BudgetAudiophile

I'm going to set up a simple, local digital music player out of the internals from an old laptop I have lying around. Yes, I could have ponied up €80-100 for a used Rpi, but I'd rather get some more mileage out of the old hardware, plus I like to tinker.

The player is probably going to run Daphile, and will sit between the USB HDD housing my digital music collection and my stereo amplifier. No streaming required to other rooms or on the go at this time, just a straight, wired connection into the living room speakers.

The idea is to yank the motherboard out of the laptop casing, preserving as many ports as possible, and putting it into a slim customised cabinet instead. It'll probably be fugly in the first version, but like I said — I like to play around with things.

There are two issues though, and I want to solve them in one go if I can. The laptop board only has a ratty 3.5mm audio port — and I'd rather build a DAC into the music player than add two separate new boxes to the stereo setup. So,

• has anybody tried hardwiring a DAC module directly to a laptop motherboard?
• if not, does the perversity of the idea somehow tickle your creativity to offer a solution?

I suppose the DAC will also need to draw power from somewhere, so suggestions on that part are also welcome.

What DAC do I plan to use, you ask? At this point I'm undecided. I'm tempted to hack one together myself, but that may introduce too many wild cards into the equation. Alternatively, a simple prefab board with RCA connections. Happy to hear your suggestions on that front, too 🙂