Trying to get audio off of my NAS into my amp. Whats the best way?

Configuration
1

I have a NAS that has some music on it, as well as a monoprice amp.
What is the best way for me to have a player on HA that will let me browse to that NAS and output the audio? I understand I would need to purchase another piece of hardware. I’ve seen Chromecast audio suggested but I am nervous because it’s been discontinued.
A big plus if it can be used for streaming services also.
My HA is running on rasberry.

Thank you

2

Personally I use Volumio on RPi with HiFiBerry DAC hat to do this. Advantage over Chromecast is superior sound quality. Volumio is nicely integrated into HA, including media_player component, that allows to browse media directly through new media browser. Separately it has quite good app to mobile phones to fully control (or via web). There are plugins to connect to some streaming services (Spotify, YouTube, some internet radio stations) and as paid service also to Tidal and Quobuz.

3

This sounds very nice. Can it use the built in aux out of the pi? Do you have a picture of how the interface looks like on your HA?

Thank you

4

Yes, it can use the build in interface, but then quality fo sound will degrade slightly (not calling myself audiophile, but can hear difference).
I did not created anything fancy for it, just using standard mini media player card with volumio integration, but it works:

Screenshot 2020-12-17 at 9.04.05
Screenshot 2020-12-17 at 9.04.05507×505 160 KB

From perspective of files stored on NAS, here is how the interface look, when you select in media browser volumio as target player:
Screenshot 2020-12-17 at 9.06.59
Screenshot 2020-12-17 at 9.06.59751×609 21.6 KB

So as you can see you can browse library by artists or albums, if you have defined any playlists in volumio you can select these from UI easily, I have also Youtube (subscriptions, playlists, liked videos) and Radio Nowy Świat plugins instaleld in volumio, that allows specific sources to be used. Also tested for a while Roon (there is plugin for in volumio) that works very well, but to me not worth money just for media management.
I guess someone more demanding could create way more sophisticated interface, but for now this serves my needs…
BTW, if you want you can also embed volumio web interface into http card to have native volumio interface in HA!

5

I agree, but there is a catch:
if you have enabled https in HA you can’t have the http card for volumio, unless you pay a subsription (that also activates https on volumio)

6

Thank you. I am going to try playing around with this. TBH I dont have that much experience playing with the media player.
Is the mini media player card, different then the media browser card? Do I use one card to select the media and then “send” it to volumio? And then use player card to play it? Or is it all from one card?

EDIT- removed this question as it seems its not worth it to put it on the same box.

Thank you