open ITunes for that purpose. Tiny compromise at this point.

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"With JRiver as your media player of choice, there are a lot of handheld applications but from what I have been able to find, none of them seem robust or fully developed."


None of the applications, including Apple Remote, are Robust in my view. I acually had better luck with the Gizmo for JRiver than I did with Remote for Itunes. This may be because I am running PC. And this is a perfect opportunity to ask . . . Why do you folks, that know computers, settle for these little applications for PC and Apple devises. Please, Please, Please tell me how to get control of the full application (Itunes or whatever) on a headless CPU using a RF mouse and something like SplashTop on a Tablet. There is a name for these things that emulate your screen. I have tried Splashtop in a test and it was just slow to respond.

bajturner . . .thanks for helping me sort this out.

 

[bajturner]

I would remove one or two things. Is it thae Adobe applications? Just let me know. Does anyone care about all the services running? I have 75-85 in a list. Most are stopped, a few are running and a few rur/stop/run/stop.
You Are Correct. Not Confortable and no frequent tinkering.

Yes, you could deselect the Adobe stuff, and the Apple stuff if you are not using iTunes. You can likely also deselect the Lenovo items. Strictly speaking, if this is really operating as a headless CPU, you could deselect the Synaptics application (custom input device settings), and maybe the SmartAudio program since you aren't using the integral sound chip. Not sure about FMAPP or NMSVC.

There are likely a bunch of services you can disable, but it depends on what is running. One of the major resource hogs will be the firewall, virus, malware protection, and if this laptop is not connected to the Internet, this could all be disabled (in theory). There will be some warnings and errors that may need to be dealt with since these are integral parts of the Win 7 OS. Stopping some services may also screw-up JRiver. It's not just about the laptop running without some of this stuff...your software needs to be happy as well, and JRiver is a fairly involved piece of software. You can kill a few trivial things with no major problems, but in order to not have to tinker, you will have to leave it as a stock machine, more or less. Windows laptops at their best will require tinkering, software will stop working for no reason, and the occasional crash is inevitable.

Given your comfort level, I don't think you should try to strip this machine down, or let anyone else do it for you. That would become an ongoing experiment.

The technical requirement that Airport Express wont decode flac is the killer. So if I am willing to use ITunes as my player on laptop I am OK . . . Correct? I can close JRiver and open ITunes for that purpose. Tiny compromise at this point.

I think you sort of have this straight. To play your laptop music library on an Airport you have to use iTunes. The way it works is you play a song on the laptop using iTunes, and tell iTunes what Airplay zone to play it in. You can use Apple remote to control iTunes on the laptop. You don't control the Airport directly and it doesn't initiate pulling music from the laptop. iTunes would need your music collection in its library, but you can't import flac files into iTunes. You would need to reproduce your library in iTunes.

None of the applications, including Apple Remote, are Robust in my view. I acually had better luck with the Gizmo for JRiver than I did with Remote for Itunes. This may be because I am running PC. And this is a perfect opportunity to ask . . . Why do you folks, that know computers, settle for these little applications for PC and Apple devises. Please, Please, Please tell me how to get control of the full application (Itunes or whatever) on a headless CPU using a RF mouse and something like SplashTop on a Tablet. There is a name for these things that emulate your screen. I have tried Splashtop in a test and it was just slow to respond.

Remote desktop apps like Splashtop, VNC, or the native Windows Remote Desktop control a PC pretty well from another PC, but are just ok at best from a tablet, in particular when you are bouncing around on the boat in bright sunlight. These are the only way to control a full app that I know of.

Ways of remotely controlling full media appliations on a PC have not been developed for the mass market because it is such a narrow market and there are non-PC products specifically for this. A PC is not the right choice for a robust solution, in my opinion. Gizmo and Apple Remote are as close as I have seen, but they are limited to controling what you listen to. I'm not an Apple fan (although I do use their products), but I will say iTunes with Apple remote does a pretty good, robust job of controlling iTunes remotely, and to multiple zones with Airports or AppleTV. I replaced this setup with Sonos at home.

