Mini fan-less PC -Fitlet2 with Daphile

[cpcat]

Link to this neat little guy- https://fit-iot.com/web/products/fitlet2/

All you need is RAM with the barebones version as long as you have a player providing the OS bootable from USB. Around 230 US including 8gig RAM.

I‘ve been using for several weeks - I have a regular desktop PC on my network as server and using this as endpoint/renderer for the Linux based Daphile music player (free) see https://www.daphile.com/. Daphile is the OS and I loaded it on a USB stick. You will also need Daphile loaded on the PC (can also load on USB stick) as well. I have a 9V Teddy Pardo PSU powering it but you can use anything from 7-24v.

Basically this places your USB source next to your DAC and with very low noise and power requirements- and with a very small form factor.
You can put it anywhere-mine is behind my TV monitor.

You can also get Windows preinstalled on these (requires minimal installed storage SSD) or self install any of the other Linux based music players.

I always leave it on (they are designed for continuous operation) and no functional issues so far. You need to attach a monitor via HDMI when first installing for access to BIOS /GUI.

 

[cpcat]

A screen shot of the Daphile web based app on my iPad.

I normally play from RAM and 8G is plenty but Fitlet allows up to 16G.
With Spotify/Tidal it loads as it goes and you can adjust buffer settings on the player.

SoX upsampling and DSD conversion up to 512 is available via Daphile for those that use this. There is a setting in Daphile to force processing to the server PC and all works for me stable up to 768k for PCM, but even with i7 quad core on the server PC ,I can only get DSD256 without dropouts.

In any case, I prefer native but it is there to play around with.

 

[cpcat]

Added a Monoprice Ethernet switch (runs on 9V ) so I could then utilize my M2Tech Evo 9V PS that I had lying around unused (due to addition of Teddy Pardo supply several years ago).

Wow. Nice improvement- more natural and less glare. Really, no kidding here. I guess this forms a further barrier for noise between the network and the Fitlet2. I have another Monoprice switch on order (they are 20 USD on Amazon) and will try two in -series as I have another 9V output on the Evo supply. Might as well try -will report back! The Evo supply has a battery-only setting as you can see in the pic, but so far prefer the regular setting. but so far I prefer the regular setting.

 

[Addicted to hifi]

Great stuff enjoy.

 

[Thieliste]

I've used a fanless NUC paired with Daphile OS for my headphone rig during the past 2 years, really enjoyed it.
Now that i'm back to speaker system my NUC has now Roon Rock installed on it and added an Sbooster Mkll power supply, this feeds my Aqua Acoustic LinQ with HQPlayer core for Qobuz and Tidal streaming.