Streaming from network drive to sound system: what's the best approach?

Thirith

I've got all of my music on a WD My Cloud on my home LAN, and I usually play it via iPhone or iPad and 8player. While I've got an okay portable Bluetooth speaker for the kitchen, though, I'd like to have an easy way of playing the music on my 5.1 livingroom sound system, which mainly serves as the audio component to my home cinema setup, with or without the help of a mobile or tablet.

Now, I've heard of a couple of options that should work, e.g. Chromecast Audio or an AirPort Express, but I have no idea which one would work best in this kind of situation. The Chromecast seems to be app-dependent, whereas an AirPort Express would probably be overkill just so that I can play music on my sound system. Any recommendations?

Handgimp

Plex is pretty easy, if you can work that into your current rig.

Thirith

Thanks, will check that out.

I'm still dreaming of a dedicated HTPC, though, that can handle multiregion Blu-rays, audio and video via LAN, and where I can install whatever programs I like to play media, plus I could then use my phone or tablet as a remote control by means of remote desktop apps. I'm now thinking it'd probably be silly of me to get an interim device rather than just waiting a bit longer and then getting something that can do everything except make me a nice espresso.

useless4

/You should look into Plex running on a Nas like a Qnap with a Raspberry PI2 front end each place you want playback. About the only thing you won't get is access to DRM'd providers like Netflix.