Back to your solution...

For the multizone requirement, I think the main problem is there aren't many options available for zone playback from a JRiver server except another computer running JRiver or plugging an audio system into the headphone jack of an Android Gizmo device, which is not a good audio component.

Given the quality of your audio equipment install (and the money spent), the laptop in the equation is incongruent to me. I notice you don't have any home-made amps in your boat, or speakers you took out of your favorite home speaker cabinets. The laptop is on that level in my opinion. It's a laptop, not a music server, not a file server...regardless of what you do with it, it will be a compromise.

What is it about the solution of remote laptop control as a music server that is most attractive to you? Is it the external DAC, the DC power requirement (what is the laptop voltage input requirement, by the way)? The simpler the better, I think.

I think these are your options:

1) If you are totally married to the laptop and can compromise on flac, I think your best option is iTunes on the boat, an Airport Express or AppleTV on the dock, and Apple remote on handheld devices. You will need to manage laptop heat. You don't get full app control.

2) If you are totally married to JRiver and flac, then you need to find a device for the dock that can accept a stream from JRiver (Android device?), or just put another PC there. You still need to manage laptop heat on the boat. You can also run a remote desktop app on the Android remote for full app control.

3) If you can part with the laptop idea, use Sonos on the boat and the dock, a little inverter on the boat, and a small NAS with your flac files on it to do exactly what you want. You get full control of Sonos from the remotes.

So, your original questions is unanswered still, but I think it is the wrong path (stripping down Win 7) for you to go down...

 

[HIFI]

bajturner, thank you much for your detailed help. I am grateful.

I am, for now, sticking to laptop/Jriver/HRT DAC for boat system. It is a clear sound difference than my IPod direct connected. IMHO much of the sound quality is from the file/stream/DAC/Hifi.

Another reason is I like the power management. It plays when I am plugged in to AC or running gen but it also plays when I am disconnected to AC power. I also have some flexibility with swapping DAC’s in future as well as players. Just about every player available runs on PC.

I hope this alone answers my stubbornness to stay with Laptop. And like you are thinking it really is a simple solution.

The cost is another part of the equation. I will get more flexibility with a REAL music server, I understand.

I am also moving forward with the apple Airport for the Hifi on the dock. I will just run ITunes for that application.

You were very helpful in that I do have a good answer to my original question. I will deselect a couple items in start-up. I will leave all else alone as I do not want to tinker with computer. Very Thankful for your insight.

 

[bajturner]

bajturner, thank you much for your detailed help. I am grateful.

No problem...fun stuff!

I am, for now, sticking to laptop/Jriver/HRT DAC for boat system. It is a clear sound difference than my IPod direct connected. IMHO much of the sound quality is from the file/stream/DAC/Hifi.

I would imagine it is better sound quality. To be clear though, none of the options I suggested involved a direct-connected iPod. Note you can still use your external DAC with iTunes (I think). I'm not sure if the Sonos or HRT DAC would be better. Digital out is always available on the Sonos boxes if you prefer to post-process....I use the DAC in my Denon receiver this way.

Another reason is I like the power management. It plays when I am plugged in to AC or running gen but it also plays when I am disconnected to AC power. I also have some flexibility with swapping DAC’s in future as well as players. Just about every player available runs on PC.

Yep, but again to be clear, all three options I suggested would run when disconnected from AC. Your power consumption will be higher than a non-laptop solution, I think.

I hope this alone answers my stubbornness to stay with Laptop. And like you are thinking it really is a simple solution.
The cost is another part of the equation. I will get more flexibility with a REAL music server, I understand.

I am also moving forward with the apple Airport for the Hifi on the dock. I will just run ITunes for that application.

You were very helpful in that I do have a good answer to my original question. I will deselect a couple items in start-up. I will leave all else alone as I do not want to tinker with computer. Very Thankful for your insight.

Glad I could help. Have fun finishing things up and let us know how it all goes or if you have any other questions. Remember to put the Airport Express in client mode.