A while back I picked up a Raspberry Pi 2B and have been using it as a network appliance for over a year now and I have been very pleased with this tiny inexpensive computer. Earlier this year the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B was released. The new Raspberry Pi 3 is 40% faster, and now comes with on-board WiFi and Bluetooth, with the price remaining the same at $35US (total cost of the Raspberry Pi3 setup is $35US + $10 microSD card + $10 enclosure, about $55US). So I decided to purchase a Pi 3 with the intention of trying it out as music server.
After looking at the various media system offerings, I decided to try out Volumio -
https://volumio.org/I decided to try this one first as I liked the fact the control interface is via any browser on the local network.
I managed to get the system up and running without too many troubles. My setup is as follows:
Wifi
Samba NAS network share
USB external DAC - Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus
So far it is working well, all the way up to 24bit 192kHz flac. No clicks, pops, no problems. And that is via wifi and streaming from NAS share. I can't control the DAC volume right now from the web interface. I think that is because I need to change the mixer from the default to Cambridge Audio. I'll try that later. Right now I am enjoying the music. I'll report back soon.
EDIT - DAC Magic Plus does not appear to support hardware volume control via the music player.
Cheers.